We Talked to Gina Prince-Bythewood About the Amazing ‘Beyond the Lights,’ Which You Need to Stream Right Now
Whenever anyone has asked me for a movie recommendation in the past six months, I’ve said the same thing: Beyond the Lights. Gina Prince-Bythewood’s music-fueled romantic drama, about a rising pop singer Noni (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) who falls for police officer Kaz (Nate Parker), is a film with universal appeal. It’s smart, sexy, has a fantastic soundtrack, and features phenomenal performances, particularly from the Mbatha-Raw (possibly the most convincing fictional pop star in movie history) and supporting actress Minnie Driver as Noni's hardened stage mother. It opened last fall to excellent reviews. And yet, for some reason, it failed to make a ripple at the box office. Despite ardent support from critics and even an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song, Beyond the Lights never received the attention it deserves.
Fortunately, Beyond the Lights has just arrived on Netflix, where it should finally reach a larger audience. (It’s also available for rent on other streaming platforms, including Amazon and iTunes.) In honor of the film’s Netflix debut, Yahoo Movies spoke with writer-director Prince-Bythewood, whose previous films include the much-loved romantic drama Love & Basketball. In a very candid conversation, the director talks about the stumbling blocks that got in the way of Beyond the Lights finding its audience (including an ill-advised marketing campaign comparing it to The Bodyguard); the conversations with real-life music stars that inspired her heroine’s journey; and the challenge of keeping creativity integrity in tentpole-obsessed Hollywood. (Yes, she has turned down at least one movie franchise.)
Watch a trailer for ‘Beyond the Lights.’
Yahoo Movies: I want to talk about Beyond the Lights because it’s coming to Netflix and everyone should see it. But I also want to talk to you about why more people didn’t see it. I personally felt that I was late to the party on Beyond the Lights, because I had trouble seeing it when it came out, and I think a lot of other film writers shared that frustration. It was a difficult film to find in theaters. But even so, the reviews and word of mouth were phenomenal. So what’s your experience of the conversation around this movie, and how has it changed since the movie opened?
Gina Prince-Bythewood: That’s a loaded question, right off the bat! Wow. I will say foremost, at the end of the day, as a filmmaker, you want to be able to look up on the screen and see the film that was in your head. So in that respect, I’m grateful to Relativity, because after the fight it took to get this film made and the cast just the way I wanted, which was with Gugu as the lead and Nate Parker as the male lead — it was an incredible fight. And they were the only studio who stepped up and let me make the film that I wanted to make. I’m incredibly proud of the film and I dig it.
There was a disconnect with the marketing and publicity. Which is very tough, because we make films for an audience. And we screened at Toronto and got a standing ovation. Then we went to Urban World a couple weeks later, totally different audience, standing ovation. And all of the pre-screenings that we had, they were amazing screenings. So we were all very confident going in.
But there was a push at the time, which I fought against, [to tie] Beyond the Lights to The Bodyguard. And I felt that was completely misguided. One, [Lights] has nothing to do with The Bodyguard at all. It’s set in the music world. That’s it. And nobody wants to see something that they’ve seen before — that’s an obvious thing.
So that was a deliberate choice from marketing’s perspective to link it to The Bodyguard?
Yes. And that was wrong and painful, and again, we fought against it. But I knew we were in trouble when we had Entertainment Tonight do the big piece on it, and their piece opened with Whitney Houston singing “I Will Always Love You.” [Laughs] I was like, “Oh no.” So that’s the thing. And it’s very hard to hear, as the film has been coming out on iTunes and DVD, so many people saying, “I thought this movie was something else.” But at the end of the day, they’re also saying, “I love this movie.”
So of course, every filmmaker wants that huge big opening. But if this film resonates and has a longevity, like Love & Basketball — which, 15 years later, still resonates — then I’m happy, because the film meant something. And at the end of the day, that’s what you want: your film to mean something.
Watch Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Nate Parker, and Minnie Driver in a clip from ‘Beyond the Lights.’
Do you think it’s tough marketing a film that’s a romance but not a comedy?
It shouldn’t be. Nor should it be an issue that it’s two actors who are not stars. Look at The Notebook. Those two were not stars when the film came out, but I love that film, and I love Ryan [Gosling] and Rachel [McAdams]. Slumdog Millionaire, that certainly had no stars and that was a $100 million-[grossing] movie. So that is an excuse that I don’t buy into. There was just a disconnect with the material that people weren’t seeing. Obviously, as a filmmaker you hope that you build a trust with the audience, that you don’t make crappy films. [Laughs] Maybe they didn’t publicize it enough that it was from the filmmaker of Love & Basketball. I don’t know. And hindsight is 20/20. But the hardest thing I think as a filmmaker is to know that, in some alternate universe, there’s a whole different life this film could have had.
But I am also grateful in terms of the critics and journalists who were such champions for the movie. And it wasn’t just writing a good review but constantly talking about it. Unfortunately that chatter happened, I would say, a month too late, and the train had already left the station. But I’m grateful, absolutely grateful to those who stepped up and believed in the film.
You went through a lot trying to get Beyond the Lights made at different studios. One thing I’ve thinking about a lot lately is female filmmakers, and how it seems like when a man makes an independent movie that gets great press and does well at festivals, the next thing that happens is a big studio snatches them up and places them in a franchise. And that doesn’t seem to happen for women. And I’m wondering if it’s because women aren’t being offered this stuff, or if it’s because women aren’t interested in jumping through the studios’ hoops, or both. So: Have you been approached for big studio stuff since this movie came out?
