The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster

theblerdgurl Podcast with Karama Horne

In this episode I speak with writer Director Bomani J. Story about his new film “The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster”. A new horror film out in theaters June 9 and headed to streaming service Shudder. The indie horror film is a remix of on Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” and follows a teenaged genius named Vicaria. Who, after her brother’s murder, decides she’s going to find a cure – for death.

Now, I’m not going to lie, this is absolutely a horror movie about Black trauma. However, the bloodletting just for “trauma porn”, instead the entire film serves as a metaphor within the horror genre as a commentary on the effects of intergenerational trauma. BAFTA Award winning actress Laya DeLeon Hayes (God of War: Ragnarok, The Equalizer) is incredible in this film alongside Chad L. Coleman, (The Walking Dead, From) and Denzel Whitaker (Black Panther).

There are some mild spoilers in this interview. So if you want to see it fresh, go watch the movie and then come back and check out this interview

The Angry Black girl and Her Monster is out now in select theaters and headed to Shudder

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Show Notes:

• Bomani Instagram
• Film Instagram
• Movie Website
• Fix your Credit with Self
• Pop Paranormal
• TBG Patreon

Transcript

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00:00:00:00 - 00:00:07:07

Karama

so, Bomani, welcome. I'm so excited to talk to you about this film.

00:00:07:07 - 00:00:14:24

Karama

And as all the little moments of horror that I like. But then there's also like an underlying theme,

00:00:14:24 - 00:00:24:18

Karama

let's start with where this came from. What was the inspiration for this film and when did you find time to write this?

00:00:24:20 - 00:00:45:15

Bomani

You know, I mean, starts starts with the literature, man. Like, I love the book. I'm a huge, huge fan of the book. And I just felt like they were leaving a lot of stuff from the book on the floor. And I wanted to not only do that, but also recapture the focus because a lot of people focus on the monster.

00:00:45:17 - 00:01:04:19

Bomani

And I wanted to bring it back to, you know, the story is about Frankenstein, Rise and fall, you know, the mad scientist. So I wanted to bring that back. And on top of that, I wanted I grew up with two older sisters who, you know, mentored me my whole life, what I love and adore. And I use them as my muse for this.

00:01:04:19 - 00:01:08:15

Bomani

So you mix all that and out comes this.

00:01:08:17 - 00:01:17:13

Karama

So, okay, so I got two questions for you. Seven From that by book you mean Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, right? Because it's a bunch of Frankenstein that Oh, yeah.

00:01:17:15 - 00:01:18:21

Bomani

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

00:01:18:21 - 00:01:40:11

Karama

To make sure everybody else. And I don't know how your sisters feel, but I'm the oldest and my brothers are younger, and I don't know how I feel. If they wrote a movie about me chopping people up and trying to turn the neighborhood into monsters. So did you get along with your sister?

00:01:40:13 - 00:01:45:15

Bomani

No, I got along with my sisters, you know, I mean, obviously as siblings. So, you know, there's going to be dust ups, but.

00:01:45:20 - 00:01:47:24

Karama

It's going to be ill because.

00:01:48:01 - 00:01:48:24

Bomani

Yeah, yeah.

00:01:49:00 - 00:01:52:11

Bomani

But no, we we all love each other. We're Gucci. Yeah, that's.

00:01:52:12 - 00:01:53:24

Karama

Actually, speaking to that,

00:01:53:24 - 00:02:00:22

Karama

were there moments that you actually wrote things in the script for Vicaria to say they were like, pulled right out of your life?

00:02:00:24 - 00:02:06:20

Bomani

Yes, absolutely. They're record right out of their mouths. You know,

00:02:06:20 - 00:02:07:00

Bomani

some.

00:02:07:00 - 00:02:10:05

Bomani

Of the parts are more like.

00:02:10:07 - 00:02:15:22

Bomani

More obvious to them of just like, oh, I remember saying that, you know, But other.

00:02:15:22 - 00:02:17:06

Karama

Parts are quite like that.

00:02:17:11 - 00:02:19:09

Bomani

Yeah. I was like, yeah, well, one of them's.

00:02:19:09 - 00:02:21:09

Bomani

Exactly what she said.

