Kirk Franklin And Naturi Naughton Talk ‘The Night Before Christmas’ And Forgiveness
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Christmas Day is a little under a month away and a plethora of new holiday films are arriving to get us in the spirit. In Kirk Franklin’s The Night Before Christmas — starring Kirk Franklin, Naturi Naughton, Luke James and Lorea Turner — a mother-daughter relationship is in need of healing.
The film, which premieres Saturday (Dec. 10) on Lifetime, chronicles daughter Nia (Turner) and her mother Journee’s (Naughton) path to reviving their estranged relationship. During a raging blizzard, the two befriend a congregation of parishioners, and they all help each other to resolve unsettled issues.
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The warmth of the holiday season also opens Journee’s heart to an attractive youth pastor (James) as a heavenly music teacher (Franklin) motivates an uninspired Nia to find her light again. Through music, faith and love, not only does the church recuperate from their losses, but Nia and Journee both find new meanings for forgiveness.
VIBE spoke with Kirk Franklin and Naturi Naughton ahead of the film’s premiere about forgiveness, moving on and finding understanding—not only throughout the film, but in their personal lives.
VIBE: What are the themes that you want to portray throughout Kirk Franklin’s Night Before Christmas and why are they important for viewers to witness?
Kirk: I think for some people, Christmas can be one of the most loneliest, darkest times that they can have every year, because the context of happiness and joy is very counterintuitive to a lot of people’s realities. To be able to have these types of movies where you have a sense of this honest truth that’s filled with this music and inspiration — I just hope — can be kind of like a warm blanket to remind people that life is so much bigger than the things that we go through right now. There’s a bigger narrative, there’s a bigger story about why people exist and why they matter and why they matter to the one that created them. It’s just an honor for me to be able to be a part of telling stories and music that is not only a sense of escape, but a place of truth and hope during a season that for a lot of people, there is no hope.
When it came to casting and choosing characters to be a part of this film, what was the process for that?
Kirk: It was important to try to consider people that had a space of being able to act and sing, to have this duality that would reflect who these characters are. And give them a gravity that sometimes you don’t always get to see, especially when it comes to people that look like us on screen. So when you get Naturi and you get Luke, you just find these moments where it’s heaven on earth, where it’s just this beautiful car wreck that people just run into each other and they pull out the best in each other because they are by nature, great storytellers. They just also happen to have these incredible voices.
Naturi, you’re a mother to a daughter in real life, what instincts did you tap into to really fulfill the role of Journee?
Although I do not have a teenager, I do have a five year old daughter. I think I’m getting used to motherhood now. Now, I’m a wife and I’ve learned a lot over the last five years about myself and what it takes to be a working mom. Tapping into Journee, I think I dug deep into the idea of my daughter; older and a teenager and in this strenuous relationship feeling like her mother is not fighting for their relationship and really nurturing their relationship.
As women, we think we just have to be strong. Because [Journee] she’s a widow, she’s trying to be a provider — she wants to be. I know that feeling. You forget that sometimes you just need to be there. You don’t have to be the hero, you don’t have to work crazy hours and make a ton of money. Yes, you want to give your children the best, but sometimes the best is just you, you are enough. And I think that’s the challenge, being a working mom. I definitely can understand that struggle.
Sometimes I feel guilty because I have a small baby. She just turned five and I sometimes feel like, ‘Dang, I wish I was home,’ or I have to fight sometimes with schedules. On her first day of kindergarten I was like, ‘I need to be there and I’m shooting a movie right now.’ I’m like, ‘No, but this is more important for me to be there for her first day of school.’ I just learned that nothing is going to trump or get more importance than being there for her.
As I watched the film, I saw themes of forgiveness, accepting the past and showing compassion to those less fortunate. For both of you, how do some of those themes resonate with you personally in your own lives?
