The Breakfast Club - INTERVIEW: R.T. Thorne & Danielle Deadwyler On Black Storytelling, Independence, '40 Acres' Film + More

Episode Date: September 9, 2025

Today on The Breakfast Club,  R.T. Thorne & Danielle Deadwyler On Black Storytelling, Independence, '40 Acres' Film. Listen For More!YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakfastClubPower1051FMSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. I'm Hunter, host of Hunting for Answers on the Black Effect Podcast Network. Join me every weekday as I share bite-sized stories of missing and murdered black women and girls in America. Stories like Erica Hunt. A young mother vanished without a trace after a family gathering on 4th of July weekend, 2016. No goodbyes, no clues, just gone. Listen to Hunting for Answers every weekday on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

Hi, my name is Enya Yumanzoor. And I'm Drew Phillips. And we run a podcast called Emergency Intercom. If you're a crime junkie and you love crimes, we're not the podcast for you. But if you have unmedicated ADHD... Oh my God, perfect. And want to hear people with mental illness, psychobabble. Yes, yes.

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We're all finished or y'all is done. Morning, everybody. It's DJ NV. Jess Hilary. Shalamey, the guy. We are the Breakfast Club. Lawla Rosa is here. as well. We got some special guests in the building. Yes, indeed. We have Danielle

Deadweiler. Welcome. Good morning. And we have Artie Thorne. Welcome, brother. Thank you. How are you feeling this morning? How are y'all feeling this morning? Beautiful. Really great. We're happy to be together. Yeah. You know, I know y'all here to talk about 40 acres, but I got to tell you, phenomenal job until. Yes. A phenomenal job until. I always wondered about that role because it tells one of history's most painful stories. How did you prepare emotionally? for that role?

The way I prepare for anything, it's rigorous research. I just grew up in Atlanta, and so the civil rights community in Atlanta has reared me. I did volunteerism with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference as a kid went to Cascade Unite Methodist Church, which Dr. Reverend Lowry, who partnered with Dr. Martin Luther King during that, you know, pivotal time. You know, those are people who are critical in defining my life and understanding of society and community. And so all of that kind of like that intuitive personal history as well as, you know, academic knowledge and history about that the era went into creating that role and just staying rigorous with the relationships with Chinoya who directed it and the family. and just it's been such a palpable thing for me once you tap into a role like that like

playing the mother of Emmett Till how do you get that out of you like how do you just go back you don't right no no anything that that is visceral like that that stays with you it's a wound a scar of sorts and you walk with it and I mean that's that's the beauty of it right like I get to talk about this all the time I get to talk the history of the work and how it's supposed to have this residual effect this kind of echo and it'll be in conversation with any work that I do moving forward. So I'm curating in that capacity. I wanted to go back, if you don't mind.

I wanted to, what made you want to be an actress? Like, what was the thing? What did you see on television? What play did you go see? What did your mom instill? You said, this is what I want to do. It's just been in my life. I've been acting and performing since I was a child.

My mom made sure that myself and my siblings were always a part of arts-oriented things. Atlanta, Black Atlanta, Black Arts, Atlanta in the 80s is just pivotal, right? So I started in dance and naturally segued into theater through critical cultural markers in the city, Total Dance Theater, Gary Harrison Studios, Saw Jamondi Productions all the time. I grew up as a Kenny Leon's True Colors Theater Company, young artists.

So this has just been, which it should be right for children. It should be for people in general. The arts is just a part of our lives. It came a critical moment after academic pursuits that, oh, I'm missing something, and I had to return. And so one of the first things that I did when I was making the professional return was for color girls and Jasmine Guy directed it. And so it just wished from there.

This is a question for both of y'all, right? Because going back to the Till thing a little bit, but also talking about 48thes, what did Till teach you about the responsibility of storytelling? I don't know if Till taught me that responsibility. I think it's just always been present. our history is integral our history is is is just it's a it's a brilliant thing that's a part of everything that I do everything that we do and and which is the way that it works in 40 right like she is teaching the children not just about how to survive but how to synthesize history

with culture, with agriculture, with, you know, all of the qualities of life. It's a spherical thing. Everything is connected. Yeah, their roots of survival in the film. It's not just rooted in, you know, they can kick some ass. Yeah, they got military might. But the important thing is that it's rooted in their preservation of their culture.

