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<\/a><\/p>\nWhen making movies in Hollywood, box office numbers matter.\u00a0 However, when you have a winning formula that includes great casting, content, and a movie that is selling out theaters, you can pretty much write your own ticket.\u00a0 Producer Will Packer has been steadily climbing the Hollywood ladder, one box office hit at a time, and this time he joins forces with Director Malcolm Lee to make a summer sizzle:\u00a0Girls Trip.<\/i><\/p>\n
As the nuts and bolts guy, we had a chat, in New Orleans, which is the back drop for this film, in addition to the ESSENCE Music Festival, which was in full effect as we sat down to discuss the logistics of putting together a film with a star studded cast, including Queen Latifah and Jada Pinkett-Smith, who had not worked together since their 90\u2019s classic: \u201cSet it Off.\u201d\u00a0 It had been 20 years since the ladies came together in a film, and the first time Will has worked wth either.<\/p>\n
As a Producer, he had to navigate the logistical challenges of shooting a fictional film, in a real time, star studded event, which will not pause for \u201ctakes.\u201d Will Packer speaks candidly about casting, logistics, how social media plays a role in movie making, and why you should go see this film, about 4 women, reconnecting after work and life gets in the way of their friendship.\u00a0 What he and Malcolm Lee have a created is a wild ride that captures the essence of black women in flight\u2014-through ups and downs, finding themselves and each other, but most importantly they capture a real sisterhood that resonates on screen, paying homage to their love of black women and quirky movies like Hangover.<\/p>\n This film is a real trip!\u00a0 Literally and I couldn\u2019t wait to discuss how it all went down.\u00a0 Check it.<\/p>\n Both you and Malcolm have franchise movies; what does it mean to you to be a brother in Hollywood creating that kind of value? \u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Will Packer:\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0Well, it\u2019s power and with power comes responsibility.\u00a0 It means that it\u2019s really, really important for us to be careful about the imagery we\u2019re putting on the screen, especially when you think about the fact that we both have had movies that a lot of people have seen, and have been able to do sequels [that] a lot of people have seen.\u00a0 I\u2019m very fortunate to be in that kind of position, but it\u2019s not a position that I take lightly.<\/p>\n So, with Girls Trip, what I wanted to do was to make sure that we told an authentic experience.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t want it to be exploitative of the black women\u2019s experience going to ESSENCE.\u00a0 I wanted to highlight it.\u00a0 I wanted to make sure it was organic to how black women really are.\u00a0 Malcolm and I as men, love black women and wanted to put these sisters in positions to succeed, to win and to tell their stories\u2014-then back out of the way to let them go.<\/p>\n Every guy has their type:\u00a0 It\u2019s either, the home girl, the ride or die, the motherly figure\u2026which character in Girl\u2019s Trip would you say was your \u201ctype?\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n Will Packer:\u00a0<\/b>Probably Jada, the \u201cLisa\u201d character\u2026the maternal one because I was such a mama\u2019s boy, I still am.\u00a0 Love my mom to death, would do anything for her, so probably that nurturing ability that Jada has would\u2019ve been attractive to young Will Packer.\u00a0 Tiffany (\u201cDina\u201d) would\u2019ve scared the mess out of me.\u00a0 Dina would\u2019ve just scared me off.\u00a0 I wouldn\u2019t know what to do with all of that as a young boy dreaming of becoming a man.\u00a0 Dina would\u2019ve scared me!\u00a0 And then Jada\u2019s character (Lisa) is maternal but she\u2019s got a wild side, obviously [and] that\u2019s what\u2019s so true of real people.\u00a0 There\u2019s such a complexity.\u00a0 Nobody is just one way or just another and we had to show some of that complexity.<\/p>\n It was very real, I howled watching the film, so what do you want us to take away from the movie?<\/b><\/p>\n Will Packer:\u00a0<\/b>Oh, man!\u00a0 Euphoria.\u00a0 Empowerment.\u00a0 Liberation. I want audiences to leave this film having a really good time, thats what we made it for.\u00a0 I also want them to feel invested in the characters.\u00a0 I want them to feel the heart that was intended when we made this film.\u00a0 I think right now, you\u2019ve got an America that\u2019s becoming more and more divided everyday.