Debbie Allen
You have to examine a scene on the page first. Then you get into the basics of acting: Who are you? Who are you talking to? How do you feel about that person?
We remembered how they dressed. Phylicia and I grew up in the South, so we could also relate to that part of the story.
We could have done this movie very differently had we shot on the streets of Harlem and taken a 40-day shooting schedule.
Time management is a big part of the director's job.
They had a clear idea about what I really wanted to see, based on our initial conversations, and they did a great job.
There's always a certain degree of physical attraction between people and the rest either happens or it doesn't.
There were some scenes where I took ten takes and there were some where I took one.
There was too much to absorb. So we had about an 8-day rehearsal, a lot for a movie of this nature.
There was no question about who should play Lou Bessie. Crystal Fox brought to the role something that was really needed.
There are some scenes that work beautifully in a moving, sweeping master, which is how I like to work.
Then you give your actors broad strokes based on what your idea is for what is going on in the room and the circumstances surrounding it.
The upside is that high-definition is a lot cheaper and a lot faster.
The screenwriter's role was very instrumental, because it's difficult to take a stage play and adapt it for the screen.
The riot isn't seen in the movie, but it is alluded to. He has this one speech that gives a great sense of texture and paints a picture of what was happening in Harlem then.
The radio for these women is like television is for us today, which is really like looking at the radio.
The production team's first meeting took place at my house. I had ideas and a color scheme in mind, how I wanted the movie to look, because that has to be a real collaboration.
The look of the movie has a kind a muted tone to it at first, and then we introduce color to it as we go along.
The first thing that goes into shooting a scene is understanding what's on the page.
The clothes back in those days were made so much better than clothes are today. They actually took time to make clothes to fit a woman's body. Today they make clothes that fit sizes, so it stretches to fit this and that.
The biggest challenge was that we had to shoot so quickly and with such a limited budget.