Kirk: Well I think that, especially for people of color, we already come to the table sometimes with broken experiences. With some families, some level of trauma — we have to sometimes make the conclusion that forgiveness is a choice. It’s not just an emotion that is only for that person, but it’s really more for us, so that we can be able to heal and mend. What greater gift can you give yourself than the gift of healing? Then you’re able to heal and forgive others as well; that is definitely reciprocal. That’s what I think the movie gets a chance to do with humor, inspiration and with music. To be able to find the space of unity, but also honesty; to be able to tell the truth; to be able to say, ‘These are the areas that I could have done better. These are the areas that I led even to my own hurt.’
A lot of the time we want to look at our leaders to not have any wounds, but a lot of times you’ve got to lead wounded. I think that Naturi’s character does that well in the movie. I think that it’s a beautiful thing to have these authentic moments that — just because you love God don’t mean every day’s going to be beautiful and sunshine and everything’s just going to be perfect. Sometimes you are going to make it across the finish line with a limp. I think that these characters remind us of our fragility and they do it in very excellent ways.
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Naturi: I didn’t expect this press junket to be a word (laughs). This is like church on that first Sunday. But that’s so true. Forgiveness is an important theme in The Night Before Christmas, but it’s also something I think in our communities we have to do more of, particularly the Black and brown communities. To speak on this whole cancel culture — I think we are so proponent to this idea that as soon as we make mistakes, ‘I’m done with you.’ It’s like we don’t even see the humanity in the people that we once idolized. They’re human too. So first we have to stop doing that. I hope forgiveness in this movie can translate into our social media culture, our ideas about our celebrities or people who are public figures; even people in the church. We are all fallible, we’re all human, we’re all broken, we’re all wounded, like Kirk said.
If we start putting forgiveness at the forefront and having the tough conversations to break through — because it does take a breakthrough to get to forgiveness. If we start saying, ‘You know what, maybe there’s another side to that story, maybe he was broken…’ We are so quick to throw each other away as Black and brown people and I’m sick of it. I think with this movie and hopefully with these conversations, we can actually say, ‘it’s okay to forgive.’
Are there any special memories that you can share from filming that we won’t get to see on screen?
Naturi: Luke James just kind of sporadically led a praise and worship session while we were shooting. It was a cappella. You know, you can’t give a singer a mic by the way, or a room with acoustics, one or the other (laughs). Luke is such a talented singer, but he’s also a talented actor. I just want people to know he’s killing it, so I just think that was a memorable moment. Other fun moments, Kirk Franklin doing behind the scenes, BTS, funny videos. This man is a hoot and just full of tricks, he got a lot of tricks.
Kirk, what about you? Do you have any moments from filming that stand out to you?
She took all mine. I think that just Luke singing a capella. I think that was just a beautiful moment that we all needed.
Naturi, Kirk — what are you both working on?
Kirk: I’m working on a children’s clothes line for Little Bitty Men (laughs). No, I’m playing Come on Naturi, tell us what you’re working on.
Naturi: Well, I’m just shooting a film right now. My first action movie. I’m doing something for BET right now. I’m also executive producer, so I’m really excited about that, and I’m also just enjoying being a newlywed wife and a mom — just really life itself is what I’m working on. Just life, sometimes that’s enough of a job.
Kirk: Amen.
Kirk, anything you want to share? Any music?
Yeah, I’m executive producing another TV show for another network starting in December. We have a second season of the BET+ show that I did, Kingdom Business that we are looking forward to. And then we’re looking at a possible European leg of the tour that I’ve got.
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Kirk Franklin’s The Night Before Christmas premieres on Saturday (Dec. 10) at 8p.m. ET on the Lifetime Movie Network. The Swirl Films and Big Dreams Entertainment-effort also has executive production from Kirk Franklin, Tracy “Twinkie” Byrd, Eric Tomosunas, Angela Plasschaert, Leslie Greif and Alex Kerr. In addition, Tailiah Breon directs from a script written by Tara Knight.
Check out the trailer for Kirk Franklin’s The Night Before Christmas below.
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