Up next in 10
Tamara Bass talks about her new film 'If Not Now Then When? on Sway In The Morning. Four friends, who met in high school and are bonded by an event, are suddenly forced back together when one of them suffers a crisis. It's a story of love, forgiveness and the incredible bond between women.
Subscribe Here! http://bit.ly/SubscribeSU
Watch the Best of Sway In The Morning! http://bit.ly/BestOfSITM
Check out More From Sway’s Universe
http://swaysuniverse.com
http://twitter.com/swaysuniverse
http://instagram.com/swaysuniverse
http://facebook.com/swaysuniverse
#TamaraBass #IfnotNowThenWhen #SwaysUniverse #SwayInTheMorning #SiriusXM #Shade45
About SWAY’s UNIVERSE
Exclusive interviews from Sway Calloway and the Sway In The Morning/ SwaysUniverse.com team with some of today's biggest celebrities, like Kevin Hart, Kanye West, Eminem, Usher, Jessica Alba, Steve Aoki, Torey Lanez, Julia Stiles and so much more.
Tamara Bass Talks New Drama 'If Not Now, When?' | SWAY’S UNIVERSE
https://youtu.be/QJ-T9-GTegk
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music]
0:04
wow
0:06
wow keep them applause going come on
0:09
keep them going
0:10
that's a excerpt from the movie if not
0:13
now
0:13
when it's out today it's out today on
0:17
demand
0:18
in digital come on
0:23
and it's starring my sister i'm gonna go
0:25
ahead and put it out there
0:27
damn it out there this is my sister
0:31
i will ride to the ends of the earth for
0:33
this woman
0:34
for how she for what she's done for me
0:37
in my lifetime
0:39
it all started in theater arts
0:44
he got a b.a in communication arts
0:48
born and raised in syracuse new york
0:53
done a lot of indy films belly fruit
0:59
letter to rose on the fugitive boston
1:02
public
1:03
any day now moisha sliders hunted
1:06
cedric the entertainer present and made
1:10
her film debut with baby boy with the
1:12
one and only iconic
1:14
john singleton tyrese gibson
1:19
we tease her we call her peanut because
1:21
she played his baby mama but
1:24
she's gone on to do so much more and all
1:26
along the time
1:27
all along the road she's been a writer
1:31
a producer a director a visionary
1:34
and she's here today to celebrate this
1:36
new film the one and only
1:38
tamara bass ladies and gentlemen
1:43
hey guys hey camera pass
1:49
big day for ut yes it is
1:53
look at you i'm so proud of you you did
1:55
not call me peanut
1:58
no no
2:01
that's what you be doing callaway yo
2:03
tamara what you doing
2:05
that's right tara show us his real songs
2:08
check this out you text me last night
2:10
and say hey are you gonna clown me
2:12
tomorrow
2:13
you touch it and i told you i said nah
2:16
we gon really get it we gonna talk about
2:18
this is a big moment for tamara because
2:21
to me tamara represents a lot of folks
2:24
out there a lot of voices out there
2:26
that may not have the resources when i
2:28
say resources i mean money
2:30
and the funding to bring a lot of their
2:32
visions to life
2:34
but got all the talent in the world got
2:36
more talent than a lot of the folks that
2:37
are out there
2:38
uh maybe that may have more marquee
2:41
projects and so
2:42
i learned a lot about the film industry
2:44
by watching
2:45
her growth uh since my daughters was
2:48
born i known tamra over 22 years
2:50
and so i saw the ins and outs and i just
2:53
think that is a story in itself
2:54
and then being a black woman navigating
2:57
through hollywood
2:58
and now become an executive producer a
3:01
director
3:02
and a writer of the film um i just think
3:06
it's time to stop joking and start
3:08
telling the truth tamron i ain't
3:10
clowning this morning this is this is
3:11
it that's right no and i i appreciate it
3:14
you're right you've been on this journey
3:16
with me
3:17
since the beginning and honestly
3:20
i thought about it this morning and i'm
3:22
like i don't
3:23
know if i would still be standing like
3:27
all jokes aside if it wasn't for you
3:30
there have been you know conversations
3:32
that you have talked me off the ledge
3:35
encouraged me when i was like i'm done i
3:37
give up i quit
3:39
you literally have spoken life back into
3:42
me like
3:42
every time i'm like oh i can i'm gonna
3:44
just throw in the towel
3:46
that you come through with a word to say
3:48
no i have to keep going you saw
3:51