\u00a0 As divisive rhetoric spews from out of the swamp that is Washington, DC right now, I think people need an escape from that, and as much content out there that you can consume at home, on line, on your devices, there\u2019s still nothing like going into a darkened movie theater and disconnecting from reality for a couple of hours.\u00a0 That is when the medium is at it\u2019s best; when it allows you to disconnect and that\u2019s what this film does.<\/p>\n What attracts you to ensembles, because most of your films have multiple characters?<\/b><\/p>\n Will Packer:\u00a0<\/b>I\u2019ve done it all.\u00a0 I\u2019ve done some ensembles but I\u2019ve done some two handers as well.\u00a0 It\u2019s fun doing ensembles because you can have so many different flavors portrayed, and so many different entry points for all audiences.\u00a0 So with Girls Trip, I think their are audiences that will be able to relate to each of the different characters in different ways.\u00a0 That\u2019s pretty cool.\u00a0 You can do that in an ensemble in a way that you can\u2019t\u00a0 with the two hander thing.<\/p>\n What was it about Malcolm that made you want to work with him, specifically on this film?<\/b><\/p>\n I\u2019ve been a fan of his for awhile and\u2026black Hollywood is as big as this room.\u00a0 Everyone knows each other; so we knew each other and had talked about finding the right project to work together on but hadn\u2019t found that right project yet, and he was coming off of \u201cThe Best Man Holiday\u201d and I had this idea from my time down here at the ESSENCE Festival and I called him with that pitch\u2014-and he was getting pitched a lot of stuff at that time because he had just had a big successful movie; but he responded right away.\u00a0 He said, we gotta make this movie.\u00a0 I said: \u2018Let\u2019s do it.\u2019\u00a0 I told him, \u2018I\u2019ll get the financing, we\u2019ll figure out the cast and you go direct it.\u2019\u00a0 He said, \u201ccool.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s beautiful, so tell me about the next one, I hear you\u2019re doing a film called \u201cNight School\u201d together\u2026<\/b><\/p>\n Will Packer:\u00a0<\/b>Yes, we are.\u00a0 I\u2019m excited.\u00a0 It\u2019s actually Kevin Hart\u2019s idea.<\/p>\n Oh Really?<\/b><\/p>\n Will Packer:\u00a0<\/b>Yes, he pitched me this idea when we were in London for \u201cRide Along, 1\u201d press promotions, and he basically said, \u201cwhat if you have a group of misfits and they all have to go to night school to get their G.E.D?\u00a0 like an adult version of \u201cThe Breakfast Club\u201d and I said, \u2018that\u2019s brilliant.\u2019 and as things go, these things take time to get going because that was years ago but now we finally got it going and got Universal Studios on board, and I reached out to Malcolm [and ah] he had been wanting to work with Kevin Hart.<\/p>\n He and I just had this success with GIRLS TRIP\u2014which we hope will be successful in the box office, but no matter what it does, we\u2019re very proud of it.\u00a0 So I connected Kevin and Malcolm because they hadn\u2019t worked together before and didn\u2019t really know each other, so I connected him and I told Kev, \u2018Listen man, Mal\u2019s the guy\u2019\u2026I showed Kevin an early cut of Girl\u2019s Trip, and he LOVED IT\u2026loved it, and he said. \u201cLet\u2019s do it\u2026let\u2019s do it with Malcolm.\u201d<\/p>\n You both have worked with Regina, who\u2019s idea was it to cast her as the leading lady?<\/b><\/p>\n Will Packer:\u00a0<\/b>Actually, I was doing some promotion with Regina for another movie that we had done and we were on a plane, and before I had even formulated the idea, it\u2019s just a journal of an idea\u2014and I said: \u2018Gina, what if there was a movie about a group of girls, and it was like THIS, against this backdrop?!\u00a0 She said, \u201cThat would be cool.\u201d\u00a0 I said, \u2018alright, I\u2019ll get back to you.\u2019 and then I went and pitched Malcolm and I told him; \u2018what about Regina?\u2019 He said, \u201cABSOLUTELY.\u201d\u2026so then we got Regina in.\u00a0 The next two were Latifah and Jada, and they hadn\u2019t worked together since \u201cSet it Off\u201d\u2026it had been 20 years and they had been wanting to work together again, so that was awesome\u2026so we got those two, then it was about finding the wild card\u2026finding the \u201cDina\u201d character.<\/p>\n Tiffany was amazing\u2026<\/b><\/p>\n Will Packer:\u00a0<\/b>She is, this was her break out.\u00a0 A star is born.\u00a0 She auditioned multiple times.\u00a0 She beat out some great actresses, named actresses, but this was her role.\u00a0 This is the role she was meant to play.