André Holland on Why Getting Financing for ‘Love, Brooklyn’ Was the ‘Hardest Thing He’s Ever Done’
André Holland is bringing Black romance to Sundance with his latest independent film “Love, Brooklyn.”
Directed by Rachael Abigail Holder (in her feature debut), it’s a charming story about a man named Roger (Holland), who is suffering from writers’ block while he attempts to pen a story about the changing landscape in Brooklyn. As the plot plays out, it becomes clearer that Roger’s creative impasse is linked to his indecision about his romantic relationships — as he toggles between a friendship with his ex, Casey (Nicole Beharie), a fine-art gallerist, and a situationship with Nicole (DeWanda Wise), a single mother with a young daughter (Cadence Reese).
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Holland tells Variety he was attracted to the role because he could relate to Roger’s “romantic confusion” on a personal level. “It was an opportunity to get into an emotional state that I feel familiar with and that I wanted to explore and understand better, and to tell a larger story about what it means to try and be an artist making things today against the backdrop of a changing landscape,” he explains.
However, the original script, from screenwriter Paul Zimmerman, wasn’t conceived with Black people in mind, but all that changed once Holder then Holland got on board. It took more than five years to pull the indie production together — with the struggle to secure financing exacerbated by “worthy delays” like the COVID pandemic and Hollywood’s dual strikes.
“Independent filmmaking is difficult,” says Holder, who joins Holland for the interview. “There isn’t enough money — although I feel like when there is a lot of money, there still isn’t enough money. We had many hills to climb, but I feel like we got to the best pinnacle.”
Indeed, “Love, Brooklyn” has summitted at least one peak — as the film made its world premiere on Monday afternoon in Park City, where Holland and Holder were joined by stars Beharie, Wise, Roy Wood Jr. and Cassandra Freeman for a conversation at the Variety Studio presented by Audible at Sundance.
With Variety, Holland and Holder discuss the obstacles they faced during that journey to Black romance to the big screen and encouraging the industry to make more projects like it.
Was this film always called “Love, Brooklyn”? Was that the name of the script when you got it?
Rachael Abigail Holder: No, it was called “Fleeing” when I got it. Which made sense to the film, but we felt like it evolved and became a different movie with our casting, with my lens, and “Love, Brooklyn” just felt way more appropriate.
Because it’s a love letter to the neighborhood, too. I also mention “love” because “Love, Brooklyn” also feels like it’s in conversation with classics like “Love and Basketball” and “Love Jones.”
Holder: Black romantic movies are my favorite, and this movie is paying respect to that lineage, and it would be an honor to be a part of that line. We wanted to have a modern, Black romantic movie so that people watching it would feel familiar feelings — like they were watching their favorite movie that’s romantic and Black — but like they are watching a movie that they’ve never seen before, because it’s set today and reflects the past 5-10 years of evolution of the city and that we as humanity have gone through.
André Holland: There’s a long lineage of movies where Black folks have been interested in love. I think as a people, we’ve definitely done a lot towards teaching the world how to love — or trying to — and I hope that this movie will be one that will sit alongside the ones that we’ve come to love so much.
How did you two come together on this project?
Holland: I got the script in 2019, and I read it right away, and I thought, “Oh, my God, this is a really beautiful little story.” It’s a movie which doesn’t rely on like car crashes or car chases or trauma or violence; it’s a movie about people trying to figure out how to move their lives forward in love. I thought it was a really beautiful opportunity and then Rachael and I had a meeting, and we just kind of locked arms — the two of us, plus our other producers — and said, “Let’s figure out how to make this.” Over the course of the last five years, we’ve been pushing that boulder up many, many hills and we finally got it to the finish line.
What is it like to be at that pinnacle where your movie, this thing that you’ve loved and nourished is about to debut at Sundance?
Holder: It feels wild. The 27-year-old me that moved to LA and was trying to start this career is freaking out and doesn’t believe that this is true and wakes up every morning just having to remind myself that this is real. And the eight-year-old who put on plays in my backyard and grew up directing with my stuffed animals is like, “Absolutely. This is exactly what should have been happening.”
It’s sort of like my relationship with André. He was my favorite actor ever, and when I met him, I had to put a special ringtone on my phone, so that I could, like, take a breath when he called and get myself ready to talk to “André Holland.” It’s just been a roller coaster of emotions; I feel good and excited and humbled, grateful and surprised
How did you capture André, DeWanda and Nicole’s chemistry? Just getting the three of them in one movie is an accomplishment.
Holder: It’s insane. When we were delayed, I’ve been working other jobs and people would be like, “What are you working on next?” I would just say their names and people would be like, “Oh my God!” I would say nothing about the plot, maybe that it’s set in Brooklyn, but people were just so excited to see them.
André, what was it like getting to work with the two of them?
Holland: We all three go back a really long way. Nicole was at Juilliard at the same time I was at NYU, so I used to go see her in plays. She was so extraordinary and I’ve been a fan of hers ever since. One of our first movies together was “42,” so we got connected over that. We’ve always had this interesting thing where we go see each other’s shows and we’re like, “Man, I like what you’re doing. I can’t wait to do something with you one day.”