00:02:21:09 - 00:02:30:16

Bomani

And then there are other moments where, you know, they they don't know. So it's like there's Easter eggs on top of Easter eggs for four people in here.

00:02:30:16 - 00:02:34:21

Bomani

And even for my sisters, you know, specifically for them,

00:02:34:21 - 00:02:39:17

Bomani

don't tell them, like you just have to watch it again. And then you can you can see it for yourself.

00:02:39:17 - 00:02:57:24

Karama

well, I'm thinking of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. I'm thinking of Victor Frankenstein being been very wealthy. You know, I come from a wealthy family, just wants to experiment and it sort of feels guilty for what he's done later. But Victoria is not wealthy. Her her. She's a different kind of relationship with death.

00:02:58:05 - 00:03:00:15

Karama

Can you go into that a little bit?

00:03:00:17 - 00:03:14:17

Bomani

No. Yeah. I mean, I just always kind of saw it as like she was someone who was going to put this together. Like I wanted her to be an actual an actual genius, an actual inventor.

00:03:14:17 - 00:03:22:11

Bomani

I never saw it as someone who, like, how many multibillionaires are actually just like, inventing things.

00:03:22:13 - 00:03:34:06

Bomani

You know, to me it's just like, hey, there are you know, there might be some. But as far as my knowledge of the people I like, you know, it's just like they're they're genius comes from being able to, like, invest in pay off. Like, you know, it's like, exactly.

00:03:34:08 - 00:03:38:00

Karama

You know, those Easter eggs. You have a couple in there about Edison. I was like.

00:03:38:02 - 00:03:40:01

Bomani

Yes, I.

00:03:40:01 - 00:03:48:16

Karama

Feel I feel the same way kind of about Bill Gates. I'm like, did he really invent all the things? Yeah. Did he just pay for all the places where all the low income people invented that?

00:03:48:19 - 00:03:54:20

Bomani

Yeah, you know what I mean? It's just like the people who are actually, like, building a chair is a carpenter.

00:03:54:22 - 00:03:56:05

Bomani

Right? Not a.

00:03:56:05 - 00:04:19:19

Bomani

Business owner. It's a carpenter. Right. And so to me, she, like, she needed to put this together. So to me she need to have all these elements, right? So it was important to me for it to look like, you know, she scavenged these things. But like, you can't stop the spark, you know? I mean, the first car looks nothing like what it looks like today, but it was put together a certain way, you know, with the means that they had.

00:04:19:21 - 00:04:32:24

Bomani

So to me, that's like that was really important to me to kind of capture how her and genius works. Because to me, that's what that's the element of genius that I feel like people forget like of where it's coming from.

00:04:33:01 - 00:04:53:04

Karama

Yeah, no, absolutely. And she is a genius. And you show her actually in her something. How sectors relate to being the only black girl in the all white class. Oh, my God. All right. We had all kinds of buttons. But is but that that feeling of otherness and that feeling of being foreign and you are a monster to them because they don't understand you.

00:04:53:09 - 00:04:55:02

Karama

And don't be a smart black girl.

00:04:55:04 - 00:04:58:17

Bomani

Oh, it hurts my sisters.

00:04:58:17 - 00:05:00:21

Karama

Did your sisters help you with some of those lines, too?

00:05:01:01 - 00:05:02:03

Bomani

Oh.

00:05:02:05 - 00:05:05:14

Bomani

I mean, that scene in the school is directly what happened to one of my sisters.

00:05:05:15 - 00:05:06:13

Bomani

Oh, wow.

00:05:06:14 - 00:05:28:22

Bomani

Yeah. You know, it's like it's kind of a it's a legendary story around our dinner table, you know, that, like, keeps comes up every once in a while. It's like a greatest hits, you know? So. Yeah, no, like, um, as I said, it was like I was, I was musing after them and, like, and they thought when stuff would happen, they would think maybe I wasn't listening, but I'm always listening.

00:05:28:24 - 00:05:32:00

Karama

The younger brothers are always, listen, you got to be careful what you say in front of them.

00:05:32:02 - 00:05:32:09

Bomani

Yeah.

00:05:32:14 - 00:05:34:17

Karama

My younger brothers are twins. I had it.