Yes. The thing is, you know, people always look at how much time I have in between films, but it’s not because I’m not offered; I’m just very picky. And also I have a family and two boys, so I can’t make movies back to back. So when I do choose a film, and I know I’m going to be away for a year, it needs to mean something to me. And in this case, since Beyond the Lights came out, I’ve been offered some really good stuff that’s been very, very hard to say no to.
But I just, as a filmmaker, I want to be passionate about [what I’m making]. Because I love making movies, and when I do something like Beyond the Lights, it was such an incredible creative experience. So that’s what I’m always craving. So when I’m offered something, it’s – like, I recently was offered something very, very big.
‘Beyond the Lights’ writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood
Did it involve superheroes?
It did not involve superheroes. It was another franchise. And it’s funny — my son, all he would say is, “Do you know how much money they’re offering?” And I would say, “But son, I’m trying to give you a lesson here! I’m not passionate about the material and you have to be protective of that.” He’s like, “But we would be set!” [Laughs] So this is a constant battle. And of course, part of me would love to get that huge payday and then be able to not worry about money and focus on just the stories I want to tell. But I think that’s a dangerous road to go down.
Have you seen other people do that, and lose something in the process?
Yes. I will not name names, but yes!
So let’s talk about the movie. One of the things that I love about Beyond the Lights is that your heroine becomes more beautiful and stronger the less makeup she wears, and the less naked she is. Which is the inverse of so many movies that end with the woman getting a makeover — like the Grease transformation. Was that one of your intentions with the movie from the beginning?
It was, absolutely. This film has many themes, but one of the themes was authenticity and living an authentic life. It’s very interesting that you say that, though, because one of the things Gugu and I talked about with this character – and which allowed Gugu to walk around in the wardrobe of Noni, and be comfortable with that — is “the less she wears, the less you see of her.” That was really our mantra. So once we hit Mexico, she’s wearing his basketball shorts and his shirts and things, but she’s just as sexy in that, because she is more comfortable in her own skin and not having to be something she’s not. Because being an artist at her level, you’re not just performing when you’re onstage: You’re performing every time you step out in public. You have to put on a persona. And it’s soul-crushing to have to wear something 24-7 that’s not authentic to who you are.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw is so amazing in this movie. I never once doubted for a minute that she could be the next Rihanna or Beyonce. And there’s such an authenticity to the music world in Beyond the Lights. I know you talked to artists that you knew about their experiences. Do you remember things that came out of those conversations that maybe surprised you, that influenced the direction of the film?
The photo shoot scene where she takes off her jacket at the behest of her mom – that came out of a conversation with an artist. It’s something that happened to her, [and it] really surprised me. But for her it was a turning point, because she’s a very big artist, and her career could have gone in a different way. And it was a similar moment, where she did it and hated herself for it and realized in that moment, “I’m not doing that again.”
Watch a clip from the photo shoot scene in ‘Beyond the Lights.’
Another [musician I talked to] was a young artist who is on the cusp of really blowing up. Before we started filming, I brought Gugu to a dinner so the three of us could just talk. And that was a sadly phenomenal conversation, in that this woman we all just met, within fifteen minutes was sobbing at the table, because of what she was going through. There was so much pain in this woman, that Gugu and I at the end of it were thinking, “God, this woman could be on a balcony. And this is why we’re doing this film.” But you would never, never know it, seeing this woman in public. Never. But she had such a troubling relationship, or does, with her mother, who’s her manager as well. And it was fascinating because she’s in her mid-twenties and her mom did not know that she lost her virginity. She couldn’t tell her mom because it’s part of her brand, and if her mother knew her mother would be pissed – not as a mother, but as a manager. And that was really fascinating of a dynamic.
At the end of the film, the song Noni sings — which is called “Blackbird,” in homage to the Nina Simone song — isn’t a song about how Kaz saved her. It’s a song about breaking free from her mother and from her old self, which is a much more interesting choice. How involved were you in the songwriting, particularly with that song?
I was not involved in songwriting, because I feel like I can write anything, but I can’t write a song! [Laughs] So I knew I wanted The-Dream when I was writing; I just didn’t think we could ever afford him. But he dug Love & Basketball, and he dug Gugu because I showed him a presentation of her, so he came aboard to do four songs. So in the script, I described the vibe I wanted for each song. Like the first song “Masterpiece,” the audience’s introduction to who she is, I wanted a vibe like Rihanna’s “Birthday Cake.” And he actually wrote that song.
The fascinating thing about the process with him was at the end, I had actually described a love song. Of course, ultimately Noni has to save herself and that is the message of the film, but the song that I described was not reflecting that. And The-Dream was taking forever to write that last song. It was like two weeks before shooting and I still did not have the song. And then he suddenly sent me this song called “Blackbird.” And it was not anything of what I wrote in terms of a love song to Kaz, but I heard it and I was like, “Oh my god.” I mean, it’s brilliant. It’s tied to the original song, and this speaks to Noni’s journey. And so I am grateful, grateful to him, because he pushed me in that direction.
Listen to the original song “Blackbird” from ‘Beyond the Lights.’
The original title of this film was Blackbird; does the title Beyond the Lights have a special meaning for you?
[Laughs] No. It does not. I mean, when you see the film, it’s an obvious thing: it should be called Blackbird. Unfortunately — and it’s amazing how the world works, given how long it took me to get this film made — I finally get it made and there’s three other movies with the same title. One of them had a copyright, so we couldn’t fight against that. So we had to come up with the title within like, a day. And I was given a couple choices. And Beyond the Lights does make sense for the story and what I’m putting out there. I would have preferred it be Blackbird, but Beyond the Lights works.