You know what I mean? That's also surviving for them. And it's very much, that's why in the film it's like you see the family, they're all about their culture, their history, like the book reports that she gets them to, you have to know yourself as you're surviving as you're moving forward because you're the only ones that are going to do that.

It's, you know, the language that they have, you know what I mean? Galen, the father's passing down his language. The agricultural practices, it's all rooted in their history, and that's how this family is truly surviving in the future. And yet they're truly joyful, right?

Just sitting down, telling stories why she's doing their? hair or the games at dinner time like critical things that people talk about that they don't necessarily get anymore like let's just sit down and be a family and and play and enjoy each other like those things are are what people are fighting for yeah in a time right now where like so many of our spaces and like the things that you guys are talking about passing on like our stories or history are being like quieted by by certain people creating this film for you guys how did you pick and choose what you wanted to teach us through it?

Because we learned so much, but there was so much we need to know in order to be able to preserve our history at this point. I mean, for me, yeah, for me, it honestly, it came very organically. It really wasn't like choices. It was just like, you know, my mother, you know, the echo of the relationship in the film between Haley and Manny

is like, it's an echo of me and my mother. and, you know, she came to Canada as a Trinidadian immigrant, you know what I mean? And she, you know, as much as people love to think that Canada is like this, you know, bastion of like, you know, racial, whatever. It wasn't in the 70s, you know what I'm saying? So when she came here, it was very much like she experienced a lot of discrimination. And she was like, you have to be prepared for this world. And from the jump, my mom was like, I don't trust these institutions to teach you your

history. So you're going to do book reports. Why are you going to school? Why are you doing whatever? You're going to do book reports. You're going to learn some culture. You're going to read, you know what I'm saying? You're going to read parable. You're going to, you know, so all of those things were directly from my life that I just, I gave to Haley to pass down to her children. You know what I mean? And just that, that understanding of who you are will preserve you as we move forward. Because as they try to erase us, we are the only ones that are going to keep our stories prevalent and important to our, to our descendants. Now, you tell a lot of stories.

Canadian directors tell a lot of stories. You started with music videos. Why is the Canadian eye so good at telling those music videos, which goes to television, which goes to film? Why is that eye? Because we can name a list of Canadian directors. Yeah, you know, I don't know. That's a real good question because I think I took my influences from some of the greats,

some hype Williams, you know what I mean. And I know you're talking about the legacy of director X, you know what I mean? But I think Canada has a very interesting perspective. We're very close to y'all. And our culture is heavily influenced by America, but we're very sort of diverse. And there's people from all over the world that come to Canada. And in Canada, you bring your culture,

And you keep your culture. And we celebrate people's culture. So the influences come from all over the place. And we look at it the world in a way. And so, you know, we're picking and choosing different things. And so the influences come from all those places. And I think that's why that, in a way, we can kind of pull from everybody, you know, yeah. Was it difficult for people to take you serious because you came from music videos?

Was that difficult? that's interesting I never really looked at it like that I mean honestly it's like you know anything's a hustle you know and and you and you pour your heart into something and I expect challenges you know and I expect I expect to be able to have to prove things to people that's just that's just part of when you go with your heart into something that's just something that you have to do so I never really looked at it like that I didn't feel that way and and I think coming from Canada I was just like you know what my voice is as equally as important as everybody else's voices.