00:05:34:19 - 00:05:36:21

Bomani

Worse.

00:05:36:23 - 00:05:43:13

Karama

They they still kicking my ass. So I just want to corroborate something. This is your first.

00:05:43:13 - 00:05:46:05

Bomani

So your first?

00:05:46:07 - 00:05:47:01

Bomani

Yeah.

00:05:47:03 - 00:05:54:23

Karama

I'm just checking because I'm just going to run off the cast a little bit. Leah Gillette, Jillian Hayes and Hayes.

00:05:54:23 - 00:05:55:11

Bomani

You?

00:05:55:13 - 00:06:12:18

Karama

Denzel Whitaker. Chad Coleman. Okay, so we got some heavy hitters here for your first time out of the gate. How does that feel when you saw the cast list, when you saw the cast accepting these roles?

00:06:12:20 - 00:06:42:16

Bomani

Man, it just made me feel like I was like, wow, Like they're responding, right? Like they they're enjoying this stuff. Right? And like, that was that was phenomenal to me. Like, it just felt so gratifying, you know, throughout this filmmaking process. Like, it's it's a tough thing to get a film off the ground and get it made. But like every there's certain moments that that pay off, you know, whether it's the first time, you know, the producers coming in like, oh, we actually are interested and think we can make this happen, you know?

00:06:42:16 - 00:06:52:02

Bomani

And it's just like, Oh, awesome. Like, and then cast, you know, when someone like reads for and then they're like, No, I actually want this part and then they sign on. You're just like,

00:06:52:02 - 00:06:58:10

Bomani

Like, you know, it's just like, it's like a payoff of just like, what's the word I'm looking for? Like, gratification.

00:06:58:10 - 00:06:59:20

Bomani

But what? Like an.

00:06:59:22 - 00:07:08:23

Karama

Occasion? I mean, they are basically signing off on your work. Yeah. The story is you do? Yeah. That must be very validating.

00:07:09:00 - 00:07:17:15

Bomani

Yeah. No, it was. That's the. The word I was looking for. Validation. Yeah. It's like it just validates your thoughts because along for a long time it's just you and the script.

00:07:17:15 - 00:07:24:12

Karama

you're, you know, to start hearing that table read, did you let the actors improv a little bit? Did they bring other things to the characters?

00:07:24:14 - 00:07:45:03

Bomani

Of course. I mean, honestly, the whole crew and the actors. I told them as soon as we got to Charlotte when we were filming, I just let everybody know. I was like, Look, if we capture exactly what's on the script and we have failed, you know, so we need to I was like, This is our blueprint. And that's not to say that you should just throw the script away.

00:07:45:03 - 00:07:48:11

Bomani

And that's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is, is that, for instance,

00:07:48:11 - 00:08:02:15

Bomani

When you watch The Shining and you separate Jack Nicholson from that role, you know, you separating a lot, right? Like, you know, it's just like, I can't say that you see that on the page of Jack Nicholson's character, you know?

00:08:02:15 - 00:08:24:13

Bomani

So to me, like, that's what that's what we all need to be trying to achieve. I'm not saying we need to all be as good as Jack Nicholson said We need to be achieving to elevate the script as much as we can to bring that script to life, you know? So that was just my approach. So they of course, there were lines that they, you know, improved and did stuff like, you know,

00:08:24:13 - 00:08:38:08

Bomani

Aisha and Jada, you know, like, and Riley and Amani who play those roles. There was a lot of stuff that they improved. And did, you know, a whole alphabet scene of her saying the letters? That's her. And she made that like, yeah, So.

00:08:38:08 - 00:08:42:05

Karama

Wow, that's that's actually incredible. What were there other moments in there that you were like,

00:08:42:05 - 00:08:44:03

Karama

Please tell me we got that.

00:08:44:03 - 00:08:50:03

Bomani

Yeah. No, I mean, you know, not a spoiler alert. I hope you put that in, like, the kind, you know, like.

00:08:50:03 - 00:08:52:14

Bomani

Like for not, like, years, but, like.

00:08:52:16 - 00:08:53:08

Karama

Spoiler.

