Just recently at the ABFF Honors, talent extraordinaire Lena Waithe was honored with the Industry Renaissance Award, which recognizes content creators whose exemplary work in film and television contributes to changing perceptions of people of color in the entertainment industry. The award is most fitting for this gifted talent. After winning the Emmy Award for her scripted “Master of None” “Thanksgiving” episode, Waithe has since exploded in the big and small screen, from the front and behind the camera.
Currently, she serves as a writer and executive producer of two BET shows: the new series “Twenties” which is based off her own early years in LA and the second season of the “Boomerang” revival which she created alongside Halle Berry. Both shows are set to air this month. Waithe also created Showtime’s “The Chi,” which will return for its third season this year.
On the big screen, she scripted the romantic drama “Queen & Slim,” and most recently voiced a character in Disney and Pixar’s Onward. She’s appearing in Justin Simien’s “Bad Hair,” which premiered at Sundance this past January and she produced Radha Blank’s comedy “The 40-Year-Old Version,” which also premiered at Sundance and was bought by Netflix.
In other word, she’s the ultimate Jack of all trades!
Blackfilm.com recently caught up with Waithe at NYC’s Paley Center where Boomerang and Twenties had premieres for their new season and she spoke about managing the many projects she’s involved with.
With three TV series, how are you balancing your schedule?
Lena Waithe: I have a really great group of artists that I work with. People sometimes think that because it says created by me or executive produced by me that I’m doing every single thing. I did a lot of writing on season one for Twenties. It’s very much my story. Susan Fales-Hill is doing the day to day. Dime Davis and Anegli Milan are really taking the reins of season two of Boomerang. I did a lot of writing for season one, but season two, they really have stepped up and said “We’re gonna make this show our own” and that’s my joy to watch them taking over here. Make it special. With season three of The Chi. I’m even more involved. I’m in it this season. I did a lot of writing. I finally got the show to be where I wanted it to be. I have a wonderful showrunner Justin Hillian, who does the day the day, goes to the set and sees if there’s any fires to put out. The thing is I’m really trying to educate people about how the game works because they look at me or Shonda Rhimes, Ava DuVernay, and think, “Oh, you guys are doing all these things?” No, we are steering the ship. But we have a whole group of people doing the rowing and making sure that the ship don’t sink. So that’s how I balance it.
With so many shows, including yours, that has black talent, do you have a hand in the marketing of the show and talent?
Lena Waithe: Yes, I absolutely want to involved in how these shows are presented on. Because it’s not just enough to make cool black content, you have to present it a certain way as well. I love breaking in new talent. When you look at my content, you can see that, from Jodie Turner-Smith to Tetona Jackson and with The Chi, there’s a lot of new talent there. I like to introduce people to new actors and actresses, and that takes a little bit of work on people’s part. I don’t know who that is yet. Maybe not yet, but I think you will and you’ll grow to love them over time. We did that with Dear White People with Tessa Thompson. Not a lot of people knew who Tessa was at the time but ultimately it took the test of time and ran with it. So for us, it is partly on me to populate this industry with new fresh faces. But I do want our lovely actresses to get on Instagram, get on Twitter, talk to people, go do interviews to bloggers and black press, because that’s really how you build a following.
You have Bad Hair, The 40 Year-Old Version, and God know a lot more projects, so when do you have time to relax?
Lena Waithe: I find it. When I’m on a plane, when I have a little bit of a window of time in a hotel, I ask, “How late can I get there?” Do not have to get to a place early waiting around. It’s things like that work on my publicity team, and working with assistants. I have two of them, who are lovely. They handle my schedule, and they also schedule time for me to hang out with friends, scheduled time for me to sit around and do nothing. It’s important. If my cup is empty, I can give you nothing, so I make time.
You’re a producer, you’re a writer, and you’re an actress, will you ever direct?
Lena Waithe: I have no desire to direct. None. It is a craft and a gift I think only a few people have. And I don’t have that. There’s a level of attention to detail that I don’t possess I think that directors have to have in order to be great. I love Melina, I can’t do what Meolina does. I love Dime Davis. I can’t do what Dime does and the same with Justin Simien. I could not have directed Bad Hair. I could help out with some jokes, story, character stuff. But directing is a real gift. I think too many people think that anybody can do it. So I would never want to just disrespect that craft in that way, even with acting because I fell into that. I take it very seriously. I go really hard because craft is very important to me and I never want to be lazy when it comes to that. So no, there’s no directed by Lena Waithe anytime soon.
How’s Queen & Slim doing in London?
Lena Waithe: Very well. We just got word that we’re like almost at a million in grosses over there. They came out in droves. They loved the movie. They get the movie. They said wonderful, eloquent things about it. I’ve been seeing stuff on my social media. I’ve been so blown away. I love seeing how it plays in London. I love seeing how it played here in America. We’re going to take it to Africa in the coming weeks. To me I think art should be shared not just in America, but all over the world, all over the content. We belong all over the world. I’m grateful that the movie has traveled and doing well at the box office and we got a lot of critical acclaim. So everything else is icing and I think it really will be a part of my legacy, Melina’s legacy, Daniel’s legacy, Jodie’s legacy and Bokeem Woodbine’s legacy. The soundtrack has really picked up in a way that me and Melina really wanted it to. So we’re just really grateful. We’re grateful for all that has come out of the movie.
.
Loading…