more from me at times than i could have
3:54
ever seen for myself
3:55
so since you know i'm being being
3:58
honest and real and not our normal
4:01
brother-sister banter like i have to say
4:03
that to you like i honestly would not
4:07
be here having this conversation if
4:10
we didn't have all of the conversations
4:13
that we've had
4:14
over the last 22 years so thank you
4:17
well you know well you know you're very
4:19
welcome um
4:21
and it's been mutual um i've learned a
4:23
lot from you i learned about
4:26
you know i learned a lot about
4:27
resilience from you determination i knew
4:30
i know it's in you you're very talented
4:32
and i also
4:34
felt you know a little bit of um
4:35
sympathy
4:37
for you as a young black woman
4:39
navigating in hollywood and i just knew
4:41
that man this
4:42
is gonna be a hard road for her for her
4:46
to get to where she wants to go has
4:47
nothing to do with her her ability
4:49
you know can you speak to that like what
4:51
what has that
4:53
journey been like for you in hollywood
4:55
being a young black
4:57
director film writer um and producer
5:01
from the times we began from times you
5:04
started to now
5:06
it's it is hard is an understatement
5:09
i don't even know if they're that's the
5:11
there's the appropriate word like
5:13
sometimes i have to look in the mirror
5:15
and like am i really
5:16
a masochist like do i really want to
5:20
keep doing this because
5:21
it's it is you have to have resilience
5:25
like
5:25
it's crazy you learned that i was
5:27
resilient through this i learned
5:29
how resilient and i was through all of
5:31
this like i knew growing up
5:33
you know i was always thrown obstacles
5:35
because of the circumstances in which
5:37
you know my parents were young
5:39
my mom you know all the all of the the
5:42
trappings that society wants to throw at
5:44
you when you're
5:45
when you're raised by a young single mom
5:48
so i already had that strength inside of
5:50
me but to navigate
5:52
hollywood requires a different
5:56
level of detachment that
6:00
i camera don't necessarily possess
6:03
i am so passionate and i'm so
6:06
all-encompassing and
6:07
every i take everything personally i
6:09
don't know how not to
6:11
and you're i spent a good ten years
6:15
being told all of the things that i
6:18
wasn't
6:19
never the things that i was all of the
6:21
things that i wasn't i wasn't this
6:23
enough i wasn't bad enough i was too
6:25
much of this i wasn't enough of that
6:28
that takes a toll on anyone anyone's
6:31
psyche i think anyone that's not a
6:32
sociopath it takes a toll on you
6:35
so i learned one of two things
6:39
when i was young as a kid when i you
6:41
know first learning how to read first
6:42
learning how to tie your shoes
6:44
you can fold up and quit or you can keep
6:48
going until you get it so i chose the
6:51
latter
6:51
i didn't grow bitter you know yes i grew
6:54
disheartened and
6:56
i had some tough times along the way but
6:58
what i
6:59
didn't do was allow them them being
7:02
hollywood to take
7:05
from me what makes me me so
7:08
i'm not gonna not take things personal
7:10
i'm not gonna not
7:12
you know get it back up when you knock
7:15
me down that's who
7:16
i am and in taking that personal i was
7:18
able to say all right what can i do
7:21
to change this narrative oh i'm going to
7:23
create
7:24
and i'm not just going to create
7:25
opportunities for myself because i'm not
7:27
selfish like that i'm going to create
7:29
for all of black women as a big
7:31
f you to hollywood as a big
7:35
you you tried to erase me but here i am
7:38
and not only am i here i'm coming back
7:40
with a whole army
7:41
so that's you know that's what led me
7:44
here i mean i hope i answered your
7:46
question oh
7:47
man did you man i'm writing this down
7:49
i'm taking notes right now
7:52
i'm adding that some of that to my next
7:54
speech um
7:56
just give me a call writing credit i
7:57
just want to call ready credit oh
7:59
damn it damn it uh well thank you thank
8:02
you for sharing that and just
8:03
for the record um i'm actually a
8:06
producer on this film
8:07
yes you are yes indeed and i'm a music
8:11
supervisor
8:12
hb let's get it baby come on gotcha
8:15
he got his credit he got it
8:18
because all jokes aside wherever i go
8:22