00:08:53:08 - 00:09:12:03

Bomani

I like spoilers, but, you know, during that dinner table scene, when he runs rampant with that, you know, with racket busters or whatever it was, I think like in the script it was just one. But once he connects it to the whole family, like that was them just being all the actors, being in the moment and, and wanting to go with it.

00:09:12:05 - 00:09:47:17

Bomani

I like they, they brought such incredible stuff to this movie and like, I always try to leave myself open for that kind of stuff, you know, because a lot of beauty happens, you know, it's just like there's certain things in the script that you just, you know, you're just not going to be able to get, you know, said or you can't see like something as small as during the teacher scene, starting with the Conference of Victoria, just like smirking at the teacher as like kind of like a Q you know, to me and like.

00:09:47:19 - 00:09:48:06

Bomani

You know, was like.

00:09:48:11 - 00:09:55:09

Karama

Because she knows she's smarter than her and for her to function like, how are you teaching me like that. Yeah. I got from, you know.

00:09:55:15 - 00:09:56:03

Bomani

Yeah.

00:09:56:03 - 00:09:56:17

Karama

Now

00:09:56:17 - 00:10:05:12

Karama

tell me about funny moments on the scene because I heard a rumor that Leah has an aversion to blood like that.

00:10:05:14 - 00:10:09:24

Bomani

How did that work?

00:10:10:01 - 00:10:10:18

Bomani

You know,

00:10:10:18 - 00:10:18:24

Bomani

she taught me something really profoundly valuable during that moment of the art of collaboration with somebody.

00:10:18:24 - 00:10:19:24

Bomani

Because

00:10:19:24 - 00:10:24:21

Bomani

during her, you know, softball, I was just like, you know, gory moments, You know, the ones I'm talking about.

00:10:24:23 - 00:10:25:15

Bomani

Yeah.

00:10:25:17 - 00:10:29:21

Karama

You know, this is a horror movie. Yeah. I've got to tell you.

00:10:29:24 - 00:10:32:24

Bomani

Yeah, yeah. Blood. Yeah. But the particular moment.

00:10:32:24 - 00:10:56:10

Bomani

I'm talking about. Yeah, yeah. You know, she, you know, I was those moments are very exciting for me. For her, she's, like, squeamish and not necessarily into that kind of thing. And in any other circumstance, usually people will just be like, they'll reject it, you know, like, I don't want to do this. And you know what I mean?

00:10:56:10 - 00:11:21:09

Bomani

And it's like, which is your right, you know, to to be like that. But for Leah, she saw how much I was into it, and she was like, well, listen, this isn't necessarily my thing, but I like how much you're into this and I'm going to back you, right? Like, I was like, I may not understand it, but I believe what you're doing here.

00:11:21:11 - 00:11:24:15

Bomani

And I was like, so and so she just dived in, right?

00:11:24:15 - 00:11:28:18

Bomani

like even if I don't understand necessarily what's going on,

00:11:28:18 - 00:11:35:02

Bomani

like you're having such like it, like it's sobering, so much joy to, you know, like I'm, yeah, I am with you on it, you know?

00:11:35:02 - 00:11:39:11

Bomani

So instead of rejecting, she just doubled down and went in, which.

00:11:39:11 - 00:11:46:07

Karama

Was a testament to her as an actress to yes like yeah, when I heard that I was like but that saying though.

00:11:46:12 - 00:11:49:01

Bomani

Yeah. Yeah.

00:11:49:01 - 00:11:52:10

Karama

I would never have known. Look at that. Yeah.

00:11:52:10 - 00:12:07:20

Karama

Let's talk about seems a little bit she looks at death as a disease, but her entire life has been sort of filled with these violent moments of people taken too soon.

00:12:07:22 - 00:12:18:05

Karama

And she looks at, you know, gun violence, drugs, things like that, as all the same disease of death. Is it that

00:12:18:05 - 00:12:28:22

Karama

she misunderstands life or that just life has not been kind to her and that's why she sort of stunted their.