<\/p>\n This is a beautiful time for Black Film because\u00a0 there\u2019s so much black talent, so you must have tons of movie ideas for all of them, but you can\u2019t play with them all at once, so how did you narrow down the cast for this particular project?<\/b><\/p>\n Will Packer:\u00a0<\/b>Well Regina first because I am familiar with her and such a fan of hers.\u00a0 I think that she can do comedy, she can do drama, she is just so talented.\u00a0 She\u2019s one of my favorite actresses and I needed somebody to anchor this project that could be funny, yet, you would invest in and believe their struggle and the challenges they have to overcome.\u00a0 You needed someone who you could believe that, and that was Regina.<\/p>\n And then I always wanted to work with Latifah and Jada, and I knew Latifah but I didn\u2019t know Jada until this project\u2026but getting the two of them was like a dream\u2026you know?\u00a0 And they both liked it because their characters were a little bit different than what you would expect\u2026Jada\u2019s always like the strong woman character, so to play somebody that was a little vulnerable, a conservative mom\u2026she responded to that.\u00a0 For Latifah, as big as a celebrity that she is, she\u2019s playing a messy celebrity blogger, who celebrities hate\u2014that was interesting [and] I think she enjoyed that, and then like I said, it was that final piece which was Tiffany Haddish.\u00a0 We were really fortunate to get this cast.<\/p>\n When you\u2019re making a movie, there\u2019s usually\u2026especially in an ensemble\u2014-4 or 5 different combinations that could come together, and I\u2019ve been fortunate that when I think about \u201cThink Like a Man, when I think about \u201cAbout Last Night\u201d, when I think about \u201cRide Along\u201d I look at the combination of characters that the actors brought to life, and I\u2019m always like \u2018boy, did we get that right.\u2019, you know?\u00a0 I\u2019ve just really been fortunate in terms of the casting of my pictures, just when\u00a0 there\u2019s another one that I can not imagine another way.<\/p>\n Do you think that social media metrics has a role in casting movies?<\/b><\/p>\n Will Packer:\u00a0<\/b>Sure, absolutely, my job is to make the best content I can and to get as many people to see it as possible, part of that is having a cast that can reach out beyond the marketing that the studio will do, so that\u2019s important.\u00a0 I definitely take that into account.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t outweigh the right person for the role, but in today\u2019s marketplace, you have to be able to compete with projects that have more money than you, bigger stars than you, and one easy way to do that is to have stars that can connect directly with audiences.<\/p>\n Yes, and it did connect\u2026when bringing Latifah and Jada together again, did you know that you had to pay homage to \u201cSet it Off?\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n Will Packer:\u00a0<\/b>Of course\u2026absolutely!\u00a0 I told Mal early on\u2026I said, \u2018somehow\u2026some way, we gotta have a wink in this movie to all the\u00a0Set it Off<\/i>\u00a0fans that are out there and we pulled it off pretty cool.\u00a0 The audiences have responded in a big way when that scene comes up.<\/p>\n What was it like working with Preston Holmes who is a legendary producer of Black Film content?<\/b><\/p>\n Will Packer:\u00a0<\/b>Preston is great.\u00a0 Preston is a legend. He\u2019s the \u201cOG\u201d he\u2019s been doing it forever.\u00a0 He was really the heart of helping this production navigate the logistical challenges.\u00a0 Malcolm and I, in our roles get a lot of credit, but you need a really, really strong line producer who can come in and figure out ways to navigate challenges; so for instance\u2014-with all those actors that we were shooting at the ESSENCE Festival , Preston is the one who came up with the idea to say: \u201cLet\u2019s insulate our actors with extras that we pay and then, we\u2019ve got a layer,\u201d because there are 1000\u2019s and 1000\u2019s of people at the ESSENCE Festival, and we had a couple of 100 extras that we paid to put around our actors, so the layer made it so other people couldn\u2019t get to them (actors) when we shot a scene, it looks like there\u2019s a big crowd [but] people right around our actors are usually our extras, and then everybody else are regular people that are there for ESSENCE.\u00a0 That\u2019s all Preston.\u00a0 He\u2019s one of the best.\u00a0 He\u2019s gonna work with us on Night School as well.\u00a0 So we\u2019re bringing the team back together.<\/p>\n Well, that\u2019s the trinity.<\/b><\/p>\n Yes!<\/p>\n GIRLS TRIP OPENS JULY 21st Nationwide<\/b><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>