you go like i don't you don't even need
8:24
to i just
8:25
hit you later like yo guess what like we
8:27
got this show sold
8:28
and you're uh you're a producer on it
8:30
you ain't even gonna know what show it
8:32
is because that's just
8:33
that's the level of our relationship
8:35
where i go where i go sway goes guys
8:37
just fyi
8:38
there it is man that's amazing i want to
8:41
say one more thing of that tracy and
8:42
have to
8:43
chime in because the movie itself is
8:45
incredible and it's a movie about four
8:47
friends black women
8:48
who grew up together and then they
8:50
experienced so many different
8:53
circumstances that i think everyday
8:55
people go through
8:56
and it's really interesting because i
8:58
get an inside look of what it must be
9:00
like
9:01
um or what it could be like from a black
9:03
woman's lens when it comes to
9:04
relationships
9:05
with each other as well as um with
9:08
others
9:09
this film you said you know this film
9:12
has been in the works for a long time
9:15
and and it finally got an investor i
9:18
want to shout out that investor
9:19
who stepped up to the plate wait wait
9:21
till you hear this heather go for it
9:24
i would like to shout out victor oladipo
9:27
he is ours he is our executive producer
9:31
um megan and i produced it but it would
9:34
not have gotten made without
9:36
victor and even deeper than that like
9:39
this is how
9:40
this man blessed us we give a pitch to
9:44
him
9:45
via facetime he's in the back seat of
9:48
his car
9:49
and halfway not even halfway through the
9:52
pitch
9:52
he stops us and he's like ladies ladies
9:54
ladies stop
9:56
he was like you all had me at black
9:58
women whatever you need
10:00
you got i'm here and that was
10:04
how the deal was done and he
10:08
it doesn't happen like that in hollywood
10:11
just fyi for everyone listening
10:13
it doesn't happen and it doesn't happen
10:15
with the level of control
10:17
that um megan and i
10:20
had to make this movie and it would not
10:24
be possible without
10:26
this man standing up and saying i see
10:29
y'all
10:30
and i want to support y'all so yes shout
10:32
out mr victor aladipo
10:34
yeah vic vic what up baby vic came up on
10:37
the show and sang for us a couple years
10:41
[Laughter]
10:44
it was funny to see him on the mad
10:45
singer too like he really
10:47
he really sings he sings like he's
10:50
like like that old school
10:52
rv too right so crazy
10:56
vic was trying to get on the soundtrack
10:58
i know what that was
11:02
music supervisor said not uh no
11:05
i would have loved to have him on but
11:06
i'm gonna let um heather and tracy ask
11:08
you some questions to it and um
11:10
go for it hb no man
11:13
tamara just congratulations against this
11:16
like
11:16
again it's so funny um you know
11:19
yesterday we had osland benjamin on the
11:21
show
11:22
and um another person that's blessed and
11:25
anointed
11:25
and and talks about that faith and that
11:28
spirit
11:29
and that fight and that taking things
11:31
personally
11:32
like i'm not one of those people that
11:33
believe in that whole statement
11:35
um it's business don't take it personal
11:37
i have a hard time
11:39
accepting that i i really do too so
11:42
thank you
11:42
for sharing that but it's just ironic
11:45
that you too
11:46
just connected with my spirit from the
11:48
first time sway introduced us to each
11:50
other and just
11:51
i'm always in your corner and i just
11:53
wanted you to to know that again and
11:55
hear that
11:56
i know sometimes i'll shoot you a random
11:57
text but i know
11:59
i was just thinking about that the
12:01
random text like maybe
12:03
what was it four years ago or something
12:05
i'm sick like go
12:06
i was going through it no one knew
12:09
and i get this random text from you like
12:12
i was just led to tell you to keep going
12:15
and that that you do not like
12:19
i can't express to you how much that
12:21
random text
12:22
in that moment meant to me like you we
12:26
hadn't talked
12:27
you didn't know you just told me to keep
12:30
going
12:31
and i was like okay truly noted i
12:34
receive it thank you god thank you god
12:35
for giving it to me through heather
12:38
let's keep it moving so yes
12:41
our spirits did connect this way i
12:44
appreciate you
12:45
and i appreciate you and that's all i