00:12:28:24 - 00:12:35:10

Bomani

I think the car is a very I think she's obviously very smart. But I also think

00:12:35:10 - 00:13:05:05

Bomani

I mean, she has her flaws and I think she has her blind spots, which I think is shown in that dinner scene in the event that they have. I think that's definitely a blind spot for her, you know, and I don't think she acknowledges other elements that might be going on, which is, I think, one of the fatal flaws of just pure ambition and tunnel vision is you might not see things outside of that, you know.

00:13:05:07 - 00:13:14:04

Bomani

So to me, I think she's working through her. She's working through her grief, through her science

00:13:14:04 - 00:13:27:22

Bomani

I think, like I said, she has some blank spots because she's so tunnel visioned on on this and hasn't had a chance to really let all these things out that she's that she's experiencing.

00:13:27:22 - 00:13:48:16

Karama

I just keep thinking of Tananarive Due said this I think in Black horror said many times black trauma is black horror that sometimes that's part of our life. Yeah. And so we deal with trauma. You know, very differently. And when I look at for career, I kind of I kind of see that.

00:13:48:18 - 00:14:01:15

Karama

But then there are also shades of other things. Know there's the shades of Tamir Rice, there's shades of other real life things that have happened, you know, in this past decade. Yeah.

00:14:01:15 - 00:14:04:01

Karama

How did you navigate that in the script?

00:14:04:01 - 00:14:36:14

Bomani

I mean, it's like, you know, dealing with black trauma and stuff like that in movies. Like I, I hear the criticism of why people, you know, are just like, I don't want to see that stuff. You know? You know, it's like and I think there's but to me, in order to I don't want to put my head in the sand for one, you know, I don't think just, you know, completely rejecting it is or and not doing it whatsoever is the is the it's a way you know, it's the only way.

00:14:36:16 - 00:14:45:08

Bomani

Right. And I don't know, for me just always trying to stay true to the humanity of the characters

00:14:45:08 - 00:14:59:09

Bomani

is always going to be my my way because I think that that's just the fundamentals of great not only storytelling, but also respecting, you know, your audience's wishes. Right? Like, like.

00:14:59:11 - 00:15:03:21

Karama

But it's that's just that also, I think some trauma, like there's no way out but through.

00:15:04:02 - 00:15:04:12

Bomani

Sure.

00:15:04:17 - 00:15:17:09

Karama

And you said she's she's grieving. Yeah one of the one of the stages of grief is anger. Yeah. And I must say she's got a little bit of anger attached.

00:15:17:14 - 00:15:18:21

Bomani

Yeah. You know.

00:15:18:23 - 00:15:46:01

Karama

Like, I wanted the thing I wanted for recovery was therapy. Yeah. And I just, like, I need baby girl to lay on a couch. But she didn't. She did an amazing job. Yeah. Let's also talk about the. The metaphor of the monster. Kristen. Yeah, I it's not lost on me that not just the way he died, and that's not a spoiler, you know?

00:15:46:03 - 00:16:04:22

Karama

This is a monster, and he's dead. The movie is. Yeah, but he there is a moment where he, as a black man in a hoodie, is lying there saying, Am I the monster? And that is so layered.

00:16:04:24 - 00:16:05:15

Bomani

Yeah.

00:16:05:17 - 00:16:15:11

Karama

I'm curious. When you wrote that line, was that did you write that early on and try and build a story around it, or did you did you naturally end up there?

00:16:15:13 - 00:16:17:13

Bomani

Yeah. I mean.

00:16:17:15 - 00:16:25:08

Bomani

I it was one of the during it was one of the last things that came, you know, because

00:16:25:08 - 00:16:42:20

Bomani

similar to like the title of the movie, like it wasn't what I started with, you know, it's like it's kind of where I what came out and I'm realizing about my process as I learned, you know, about how I do things like I like to get the bulk of it down, like the story, the characters and like going through it.

00:16:42:20 - 00:16:46:00

Bomani

And then you fall on these moments of just

00:16:46:00 - 00:17:13:02

Bomani

realization and truth. Where's someone where you can kind of distill it into one moment, right? And I think that is like, that's how it kind of came apart, you know, such as when I was writing. And then just like the innocence and the confusion of of this man, you know, and the question, you know, it's like, you know, obviously does back to who called him a monster, right?

