There are so many moments that I
had to go back and look at and
just rewatch just to get
everything out of the scene.
>> Every day going to work and
being challenged and thoroughly
worn out when I would come home
and then so excited to come back
the next day and do it all over
again.
I think, for us, we really
approached it in such a sacred
way.
We knew this was actually a
mighty task to take on, and it
was our job to just do it
justice.
>> There's something here...
************
...that's trying to get out.
>> The fact that you could do
something set in the '50s, have
it be in 2020, and feel like
this is what it is, it's right
now, like today.
>> The fact that we're able to
have this as a piece of art, to
hold up as a mirror for us to
take a look at ourselves as a
nation and to see how things got
started, where we went wrong,
and how this still is affecting
us to this day -- it's good time
to be able to look at that.
>> Jurnee and Jonathan play
friends who embark on a road
trip across America in the '50s
to search for his missing father
and, along the way, face racial
terrors and actual monsters.
>> We're surrounded by monsters.
************
I'm doing this to protect us!
>> Jurnee Smollett --
>> Yeah.
>> A force.
Working alongside of her --
how beautiful was that?
>> You said "Force."
You know, we call -- She's
lightning, and I'm thunder.
>> That's my homeskillet,
you know?
[ Chuckles ] He was for sure the
thunder to my lightning.
>> I mean, she's dynamite,
you know?
She is an actress that will meet
you wherever you want to be
that day.
We were going places
emotionally.
You know, we were pushing our
bodies physically.
We'd say a quick prayer, you
know, and then get to work,
you know?
So, once you spiritually bound
yourself with somebody like
that, the artistic work is very
fruitful.