12:46
wanted to say i appreciate you
12:48
you're just one of those people sway and
12:51
i think you kind of said that when you
12:52
were introducing her
12:54
again to sway in the morning citizenship
12:57
she's just one of those people y'all
12:58
that if
13:00
if you have the opportunity to meet her
13:02
your spirits will connect
13:04
and i love you and i'm so happy for you
13:07
i can't wait to
13:07
tell you i love you too i received that
13:10
thank you
13:10
and she will act absolutely absolutely
13:13
ask you for free food too that's her
13:15
thing
13:16
oh do you know how mad i am about uh
13:19
corona
13:20
right now like i was thinking about that
13:22
i got like a year and a half of
13:25
meals
13:30
you know i'm trying to get to jersey
13:33
[Laughter]
13:42
let me tell you about tamara then we
13:44
gonna get to this movie i know we gotta
13:45
talk about this
13:47
i don't know what year it was i remember
13:49
exactly when i said it tamra you you
13:51
i'ma see if you remember it because you
13:53
came up to mtv you came to my office up
13:56
at mtv
13:57
and we were walking down the escalator
14:00
and i told you no matter what effective
14:02
when you first came one of those times
14:03
you first came when you first came to
14:04
new york and when you came back i don't
14:06
know
14:07
and i said no matter what you will
14:08
always have a meal
14:12
i told her that happened i would never
14:14
go hungry i would never be hungry
14:16
yeah and she ain't been hungry since as
14:18
long as i flew up
14:20
let me tell you something i flew to l.a
14:22
i think for a day
14:24
like hey i'm just i'm just letting you
14:25
know i'm just letting you know i landed
14:27
in l.a i got to go
14:28
though but you know but and she lived at
14:30
that time in pasadena
14:37
this might have been fake i got in
14:39
my car from glendale not pasadena
14:41
it drove all the way to pico
14:44
to get some food absolutely i did
14:48
i think i got in 20 minutes to meet you
14:50
and kelly to give me
14:52
some food i am not ashamed you got her a
14:55
plate of food and she left that's tamara
14:57
bass ladies and gentlemen
15:00
anyway guys hilarious play the food and
15:03
i said you drove this uh whatever man
15:05
this is her directorial debut ladies and
15:08
gentlemen
15:08
um god bless god bless
15:12
i'll let tracy get in before i hauled
15:14
this thing yes thank you very much
15:16
tamara i wish i hope that you can feel
15:19
the smile because if we were in the same
15:22
room together it would be so
15:24
wide i'm very very proud of you and
15:27
especially for
15:28
attacking this on three different planes
15:31
you know what i mean like sway said and
15:33
like you said
15:34
producer but also director but then also
15:37
starring in it triple threat to the next
15:40
level
15:40
and i'm wondering if you can share what
15:43
your mental approach is for each how it
15:47
varies
15:47
maybe even if it's just like the
15:49
self-talk how you pep yourself
15:51
up um but yeah please if you don't mind
15:54
sharing
15:55
no no at all um i think
15:58
once i finished this script and i knew
16:02
that we were
16:04
going um into production i just was able
16:07
to switch the hats
16:08
like okay the only way i know that this
16:11
movie is going to get done the way megan
16:13
and i want to do it
16:14
is if we take control so it was sitting
16:18
down with megan
16:18
and us coming up with a game plan and us
16:21
firmly
16:22
sticking to that and not compromising
16:25
our integrity
16:26
any step of the way it was like if we're
16:29
we're we're going to
16:31
fail which we knew was not possible
16:34
because you don't fail once you do
16:36
it there is no failure like you did it
16:38
and if it doesn't
16:39
work out you learn something so it's no
16:41
failure so we knew going in we could not
16:43
fail
16:44
but if we knew that in order for us to
16:46
get it done the way we wanted to do
16:47
we had to have as much control as
16:50
possible
16:51
so once we got that locked we knew we
16:54
were producing it we knew that our say
16:56
was going to be our say
16:58
when our original director
17:01
fell out because of the scheduling
17:03
conflict
17:05
we went back to our you know grassroots
17:07
plan of co-directing it
17:09
and said okay let's wear that hat so