00:17:13:02 - 00:17:18:03

Bomani

to me at least the most horrific theme for this movie, I think, is just

00:17:18:03 - 00:17:22:05

Bomani

people believing what someone else tells them about themselves.

00:17:22:07 - 00:17:22:21

Bomani

Right.

00:17:22:21 - 00:17:41:17

Bomani

something as simple as you just saying mid-stream like you're stupid, right? If you believe that you don't have enough. So confidence or whatever it might be to defend yourself for that, but you believe it, it's like it will change the trajectory of your life. You no longer think like, Oh, well, if I'm stupid, I can't really get into college.

00:17:41:17 - 00:17:51:00

Bomani

So what's the point of applying? Applying, right. I'll leave this to other people, you know, I mean, it's just like you start doing that stuff. So and I think that's very horrifying.

00:17:51:02 - 00:17:53:19

Karama

That is that is the true horror

00:17:53:19 - 00:18:06:10

Karama

I know. You mentioned, obviously, the inspiration of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, but I have a feeling that you may have watched the Re-Animator a couple times.

00:18:06:12 - 00:18:10:09

Bomani

Because am.

00:18:10:10 - 00:18:14:24

Karama

I like that or have you seen that movie?

00:18:15:01 - 00:18:21:07

Bomani

I I've definitely seen Re-Animator I have seen Re-Animator. Yeah.

00:18:21:09 - 00:18:30:08

Karama

Because there's a little bit of Herbert of Herbert West in this. I'm not going to give away why I think that is, but I was like, Yeah, I can see it.

00:18:30:10 - 00:18:31:15

Bomani

Yeah.

00:18:31:17 - 00:18:42:16

Karama

Are there other films and other moments or other? It doesn't even have to be film books or TV or anything else like that that inspired some of the moments in this film.

00:18:42:18 - 00:18:43:05

Bomani

Yeah,

00:18:43:05 - 00:19:00:03

Bomani

there's a bunch of nods and you know, Big one will be Aronofsky's the Fountain, you know, He says, Death is in there. And like, I love that movie. So this was my almost Aronofsky's The Fountain. And you know, there's a lot of stuff you I was like, I'll give one more.

00:19:00:03 - 00:19:12:24

Bomani

That's like, it's not obscure, but like, I don't think you'll find it if you're not looking for it. And it's from menace to society. When he says, You know, you're fucked up right?

00:19:13:01 - 00:19:15:20

Bomani

Yeah, that's funny. Yeah, that's good though.

00:19:16:21 - 00:19:24:02

Bomani

Yeah, there's a lot in here that like, you know, that I felt like only I would see. But other people have called me on it and I'm like, Oh, you're pretty good.

00:19:24:02 - 00:19:25:02

Bomani

You know this.

00:19:25:06 - 00:19:32:02

Karama

It's going to be fun for you when this drops, you know, world wide for you to hear all of those little. I see this. I see that.

00:19:32:06 - 00:19:33:16

Bomani

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:19:33:16 - 00:19:39:01

Karama

you've mentioned one of the themes that is that people should not believe everything that

00:19:39:01 - 00:19:40:04

Karama

people always tell them

00:19:40:04 - 00:19:49:20

Karama

what is another theme that you would say even for Victoria, for black women that you would say is coming out of this film?

00:19:49:22 - 00:19:55:00

Bomani

You know, I don't want to spend too much time kind of like telling people how.

00:19:55:00 - 00:20:02:16

Bomani

What they should be taken from it in us. Like because it's a it's an emotional journey, you know, And I think that like,

00:20:02:16 - 00:20:06:03

Bomani

you know, I think black men are smart enough to.

00:20:06:05 - 00:20:08:09

Bomani

The camps are all those things I need to it's not a.

00:20:08:09 - 00:20:11:06

Karama

Gotcha. I'm that's No, no, no. I know I'm wrong.

00:20:11:08 - 00:20:12:24

Bomani

I know. I know. But it's just like.

00:20:13:05 - 00:20:43:19

Bomani

I treasure the the relation ship between a movie and its audience because you walk away with certain things that are yours. And like, sometimes like a filmmaker, like myself or whatever, will give things away in a kind of, you know, dispels like, then it's no longer yours to have anymore. And I want to make sure I treasure that, you know, it's like I have my, my thoughts about Victoria's character and things of that nature.