And the story that I want to tell is equally as important as that. So I'm just going to go out there and do it. I think it's also just doing your thing. Yeah. Right? Like you segue it into television and this is his first feature. And so you just, I think it's just being sticituative and making it freaking happen. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Being good at it. And being good at it, right? RTI, how do you balance creating entertainment but also have the deeper messages in it? I think, again, it's just something that's organic to me. you know, coming from the history that I just talked about with my mother and stuff, like that stuff is in me where I realize the importance of it because of what she instilled in us. So I want to make sure that, you know, it's reflective of that, knowing that our history

and things should in, they shouldn't be infused in what we do to make sure that we get a, I get a chance to tell a story, I'm going to make a count, I'm going to make it, you know what mean like I'm not wasting it but at the same time I grew up on Spielberg and you know what I'm saying Spike Lee and and and James Cameron you know so I'm a comic book nerd you know what I mean so I grew up on X-Men you know so and these things were entertaining so I'm like well I want to do both I want to entertain and then I want you to I want you to walk away I want you to take the movie home with you I want you to walk away thinking about it the next couple of days you know I want you to want you to want to talk

about it with people you know there's a lot of films out here you know people are craving that I feel there's a wave happening right now you know what I mean people are craving original stuff that they're tired of seeing such and such and such four and five you know what I mean like you know and you see you see you see you know Ryan Kula coming with sinners you know you see you know even Zach Kregor with the weapons movie you know it's just like people are interested in give me something different It's very frustrating though.

Yeah. Because that should have always been the way in Hollywood. Because whenever you see the things that really pop off and break through, it's really something new. I'd never had seen Game of Thrones before, right? You know what I mean? It's the things, of course, sinners, but I've never seen those type of things. I never understood why Hollywood didn't want to be original.

Like it was a time where originality seemed to be like, I don't want to take a risk on that. Yeah. I'm going to go with what's considered safe, another superhero movie. It's turning to theme parks, right? It's just like, this is for everybody. come on the ride you've seen it before you know what it is

so come pay your money for it and I don't know I mean there's something to serial I think the serial framework is interesting to people I just think that there isn't that era is shifting there is a great level of fatigue

and the world is wanting something that is more rupturous something fresh something that is more political or a deeply personal and just more queered and strange and weird. Those kinds of things have always been in the framework.

It's just about those things rising to the surface for folks. Do you feel like you get presented like nothing but dark roles? No, not at all. Okay. I have a slate of madness coming from. The last three things I've done have been straight up comedy. dark grounded slap sticky kind of like I get the gamut and I am curating for that I mean we're not there is no one dimensionality ever you know I and I'm interdisciplinary in all of the work that I do you do you do

do that on purpose because you don't want to be like typecast as the person you can't who typecast me I get to I'm creating I am working with a team of people who know who I am at my core I'm building from my inner world and I select accordingly you know and When you say that, you mean you're also creating projects, too, that put you in different lives? Because I know your EP on this project. Yes, yes, yes, developing works. I'm in a performance art realm. I'm in an experimental film realm.

Things take time to come out, right? Like a project could develop over the course of two to five years or more or whatnot. But I am intentionally circling a lot of different genres because I want us to be witnessed in all kinds of life. Everything that I do will not be the lovable woman, right? Everything that I do will not be the villain. However, everything in that spectrum, the full range of that is my interest. I've heard you referred to as a multidisciplinary artist. Yeah, what's that mean?

I mean, just multiple inter between, moving between worlds. We all do sometimes, you know, folks, because of capitalism in a certain kind of way, laying you. but you can veer off I mean it's just don't hit no other cars in the midst of doing it you know what I mean

now you spoke about the movie a little bit but how did y'all connect and what made you say this is what I wanted to do oh that man hit me with a letter and I was just at a pivotal

moment where I was connecting to land particularly my farmland my family's legacy in Athens Georgia and he he sent that letter if the pandemic didn't happen

and the strikes didn't happen. Not in the pandemic, but the strikes wouldn't have happened. I don't know what would have occurred. But he sent a beautiful letter. So he wrote it to your house. No, not to my house. He said it to my people.

I was it outside the house. I was it outside the house? Yeah, no. That would have been peculiar. But he sent the letter and I read it and I read the script. And then the time flipped for the industry and I just, I was endeared to it.