17:12
through the process you know i was able
17:14
to compartmentalize like if
17:16
if we were in pre-production i wore the
17:19
producer
17:20
director hat because by that point my
17:23
writing hat was you know it's done
17:25
scriptures were ready to shoot so i was
17:26
able to like focus on that
17:29
things that you know i was i'm a problem
17:31
solver by nature
17:32
i am someone who can look at a picture
17:35
and figure out how to navigate around it
17:37
so those skills come in handy when
17:39
you're producing like producing is about
17:41
bs is about being creative but it's also
17:43
about
17:44
putting out fires along the way so just
17:47
reminding myself that i was built for
17:48
this
17:49
like i was built in the fire i i got
17:52
this
17:52
like there's nothing you can throw at me
17:54
that i can't figure out so
17:56
throw it at me so that was that was able
17:59
to
18:00
uh be tapped into when it came to
18:02
producing
18:03
as far as directing it was great on my
18:06
first feature out to have a co-director
18:09
you know just someone who we knew like
18:11
together we saw the same thing but
18:13
separately like we were also able to see
18:16
things that the other might have missed
18:18
so because we had all those hats
18:21
having a co-director was
18:24
just icing on the cake and then on top
18:27
of that when we step back we're like
18:28
wait we're making history here like it
18:30
has never been
18:31
a film made with two black women who
18:34
were co-directing
18:35
co-starring in it one of them wrote it
18:37
and they produced it together like it
18:39
just
18:40
hadn't been done so we
18:43
knew like we just kept reminding
18:45
ourselves of that like you know what
18:48
not only do we have each other and we're
18:50
knocking this down and we got this
18:52
but we're showing little black girls and
18:54
little girls in general
18:56
everywhere that you too can do this
18:58
despite
18:59
everyone telling you it's impossible you
19:01
can do this so that was
19:03
another motivation to keep us on track
19:06
like no it's not just for us
19:08
like we got to do this for them we got
19:11
to do this for
19:12
my niece that's sitting at home watching
19:14
and for
19:15
my 22 year old god daughter that's just
19:18
graduated from college like we got to do
19:20
it
19:21
for those people to show like everyone
19:24
else is going to be stacked against you
19:25
the world is going to tell you that what
19:27
you're trying to do is impossible
19:28
because that's just
19:29
the negativity of the world but now
19:32
we're here to show you that it can be
19:34
done so
19:34
those keeping that in mind
19:38
allowed me to wear those hats and juggle
19:40
them effortlessly and i'm
19:42
i'm good at multitasking too like i
19:45
actually like multitasking if i had just
19:47
played i'm a little nervous so all of
19:50
that you know just worked in my favor
19:52
and here we are wow
19:57
i'm just wondering like i think your
20:00
journey uh should be documented what's
20:03
happened behind the scenes
20:06
you know to get to this point because
20:08
even you talking about
20:09
these different roles and you haven't
20:11
even gotten nuanced on it
20:13
i think it's a lot of filmmakers out
20:14
here a lot of indie filmmakers a lot of
20:17
got a lot of great ideas a lot of great
20:19
vision
20:20
it's going you know a lot of times it
20:21
takes a long time you know and folks
20:24
they do not know you know what to hold
20:27
on to what to believe in what direction
20:29
to go and just listening to your story
20:32
if there's any indie filmmakers who are
20:34
tuned in right now trying to figure out
20:36
how to get this thing off the ground how
20:38
do i get my project
20:40
to the public in the best way possible
20:42
like tamara has been through it
20:45
all i i have been through it all
20:49
to get to this point and what's giving
20:52
your social
20:53
give people your social because i want
20:55
you to reach out to her directly too
20:57
what's your social
20:58
media do you have social media yeah i
21:00
have well i have face
21:01
i have not facebook because i don't know
21:03
facebook i have twitter and instagram
21:06
um at msmizz
21:10
tamara bath um and i'm active on both
21:13
like i
21:13
am especially on sundays because you
