Recently screened at the 2019 American Black Film Festival (ABFF) was the indie drama “If Not Now, When?,” which marks the directorial debut of Meagan Good and Tamara Bass, who also served as producers of the film under their Krazy Actress Productions banner along with Datari Turner and Sway Calloway.
Written by Bass, the film stars the both of them along with Mekia Cox, Meagan Holder, Valarie Pettiford, Edwin Hodge, Lexi Underwood, Niles Fitch, Todd Williams, and McKinley Freeman.
If Not Now, When? introduces us to Suzanne, Patrice, Tyra and Deidre, who have been friends since meeting at 14. Over the course of their lives, fights, disagreements and love have caused friction and distance to manifest between some of them, particularly Suzanne and Patrice, who haven’t spoken in almost 15 years. When Tyra, who is mother to 14 year old Jillian, suffers a crisis, all four women are drawn back together to make it through, and soon discover that they also need each other, and that sisterhood, to make it through what is currently happening in their individual lives.
During the festival, Blackfilm.com spoke exclusively with directors Meagan Good and Tamara Bass on getting this film off the ground and bringing sisterhood to the big screen.
Can you talk to me about the genesis of the story came about?
Tamara Bass: I wrote the first draft of the script, almost 20 years ago. I wrote it about 2001. I put it down on the shelf after I was done, tried to do some other things and life happened. About five years ago, I took it off the shelf, and I just did a page one rewrite. Okay, “I think we can do this. I think we can do this movie.” At first, I was writing it for some other friends of mine to perform. One day, it just hit me. I was like, “No, this is for us.” I wanted to do a movie that represented friendship, and love and sisterhood, and just basically a love letter to my friends. I sent it to Meagan to read. Then I just held my breath for about a week, because I am the type of person that if you don’t hit me back right away, it means you hate it, what I wrote, and you’re trying to figure out a nice way to tell me it sucks. But that wasn’t the case. She read it and said, “Okay, we have to do this. Let’s do it.” That begin the journey.
Writing the story is one thing. Making the decision to direct is another. How did the both of you decide to co-direct?
Meagan Good: Well, we talked about it early on. Then we decided that it would be better to just produce it and co-star in it. We bought on another director and the investor came on board and it was amazing. We were waiting for the money for eight months. Our director was asking, “Is this happening? Is this not happening?” Then eventually, she took a job and said, “I’m going to be tied up for eight months.” So Tamara said to me, “I think we should direct this.” I was like, “That’s a lot to take on right now.” I said, “Let me just pray about it.”
She said, “Okay, well, I feel confident that this is the thing to do.” So I prayed on it probably for a month. Then when I got back home from filming another movie, we sat down, we had a meeting, and I was just like, “God told me that this is what we need to be doing.” I literally asked God, before we sat down, I said, “Lord, I need like a sign that we’re doing the right thing. I feel that you’re telling me to do it. So I’m going to go to this meeting and talk to Tamara and I’m going to tell her I’m on board to do it in obedience. But I need a sign.” Literally eight minutes after I said, “Let’s do it.” The money hit the bank. We’ve been waiting eight months. I was thinking, “Okay, God I see you.”
Each of the women are going through their own drama. What was more challenging, getting the story together, getting the cast together, or getting the money together?
Tamara Bass: The money. The story was so organic, and that came together pretty easily and finding the right cast, came really easily. Mekia walked into the room, and she had a baby bump. She goes, “Hi, guys. I came in character,” and we’re like, “Ok.” Meagan wondered if she was going method and I was like, “Oh, I think she might be pregnant.” She does the scenes and in the end, she says, “Oh, I’m I’m really pregnant.” This doesn’t happen. You don’t get to audition for something where you’re pregnant and the role requires you to be pregnant. She left the room and both of us turned to each other and said, “That’s our Suzanne. I don’t care who else we see. That’s our Suzanne.” Meagan’s asking, “Are you sure?” I’m like, “That’s our Suzanne.” She’s like, “Ok, you’re right.” Then we tried to find our Deidre, that was a little more challenging.
Ironically, it worked out because Meagan Holder is phenomenal, but she was originally supposed to audition for Suzanne. We kept looking for her tape, looking for a tape, and her tape never came in. So at the 11th hour, we’re still looking for Deidre. Mind you, it’s Monday, we have a table read on Friday, and we’re starting to shoot the next Monday, and the fourth of July is in the midst of all this. That meant we basically had 12 hours to find our Deidre. I kept asking our casting team over and over to see Meagan Holder’s tape. We can’t find it. At seven o’clock, the email comes through. I think I got through half the scene and I was like, that’s our Deidre. And the rest is history.
Meagan Good: It was crazy. Valarie Pettiford was the first one to go, “I’m in,” simply because she said “I believe in this project. I believe in the characters. I believe what you wrote. I believe in what you guys are doing.” Everything is organically with each character and there’s an interesting little story that goes along with it. But super, super, super proud of the cast and the super amazed by the work that they’ve done. There’s some phenomenal actors in this movie.
Meagan, you’ve been working a long time. Is this the next step for you, directing? Or will you do both, act and direct?
Meagan Good: Yeah, definitely both. I think the thing that I really love about directing is that, being in the business so long, and I’ve been in the business over 30 years in front of the camera, and by the grace of God consistently working, at this junction in my life, I don’t always enjoy it being about me. I don’t always enjoy getting dressed up and doing hair makeup. I enjoy the craft of being on set and actually doing the work. But some of the other stuff I don’t enjoy as much as I did at age 22 and 23.
So for me directing, it’s all about serving the actors, and it’s all about serving the movie, and it’s all about it. That it’s not being about you. It’s about making the best product possible. Giving and compromising to a point, but also knowing what you bring to the table and making sure you keep your integrity. So I just I really, really, really love it. I think I’ll do both. I’m at a junction where as an actor, I only want to do things I’m really excited about and really passionate about, and the other thing is directing. So I get the best of both worlds, which is a blessing.
It’s rare to have two black females producing, writing, and directing on one film. In wearing these many hats were there any challenges as you tried to put this film together?
Tamara Bass: Yeah, I think it’s challenging if you have just one of those hats on, but when you have two producing hats that means we have to be on point. I have an investor that we got to say, “Hey, this is how we spent your money,” and we can’t go back to him and ask for more. So it’s making sure that every dollar spent correctly. As a writer, it’s making sure everything makes sense on the paper so that when the paper is on its feet, we’re not scrambling trying to rewrite everything. As a director, especially first time feature directors, it’s trying to garner that respect; trying to make sure that our vision is out there the way we want it to be out there. So each of those hats were collectively a little challenging.
There would be times where, we’re on set and I’m in the middle of a scene and she’s directing, I’m acting, and she yells “Cut,” and I’m looking over a payroll report. All these things are happening at one time. But as someone in my life said to me, I was built for this. The more difficult and frenetic somethings are it’s a bigger problem to solve. That is my forte in which I’ve learned is Meagan’s forte too. “Okay, let’s just solve the problem.” There is no problem that we can’t solve. So figuring that out and getting to use all those skills at once. Yeah, that’s fine.
Meagan Good: I think the blessing is the way that we worked blew our minds. Because, we’ve been friends for over 20 years. Even the best of friends are not going to work as well as we were surprised to see that we worked on set. We literally were like each part of a brain. We would watch something and we both see the same things that will stick out to us as if they were going to address were completely different on each side. It was amazing that when it came down to color, sound and everything, because they were two of us, and what we could bring to the table, every single T was crossed and was dotted because there was just so much in what we both bring. It really, really was an incredible experience. It definitely was challenging, but it was really incredible. I think this is the best way to start it off.