He got, what is it, the joints. Because no one could do films at the time. Oh, yeah, we got a waiver. A waiver. Yeah, there's a sagged strike going on. So we got a waiver for that. And it was just serendipitous that it happened. And we shot it up in north of Toronto.

Yeah. In like, that was trippy because it was, we were, we were two weeks away from camera. And me and her had that conversation on the phone. We finally did it. Two weeks away from camera. So we were moving forward. with production regardless regardless because we had to be because we were the farm up up up north is a specific time when corn could grow and that was it so we were barreling forward and just

hoping that you know she would jump on and so wait a minute so if she didn't jump on it was somebody else so what happened to that person without saying the name so she's in the wing waiting to go and then you'd be like excuse me uh i'm gonna let you know we didn't we didn't have nobody oh really i'm gonna tell you right now you was gonna put on the way you can do it I don't, you know, look, that's an alternate universe, you know, this is the universe that we're in right now. So I just, I just, I just, I just had, I just had this feeling, man. I just had this feeling like, you know, I've been following Daniel's career for a long time. And I just, I just felt she was just the absolute perfect person to ground this film in like that sense of family and community and reality.

And like, so I just, I was just, and I was praying every night, you know what I'm saying? You pray hard. The movie starts off with stating that the farmland is the most valuable resource due to the circumstances. How true is that in our present day condition? I still think that. I still think that's absolutely true. It is, it is. It's been true.

Land is everything. Absolutely. I mean, food is critical right now, the economics of it. Like, who is able to pay. for what, who has access to what, the freshest food or not, whether it's genetically modified or not. Who knows how to actually grow food? And, I mean, our tea delved into this because during the pandemic, what was happening?

Yeah, we couldn't, we, the grocery stores around my place, I couldn't even get fresh fruit, couldn't even get fresh vegetables, you know? It's like, it was scarce. And it really, at that time, my wife and I were, I'm thinking, I'm about to have this child, my little boy. And they're like, do I actually know how to grow food? If I cannot get this, if this fragile thing that we call, you know what I mean, falls apart. Do I know how to actually grow things and provide?

So it was. I know how to hunt. Yeah. Do I know how to survive? Do I know how to survive? And so it became very real during that time. And that's very much infused into the script. That's really, you know, the heart of it. It's like when all this stuff that they say is taking care of us, whether it is or not is a debate as well, do we know how to take care of ourselves?

Did you learn? Oh, yeah. Okay. Oh, yeah. And there's a lot of that in there, you know, there's the three sisters is sort of an indigenous practice of growing corn and squash and beans together because they serve each other throughout the year. And so you'll see some of that stuff. It's not explicitly talked about, but there's a garden where they're actually working that garden.

You know what I mean? So I did so much research and brought that into the film. And Michael Grayeyes. And Michael Grayeyes. The great Michael Grayhouse plays Galen. So much knowledge. Yeah. The film talks, or is very loud about black women or black mothers

fighting for their families, protecting their families to the end. And I think that's always a conversation with black women about like how protecting and nurturing we can be. But what do you want black women to take away from this film about how to protect and take care of themselves in order to take care of the family? That's so appropriate because in one of the scenes, Galen talks about her deserving reprieve and that kind of joy and release and we've, I mean, over the slate of films that I have done, which is the assumption that, you know, I do things that are trauma driven or. you know, just black women in complete nerd of turmoil. I think that there's a diversity of things emotionally that are happening, and we deserve to explore the other emotions, just as much.

I don't think that it's a take your hands off and completely live in other soft era life. That's, that's, sure, one would love that, but I don't think that struggle is ever, there's never an end mark to it. My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly, and now I'm seriously suspicious. Well, wait a minute, Sam, maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, it's back to school week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, my boyfriend has been hanging out with his young professor a lot. He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't trust her.

Now, he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone. Now, hold up. Isn't that against school policy? That sounds totally inappropriate. Well, according to this person, this is her boyfriend's former professor, and they're the same age. And it's even more likely that they're cheating. He insists there's nothing between them. I mean, do you believe him?