21:15
know football but right now it's
21:17
playoffs so
21:18
but i'm active on twitter and instagram
21:21
um but yeah it's you're right i've been
21:24
through
21:26
a lot i often have people say well you
21:27
don't look like what you've been through
21:29
and i'm like that's nothing but god i
21:31
don't know how to i don't know what to
21:32
tell you
21:33
hey nothing but god because i should
21:36
look like i
21:37
i i guess this is what i'm supposed to
21:39
do but no it's
21:40
um it hasn't been easy
21:44
and it hasn't what the one thing i would
21:46
always i love to tell people is
21:50
you plant these seeds and you have to
21:52
just
21:53
trust that you've planted them and you
21:55
keep moving
21:56
because you don't know when that that
21:59
seed is going to grow you don't know
22:01
when it's going to bloom you don't know
22:02
when it's going to come to fruition
22:04
everything that is happening right now
22:07
if not now when
22:08
um also i directed a movie for
22:12
tv one that's coming out i think next
22:14
month called don't waste your pretty
22:16
um i did that during quarantine i was
22:18
like oh my gosh and now i'm um
22:20
and i'm about to fly to canada for a
22:24
film that i wrote
22:25
that for a lifetime i'm leaving to go be
22:28
on set for that
22:30
and um and i'm currently like
22:33
shooting i mean pitching a pilot with me
22:35
and deborah joy winans
22:37
all of those were seeds that were
22:40
planted
22:42
years ago and that i would you know time
22:44
that i would be like well
22:45
you know crying to sway over things not
22:49
working out
22:50
and you gently reminded me like just
22:52
keep doing the work
22:54
just keep doing the work this movie i
22:57
directed
22:58
for tv one that was a seed i planted in
23:01
2013.
23:03
it didn't bloom until 2020. the
23:06
movie i wrote for lifetime again a seed
23:09
i planted in 2013
23:10
did not bloom into 2020. the move
23:14
the tv show that i'm currently pitching
23:16
again
23:17
a seed that was planted four years ago
23:20
that is just now coming to fruition
23:22
so it's it's keeping
23:25
moving forward even if you don't
23:28
feel like there's any progress because
23:31
it's like that that that meme that we
23:34
see where it's like the person is
23:35
pushing
23:36
a rock through a cave and you don't
23:38
realize like you're very much at the end
23:40
but you want to turn around
23:41
because you don't you don't see the end
23:43
in sight you don't know that if you just
23:45
keep going it's literally right there
23:48
and i'm in that right and it i'm still
23:51
got a ways to go
23:52
like i'm still coming to get free meals
23:54
from sway don't get it
23:57
damn it it was still seeds that
24:01
had i quit or had i thrown in the tail
24:05
when i heard every single no that you
24:08
can think possible
24:09
that i've heard know in so many
24:11
different ways like some
24:12
ways that would break people if they
24:15
actually
24:16
knew the things that were said to me
24:19
that
24:20
had i believed them or had i stopped or
24:22
had i
24:23
not had people in my corner saying
24:26
screw that you got this you are talented
24:29
you got what it takes
24:30
all the difference between me and
24:32
someone else who is just as equally
24:34
talented is
24:35
i don't quit so
24:38
throw me what you want but i'm not gonna
24:40
quit i'm not gonna throw it in i'm not
24:42
gonna give up because
24:43
you think i should no i'ma keep going
24:45
because i know what god called me to be
24:48
and whether or not you see it you can't
24:51
take away
24:52
what i am boom so just keep going
24:56
wow camera damn and it's don't waste
24:59
your pretty
25:00
based off of um demetrius based off of
25:02
demetria lucas's book
25:04
um and it stars carrie hilson
25:08
deborah joy whinan and rhetoric williams
25:11
and it was a dream even if i had to take
25:14
a cover test every other day
25:16
we had a ball like
25:19
that those three i mean we have an
25:21
amazing cast but those are my three
25:23
leads and we never had a dull moment on
25:26
set
25:27
because they just made it fun and i'm
25:29
like this is something i
25:30
asked for years ago and wow someone's
25:33
paying me to come
25:34
okay i got this all right this is fun
25:37
but again a seed i planted in 2013.