Then DeWanda and I have never been in a play together, but we’ve done workshops for plays and we’ve orbited each other for many, many years. I love them and I admire them. They’re both extraordinary – our whole cast is. Getting the chance to be in the room making something with them was one of the highlights of my career.
What was something you learned about each of them as scene partners?
Holland: It wasn’t so much of a learning as maybe a remembrance — is about the importance of emotional honesty in scene work. Nicole brings such a simple honesty into every scene that she’s in. Same with DeWanda, she’s so in tune with her character, and so honest in her portrayal.
The two of them, in addition to being extraordinary actresses, are really smart, engaged storytellers and producers in their own right, plus DeWanda as a writer. That’s something that we, people of color, need to be doing more and more and more of, taking more control over our careers in those ways. It was exciting to not only talk about acting with them but also to talk about producing and what we want to make next. Hopefully this is the first of many things that we’ll get to do together.
André, what interested you about Roger?
Holland: On a personal level, I connected with him because I’ve been in that place myself, frankly, where I’ve been getting older and not sure which direction I wanted to go in. Romantic confusion is certainly something that I can relate to, and I think many people can as well.
But I also love Brooklyn — the community of folks who are artists and creative people is so special to me. Brooklyn has that magic where you walk outside on a summer day and it’s like you get swept away in this river and it just takes you someplace: you end up at a play reading, or at a performance that someone is giving, or in the park at a dance party. There’s a beautiful ecosystem that exists here that I wanted to celebrate and pay homage to. Because that ecosystem has supported so many artists, and as I live here now, I can see that shifting as it gets harder and harder for folks to afford to live here in Brooklyn. As it’s harder for artists to make a living — whether they be actors or musicians or dancers or whatever
As a culture, like the larger American culture, we don’t necessarily appreciate art in the way that I think we should. We don’t fund it in the way that deserves to be funded. For me, [playing Roger] was an opportunity to get into an emotional state that I feel familiar with and that I wanted to explore and understand better. And to tell a larger story about what it means to try and be an artist making things today against the backdrop of a changing landscape.
Rachael, I read that you used another New York story, “When Harry Met Sally” as a reference. What is it like to be able to make your own New York story?
Holder: It was amazing. I used “When Harry Met Sally” as a reference in terms of the camera being a “fly on the wall” experience of these people’s lives, and to not move unless a character was moving, and if it moved without a character moving, it was purposeful. And that only happens once.
About the New York of it all, I was thinking back on our obstacles. What got me through was that my whole family lives in Fort Green, Brooklyn — these past five years, my sisters and their families and my parents all lived in the same building. They would see André riding around on his bike, and he would stop and say “Hello” and give them an update on the film. Brooklyn is just that kind of place where it feels like a small town, and I love that.
So being able to put our cameras up in that same city and shoot there was just full circle and beautiful. I was just really excited to film the green of Brooklyn; when light hits the grass on the trees and the lawns of our parks there, it literally raises the serotonin in my body, so I wanted to give that to an audience watching this film and falling in love with these people, and perhaps seeing themselves in these people, but also feeling a level of peace while watching the romance.
André, was that your personal bike in the film?
Holland: That is, in fact, my real bike. I bought that bike in Paris when I first met Rachael on Zoom. I had it shipped back to New York; that’s my baby — I call her Clémentine. I don’t know why, she’s blue not orange, but that’s her name.
In terms of the obstacles, I feel like it’s important to just say that this is a wonderful, celebratory moment, and I am so grateful that we’re going to get to platform it this way, but it was a challenge. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done, by far. But there are so many people who showed up along the way to really support — and one of those people is Steven Soderbergh [who is an executive producer on the film]. He’s a person who puts his money where his mouth is and who, when we went to him, didn’t hesitate. He was like, “I see what you’re trying to do. I trust the team. Go make it.”
Without his support, I don’t know where we would be, but [Soderbergh is] just one. There were so many people along the way who were like, “You can shoot in our restaurant this afternoon” or friends who were like, “Come shoot in this bar. I know you lost the location yesterday, so we’re gonna figure it out.” So many people showed up. Our producing team, everybody in the cast worked on this because they believed in it, not because they were making any money, or because there was a promise of going to Sundance. This is icing on the cake.
What do you hope the future holds for “Love, Brooklyn” being able to make more movies like it?
Holder: We’re in a really interesting time now where people are excited to fund Black movies, so we can be specific about the Black movies that we want to make. I am excited about making more movies about sensitive, vulnerable, soft, Black people, who are emotional and okay. That juxtaposition feels simple, but it’s rare to see, and I’m just so proud of the vulnerability of our actors in this film.
Holland: I hope people dig the movie and appreciate the work that went into it. And I hope that we can find a real audience for this movie. I know that there is one — people want to see grown romance stories. I hope that folks show the business, the industry, the powers that be that we are here. I hope that the making of the movie also inspires other people to get a group of friends together, get a script, get a camera, go out and make something. I’m as excited about this as I have been about anything that I’ve ever been a part of.
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