{"id":61485,"date":"2011-10-10T17:09:06","date_gmt":"2011-10-10T17:09:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/0de2709a84.nxcli.net\/0-kjasnb\/2011\/10\/10\/kim-wayans-talks-pariah\/"},"modified":"2018-12-18T13:01:57","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T13:01:57","slug":"kim-wayans-talks-pariah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/kim-wayans-talks-pariah\/","title":{"rendered":"Kim Wayans Talks Pariah"},"content":{"rendered":"

TIFF 2011: Pariah<\/a>An Interview with Kim Wayans<\/strong>
\nBy Fred Topel<\/p>\n

October 10, 2011<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sundance hit <\/strong>Pariah<\/strong> <\/em>will be a breakthrough for writer\/director Dee Rees<\/a><\/strong> and its star Adepero Oduye<\/strong>. It will also help an established star break through some of Hollywood\u2019s barriers. Kim Wayans<\/strong> is best known as a comedian, like her famous brothers Kenan Ivory, Damon, Marlon, Shawn<\/strong> and more. Pariah <\/em>lets her show her dramatic range too.<\/p>\n

Wayans plays Audrey, the mother of Alike (Oduye), a teenager who comes out as a gay woman. Audrey becomes one of the many figures who cast Alike out because of their fear and intolerance. We caught up with Wayans at the Toronto International Film Festival to talk about her dramatic work. Focus Features will release Pariah <\/em>on Christmas Day.<\/p>\n

Being known mostly as a comedian, how did this role come to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kim Wayans:<\/strong> Well, my manager, well aware of the fact that I was looking to do some dramatic acting, sent me the script. I read it and I loved it. I was just so moved by the story. I just thought it was so beautifully written and the characters were so interesting and multi-layered. I just really, really wanted to be a part of it. Thankfully, Dee the director and Nekisa [Cooper] the producer, were open to seeing me. Often what I run into is those doors are closed to me because I\u2019m perceived as a comedic performer. When I try to get in on dramas, I\u2019m met with, \u201cSorry, we love Kim, she\u2019s funny but we need somebody with some gravitas.\u201d So this is really a lucky break for me that they had an open mind, open heart, I read for it and they loved me and I got the part.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

How many Robin Williamses or Jim Carreys do we need before they realize comedians are also great actors too?<\/strong><\/p>\n

KW: <\/strong>I know, I don\u2019t get it. I don\u2019t get it but I guess momentarily they recognize that and then it goes right back to the same \u201cOkay, she\u2019s a comedian. She\u2019s a dramatic actress.\u201d I don\u2019t know. I\u2019m just happy this came along and hopefully this\u2019ll open up some more doors in terms of people seeing me for dramatic work.<\/p>\n

Your brother Marlon got a lot of acclaim, deservedly, for Requiem for a Dream<\/em>. Did you speak with him about making that transition?<\/strong><\/p>\n

KW:<\/strong> No, I didn\u2019t. I don\u2019t know, it never even occurred to me to talk to Marlon about that. I guess because I see myself differently than they see me, just because they put a label on me or put me in a box, I haven\u2019t done that to myself. So as far as I was concerned, there\u2019s really no need to talk with Marlon about it because I see him as an artist. I don\u2019t see him as a comic or comedian. I see him as an artist. So when he was doing Requiem for a Dream<\/em>, that was just as natural to me as when he\u2019s doing White Chicks <\/em>or Scary Movie<\/em>. He\u2019s just expressing another aspect of his talent.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Did you speak with any mothers who have gone through this experience?<\/strong><\/p>\n

KW:<\/strong> No, actually, I really didn\u2019t. That wasn\u2019t part of my preparation. The funny thing is though I\u2019ve known mothers who have gone through not the same experience, but of course I know mothers who\u2019s children turned out to be gay. They didn\u2019t respond the way Audrey does but that wasn\u2019t part of my preparation. I just took the information that was given to me, because I really didn\u2019t want to play like somebody else having the experience. I wanted to play Audrey having the experience so for me the work was drawing what I needed to draw from the text and from conversations with Dee to create this woman.<\/p>\n

Why do you think Audrey had such a hard time accepting her daughter was gay?<\/strong><\/p>\n

KW:<\/strong> I think a few different reasons but I think Audrey\u2019s a very unhappy person herself. Oftentimes unhappy, unfulfilled people with a relationship that\u2019s pulling them apart channel so much of their expectation and so much of their energy in a very unhealthy way on their children. I think Audrey is a victim of that. I think her religious background informs what it is she thinks of as right behavior and wrong behavior. It\u2019s etched in stone as far as she\u2019s concerned, so when she\u2019s confronted with her daughter wanting to make a choice that she feels is morally wrong, she can\u2019t handle it. She can\u2019t handle it. So that\u2019s what I think is going on.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s like when Gandhi said you should love your oppressors, because you know they\u2019re oppressing you because they lack love. Maybe love can get through the fear that homophobic people are experiencing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