25:40
when when was the if not now when seed
25:43
planted
25:44
that's what we're talking about the
25:46
first one i wrote the first
25:48
honestly i wrote the first draft of this
25:51
movie
25:53
18 years ago there you go
25:56
and i put it down kept trying to do
26:00
other things
26:01
and then about five six no six years ago
26:05
i pulled it back out and i did what's
26:08
called a page one rewrite so i
26:10
just you know took the concept went back
26:12
to page one
26:14
did a whole rewrite that was 2014
26:18
going into 15 i think i
26:21
sent it to megan and megan you know
26:24
is notorious for like taking forever to
26:26
read so and i'm notorious for thinking
26:28
the negative
26:29
so i'm like oh my god she hates it she
26:30
doesn't want to read like all that
26:32
she calls me and she's like this is it
26:34
this is the movie we gotta do we got
26:36
something to say here
26:37
so we spent from 2015
26:43
until we shot over the summer of 18
26:47
trying to get funding for it we went
26:50
we you know we tried to do the studio
26:52
route but people kept saying you know
26:54
the writing is great but we're just not
26:56
making movies like this
26:58
read black women in a drama that you
27:02
know of course you know it's not your
27:04
trauma porn so they
27:07
they were like uh no we love the writing
27:09
but no
27:11
then you know we we're going we want to
27:14
try to do another route
27:15
and people are like yeah we love it but
27:17
can you do this and this and this to the
27:19
script or we had literally one person
27:21
say to us can you add like you know a
27:24
sassy like sister girl moment
27:27
that also told me that you're not the
27:28
place for us so we heard a lot we
27:32
first we heard a bunch of no's then we
27:34
said a bunch of no's
27:36
and everyone was looking at us like wait
27:37
you guys are actually saying
27:39
no because you don't want to change x y
27:41
and z
27:42
yes because changing x y and z means we
27:45
are now compromising
27:46
the integrity of our project just to get
27:49
it done
27:51
nah we're not doing that nope and then
27:54
eventually that led us to victor
27:58
and victor gave us the yes and we didn't
28:01
have to compromise anything
28:04
yeah it is man come on i want to um i
28:07
know we're going to have megan on the
28:09
show next week
28:10
so i'm going to save some for her um
28:13
i love some you know
28:17
i want you though i want you to
28:21
ask megan a really good question about
28:23
this whole
28:24
it could be about this project you know
28:26
this journey in this project
28:28
if you had a chance to ask megan good a
28:31
question and he was on my side of the
28:33
of the mic what would that question be
28:36
oh my gosh okay i had a
28:44
i'm gonna play it back for her so let me
28:46
okay i would ask her because this is
28:48
something that we have
28:49
i don't think we we just had this joint
28:51
interview and we didn't ask this
28:53
what was the most challenging
28:56
aspect of making this movie that you
28:59
didn't think would be challenging going
29:01
in
29:03
there you go bam there you go megan
29:06
answer that megan that's good okay
29:10
and so now let me throw that same
29:12
question back at you
29:17
wow okay challenging
29:21
aspect honestly
29:24
with sometimes in the beginning
29:29
getting the respect of certain
29:33
how do i say this politically correct
29:35
getting the respect
29:36
of certain people that i hired
29:41
because they looked at us as
29:44
first time filmmakers and you're women
29:47
i remember having to pull and anybody
29:50
that knows me
29:52
knows um i might be little
29:56
but um i pack a mean punch
29:59
so what you're not gonna do is a ever
30:02
disrespect me and think that it's gonna
30:03
be okay
30:05
so i remember having to pull someone
30:07
aside
30:08
and saying to them like after you know
30:11
repeatedly
30:12
being asked to you know asking them to
30:15
do something
30:16
aka your job and it not being done
30:20
correctly i had to pull them aside and
30:23
say okay
30:24
hold up let me not let me remind you of
30:27
one thing and i did it in a respectful
30:29
way i did it just like this
30:30
let me remind you one thing i put this
30:34
whole thing together
30:35
from the bottom up and i can do
30:38
everyone's job on this set but you can't
30:40
do my job
30:41
so when i ask you to do something
30:44
i expect for it to get done in the
30:47
manner in which
30:49
i asked for it to be done so if you
30:52
if you don't i need you then to remember
30:55
that not only did i put this together
30:57
but i am also
30:58
one of the smartest people on this step
31:02