00:20:43:19 - 00:21:07:23

Bomani

But as far as like takeaways, I really I'm really hoping that audiences will walk away with with some kind of engagement and thoughts, you know, about what it means. And, you know, her decisions even down to, you know, without spoilers, just like her decision of what she does at the end of the movie, you know, and what it is for for for black women as a culture and us as a culture.

00:21:07:23 - 00:21:14:08

Bomani

On her decisions to do that, you know, So it's like I think that there's a lot there to be explored.

00:21:14:10 - 00:21:15:09

Bomani

That's my problem.

00:21:15:11 - 00:21:19:06

Karama

No, no, that's very smart. You it's funny, I think of, you know, the singer SEAL.

00:21:19:08 - 00:21:19:21

Bomani

Mm hmm.

00:21:19:23 - 00:21:33:15

Karama

Years ago, he said he's never, ever put liner notes in any of his albums. Mm hmm. Like, other people have done it, But he's never done it because he said whatever you heard when you first started, the song is what the song is. I don't want to tell.

00:21:33:18 - 00:21:35:09

Bomani

You.

00:21:35:11 - 00:21:41:04

Karama

What that words should have been. Yeah. So if you thought he said kiss on the nose, that's what you heard.

00:21:41:06 - 00:21:42:15

Bomani

Yeah, I guess. You know.

00:21:42:17 - 00:21:45:04

Karama

That's just too hard. That's your. That's your.

00:21:45:04 - 00:21:47:06

Bomani

Moment. Yeah. Yeah, I.

00:21:47:06 - 00:21:54:03

Karama

Think. I think that's. I think that's brilliant. Speaking of that end scene, are you looking to do a follow.

00:21:54:03 - 00:21:55:19

Bomani

Up movie ever?

00:21:55:21 - 00:22:00:24

Karama

And how long would that title be?

00:22:01:01 - 00:22:05:21

Bomani

You know, there's a couple of things that's that's always going to be a mixture of a bunch of things of whether

00:22:05:21 - 00:22:06:15

Bomani

for one,

00:22:06:15 - 00:22:20:04

Bomani

if I feel the story is there, you know, if we feel the story is there, and if speaking to us, we feel like there's more to go, you know, And then of course, you know, and then on top of that, if people show up on June 9th.

00:22:20:06 - 00:22:22:02

Bomani

In theaters to see the movie.

00:22:22:07 - 00:22:40:08

Bomani

And there's a demand for that, you know, then then I think, you know, it's just like, you know, we can always see. But to me, it always starts with, is there more to say? You know, I do like endings like that. One of my heroes is Billy Wilder, and a lot of his movies end with these crazy moments.

00:22:40:08 - 00:22:59:18

Bomani

You know, I always think of some Like It Hot, where he's like, Nobody's perfect, you know, And they ride off into the sunset. It's just like, you know, of course, there could be a sequel to that. But does there need to be writers? It's like it's a fun, open way to engage with the fans and keep your brain going, you know, for after the movie.

00:22:59:20 - 00:23:03:01

Bomani

But yeah, that's my long way of around.

00:23:03:01 - 00:23:07:00

Karama

That of not answering that question. I love that, though. I love that you get a great

00:23:07:00 - 00:23:27:23

Karama

Definitely, definitely. Go check out every black girl and her monster subtitled, Listen to Black Women. Yeah, And I. I'm so excited that I got a chance to talk to my niece. This is an actual I honestly see this like winning more awards and stuff. I want you get all the money because I really need to know what happens next.

00:23:27:23 - 00:23:32:20

Karama

I have a need. And when you do that, when you have to come back on. And so we can.

00:23:32:22 - 00:23:35:23

Bomani

We can discuss.

00:23:36:00 - 00:23:51:04

Bomani

No, man, please. Like you want to see that. Then let's drive the audiences to the theaters to see this movie. You know what I mean? Like, let's get them there June 9th and honestly, it was a it was a pleasure to be on here with you, man. You you do your business. You do your business.

00:23:51:06 - 00:23:53:24

Karama

Thank you very, very much. I appreciate it.

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