KW:<\/strong> To me, I think love is the cure all. I think people like that need more love than anything. They need love because they\u2019re in pain as well. They\u2019re victimizing but they\u2019re also victims. That\u2019s such a terrible place to live from, such an ugly, awful, small minded place to dwell in. So I have a lot of empathy and a lot of compassion for Audrey and people like Audrey. They\u2019re just so rigid and so full of fear.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t feel good to live that way. Hopefully they learn that there\u2019s a happier, peaceful way to live.<\/strong><\/p>\n

KW: <\/strong>I hope so. That is my hope; that people who see this movie will walk away with some of that. Parents of gay children who might be having a problem accepting it or whatever will maybe see this movie and have an opportunity to frame things differently or see themselves in action. Sometimes when you can have some distance and see somebody else that reflects you, it\u2019s easy to see yourself. So if she can hold up a mirror and in some ways help to affect any kind of change or any slight opening or transformation in someone struggling like that, it would be amazing. Actually, from some of the feedback I\u2019ve gotten from Sundance, the movie is really affecting people on a powerful level and that\u2019s exciting.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What was it like working with Dee Rees?<\/strong><\/p>\n

KW: <\/strong>Oh, just wonderful. She\u2019s such a cool lady. She just created such a nice vibe on the set. We all felt like family. We were all really close. She created a lot of safety so that you felt very comfortable and you felt safe to go to those dark places. You felt like there was support; that you wouldn\u2019t just be out there with your guts on the floor in an environment that wasn\u2019t supportive of what you were trying to express. So she did a really great job creating a really cool atmosphere for that, for artists to open up and really go where they needed to go. She did something really interesting which I loved. I didn\u2019t have a rehearsal period at all. We didn\u2019t have a rehearsal period together as a cast. I know that on the short they had some rehearsal they did but what she did was she had a therapy session with the entire family, with a real therapist. So that was in lieu of a rehearsal. I came to town and I came as Audrey and all of us came in character and we had an actual family therapy session. Dee had given us, on a little piece of paper, she gave each one of us a few different things that she wanted us to address in this therapy session. It was just wonderful because we all found out things about our character and things about our relationship and dynamic to one another in that session. I think that that was just a great foundation for everything to emerge from.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What about working with Adepero Oduye?<\/strong><\/p>\n

KW:<\/strong> Oh, I just love her. She has such a spirit about her. She\u2019s just a fiercely talented individual obviously, but she has a certain innocence and beauty of the soul that just emanates from her. You just fall in love with her. She\u2019s just an awesome young woman.<\/p>\n

What are you doing next?<\/strong><\/p>\n

KW: <\/strong>Well, I have a pilot, a comedy pilot that I\u2019m shopping around that my brothers\u2019 executive produced. So we\u2019re trying to find a home and get that set up someplace.<\/p>\n

Your brother Kenan?<\/strong><\/p>\n

KW: <\/strong>Kenan, Marlon and Shawn produced it along with me. So I\u2019m doing that. We\u2019re shopping for a home for that and I have a series of children\u2019s books out called Amy Hodgepodge<\/em>. So we have our sixth book out. My husband and I wrote that together. It\u2019s a series that revolves around a little multi-racial fourth grader who\u2019s starting school for the first time after being home schooled all her life. It\u2019s funny because that project also deals with feeling like an outsider and trying to fit in, trying to find your way and be who you are in the midst of people who want to put you in boxes and stuff. It\u2019s an interesting parallel. I\u2019d never really thought of it until this moment. We just made a deal with a production company who\u2019s trying to do some animation with Amy Hodgepodge<\/em> so that would really be exciting. And I\u2019m hoping for more dramatic opportunities.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What format is the pilot?<\/strong><\/p>\n

KW: <\/strong>Sitcom.<\/p>\n

What kind of character would you get to play?<\/strong><\/p>\n

KW: <\/strong>Well, I get to play a character who\u2019s very much like my mom. It\u2019s actually a show that\u2019s inspired by our upbringing. People are always asking us, especially when we do interviews together, what was it like growing up with all those kids in the projects? What was it like growing up Wayans? So we thought it\u2019d be a really great thing to show them. So this is modern day but it\u2019s basically from the parents\u2019 point of view of what it was like to raise all of us with the little resources that they had in the projects in New York City.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Can you believe it\u2019s been over 20 years since you started In Living Color<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

KW: <\/strong>I can\u2019t. I can\u2019t. It\u2019s just like life is so weird. It\u2019s just so strange. I find the older I get, the more I realize that time is really an illusion. It\u2019s like something we created, a constraint that we created so that we feel like we have control of something we have absolutely no control of. It\u2019s just like one moment, one eternal moment really. And it\u2019s cool, but it\u2019s a little weird.<\/p>\n

If you guys were doing it now, do you think it would be sketches on YouTube instead of a TV show?<\/strong><\/p>\n

KW: <\/strong>No, I think we could still pretty much do a show like In Living Color <\/em>on Fox today.<\/p>\n

Related stories: Dee Rees talks Pariah<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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