so the person literally said to me
31:06
yeah you are smart too smart for your
31:09
own good
31:11
so that just gave me the crux of the
31:13
problem i
31:14
got it i'm not only am i smart but i'm a
31:17
woman and i intimidate you
31:18
okay but guess what i still sign your
31:20
paycheck so
31:22
as i said i'm gonna need you to do x y
31:25
and z and i didn't expect that going
31:28
there
31:29
i thought oh this is all gonna be love
31:31
you know
31:32
daddy nah we had a bunch of that in the
31:34
beginning and once we
31:35
nicked that in the bud it was smooth
31:38
sailing
31:39
so yeah it was difficult
31:42
a little bit at first so i'll be
31:43
interested to see what her response is
31:47
okay that's what's up man me meet tamara
31:50
bass if you don't know who she
31:51
is get to know her now follow her at
31:54
miss
31:55
m-i-z-z tamara t-a-m-a-r-a bass
31:59
like largemouth b-a-s-s largemouth or
32:02
striper but
32:03
not no not just a striped bass but the
32:05
largemouth bass
32:06
the largemouth bass is the one you want
32:08
to catch um
32:10
these scenarios in this in this in this
32:14
movie
32:15
you know you got interracial
32:16
relationships you got a a strained
32:19
relationship between a mother and a
32:21
daughter
32:22
you got you know heterosexual
32:24
relationships the relationship between
32:25
the women
32:26
in general um what made you want to tell
32:29
these stories
32:30
why you wanted the world to see these
32:32
stories i wanted the world to see a
32:35
representative of what my life is like
32:38
um there is there was a lack of of
32:41
movies that starred black women
32:44
that were telling universal stories that
32:46
were drama
32:47
you know it's like i said it wasn't your
32:50
typical
32:51
you know arising from the bottom
32:54
and all that stuff it was a story just
32:56
about
32:57
women and what they go through and so i
32:59
wanted to touch on topics that
33:02
a are conversations that i'm having
33:04
within my friend group
33:06
and b that i know these are
33:07
conversations that are being had
33:09
in living rooms across the world amongst
33:12
women
33:13
and even amongst men and i wanted to put
33:16
black faces with that to normalize our
33:19
existence
33:20
we are not some outlier we don't you
33:22
know
33:23
just have these stereotypical
33:25
upbringings that the media wants to keep
33:28
perpetuating so i wanted to show
33:30
something different
33:31
at the same time that i wrote a love
33:34
letter to my friends
33:35
that i honored our sisterhood that i
33:38
honored the relationships that are in my
33:40
life
33:40
so i felt like if it wasn't being done
33:44
instead of complaining about it i'll
33:46
just do it myself
33:48
and these were topics that i
33:51
knew for a fact were being
33:54
discussed there's someone in my friend
33:56
group who has dealt with infidelity
33:58
there's someone in my friend group who
33:59
has dealt with infertility
34:01
there's someone in my friend group who
34:03
is in an interracial relationship
34:05
friend group who has dealt with
34:06
addiction so everything
34:08
that i write upon is is
34:12
accurate to my life
34:15
tamara bass love you i'm so proud of you
34:19
yes i got i got another credit on my
34:22
imdb
34:23
come on man
34:29
i got two credits and give up my man
34:32
purvis taylor too
34:33
purvis uh who he and i
34:37
you know he did a lot of that footwork
34:39
yeah man he did the footwork all i did
34:41
was say hey man can we get this song
34:43
yeah purpose is on you so
34:47
he did a lot of the footwork moomoo
34:49
fresh is featured on the um soundtrack
34:51
as well we got
34:53
moomoo got him we got this and then her
34:55
son kills it so yeah she is featuring
34:58
yeah we got kalani on it uh
35:02
we got gawapole uh we got we got maya
35:07
i can't i can't remember all the folks
35:09
estelle
35:11
you know got a nice soundtrack coming
35:16
yeah come on tamara
35:20
yes is out today how are you celebrating
35:23
if not now when it's out today on demand
35:25
in digital how are you celebrating
35:28
i am you know what i'm chilling i am
35:31
breathing taking it in
35:32
and then i'm packing so i can leave for
35:35
toronto
35:36
on sunday and quarantined absolutely i'm
35:39
proud of you
35:40
megan congratulations to making good you
35:43
guys have been working on this for a
35:44
while
35:44
hopefully we can talk with megan next
35:46
week but thank you tamra love you and
35:47
i'll call you later i love you
35:49
okay bye guys all right take care tamara
35:52
bass if not now when citizens please
35:54
support check it out it's on demand
36:00
[Music]
36:10
[Music]
#Arts & Entertainment