If Black film drops and no one sees it, did it actually come out? André Holland wants Black indie films to get their props, and for that to be successful, the industry has got to try harder.
“It feels like we’re at a kind of tipping point in the business. If Black movies are gonna be a thing, we gotta get people out to see them, we gotta do a better job of like marketing to and incentivizing folks to come out,” he shared while talking with EBONY about his latest indie, Love, Brooklyn.
“My eyes have really been opened to how difficult it is to make, find distribution and market the movie. And when you’re working on movies with Black leads, sometimes it’s challenging to convince people that there’s value in those projects.”
Our part, as filmgoers, is to keep showing up, in droves. “So that next time, whether it be me making it or somebody else making it, it might be a little bit easier for them.”
Not only is he starring in the romantic dramedy, but he also came on as a producer to stand behind his words of doing better. “Without him and the doors he opened for us, we would not have made this movie,” declared Rachael Abigail Holder, Love, Brooklyn’s first-time director and EP. She reveled over having The Big Cigar star in a romantic vehicle. “I wanted to see André be in love in a full story. I wanted to see him be light on his feet and funny, and he wanted the same thing.”
In Love, Brooklyn, Holland plays Roger, a writer grappling with self-actualization. “When we meet him, he has written a piece that made a huge splash several years ago and put him on the map. Since then, he has been in a slump trying to figure out what he’s gonna produce next,” the actor shared. “He’s been given an assignment to write a puff piece. But he really doesn’t feel like it’s the right thing or ring true to who and where he is in his life.”
Roger’s also in a love conundrum between Casey, played by Nicole Beharie, a long-term love interest. “They’ve had a very chaotic and on-again, off-again kind of relationship.” And then there’s Nicole, played by DaWanda Wise, a single mom who lost her husband not long ago. “These three are trying to navigate the kind of complicated nature of modern-day romance,” Holland explained. “Dating in their thirties and early forties; it’s not always easy and cute, you know.”
Navigating Roger’s romantic hangups? Holland could relate.
“I’ve been in places where I’ve been confused about what I wanna do and not always been great about taking care of myself so that I can be, you know, fully present in a relationship,” he confessed. But he’s done the inner work and now, “I am seeing someone, which is nice.”
One love that isn’t in question in the film is for Brooklyn itself. Holland actually resides in the New York City borough. “To be honest with you, I don’t, I almost never go into Manhattan anymore,” he quipped.
That’s because spaces like Che on Malcolm X Boulevard and Milk and Pool in Bed Stuy keep community at the forefront. “We have everything: great restaurants—I was at Herbert Von King Park the other day watching some kids play baseball and was like, ‘Man, this is beautiful. Walking down the street and seeing folks playing spades, just hanging out outside on Sundays, and the way everybody speaks to each other…. I love that feeling of community that I get around here.”
Looks like this love story does have a happy ending.
Love, Brooklyn opens in theaters on September 5.