Well, he's certainly trying to get this person to believe him because he now wants them both to meet. So, do we find out if this person's boyfriend really cheated with his professor or not? To hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Hunter, host of Hunting for Answers on the Black Effect Podcast Network. Join me every weekday as I share bite-sized stories of missing and murdered black women and girls in America. There are several ways we can all do better at protecting black women. My contribution is shining a light on our missing sisters and amplifying their disregarded stories.

Stories like Tamika Anderson. As she drove toward Galvez, she was in contact with several people, talking on the phone as she made her way to what should have been a routine transaction. But Tamika never bought the car. And she never returned home that day. one podcast one mission save our girls join the search as we explore the chilling cases of missing and murdered black women and girls listen to hunting for answers every weekday on the black effect podcast network i heart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcast hi my name is enya yumanzoor and i'm drew phillips and we run a podcast called emergency intercom If you're a crime junkie and you love crimes, we're not the podcast for you.

But if you have unmedicated ADHD... Oh my God, perfect. And want to hear people with mental illness, psychobabble. Yes, yes. Then Emergency Intercom is the podcast for you. Open your free IHeartRadio app. Search Emergency Intercom and listen now. I'm Marcus Grant.

And I'm Michael Fiorio. And together we host the NFL Fantasy. Football Podcast. Fantasy season is here and the question is, are you ready to dominate your league? Because if you're not locked in with us, the NFL fantasy football podcast, you're already playing from behind. Every episode, we're breaking down the biggest fantasy headlines. Injury updates you need before kickoff. And matchups you can exploit to bury your competition. We're talking sleeper picks, breakout stars, and the players you can't afford to bench. Whether it's rookies making noise or veterans keeping their value, we cover it all.

Whether you're drafting for the first time or chasing another championship. We'll give you the edge, the insight, and the confidence to make every move count. Weekly analysis, hot takes, and insider knowledge all in one place. So what's it going to be? Another just okay season? Or total fantasy domination? Listen to the NFL fantasy football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You know, just like healing isn't.

There's no end. There's no, there's no, this is the death, this is it, you've made it. It's continuous. And so I think there is, it is a continuous effort to, to diversify the manner in which you distribute labor. To encourage others to have a greater independence and autonomy in the way that they move through the world. And just, and giving that over and still doing our work for ourselves. I was going to ask you when numbers are concerned

everybody looks at box office when it comes to the movies that doesn't necessarily say how successful a movie is but for some people it does how does that affect mind frame when you're doing these type of movies I mean I'm not in Hollywood

so I'm independent filmmaking you know what I mean so that's not what defines it for me you know and money comes and goes so I think about legacy and I think about telling a story that's going to stay with people. Like I said, I want to make a film, you take home, you walk with it in your head.

And to me, that means the most important thing. And if it's there and people talk about it, you know, independent film, lifeblood is word of mouth. That's how independent film has always been. So people start talking about it. They spread it and other people find it. And, you know, that's a beautiful thing when that happened. So I don't mind that.

you know like look um you know on on other projects it may be the benchmark and that's cool you're doing something with the studio that's cool sure but with this it's just about does this film resonate and stay with the people and does it spread and make people think that's the most important thing for me but you're an independent film maker so you still going to need funding fair so how do you you know get these people to continue to fund this great work that you're doing if it's not an ROI well i'll say this like i think for this being my first film the important thing is to is to let them know that i got a voice and this is what i'm interested in saying and i think people understand in the movie business they understand you know this was independent

this was in backed by a studio didn't have a promo budget you know normal studio pictures have a budget equal to their budget to promote the thing that's right so people understand that and they go cool he's got a voice, hopefully, God willing, they want to work with me. And then, you know, that other money part, that'll come when the bank comes, you know what I mean? So that's... And films are made at different budgetary levels. Yeah. And I think people can be, I just think people can connect to film in all kinds of ways

and stretch out the lifeblood of it. So Till is having a conversation. Every time I go to London, they're interested. They're having a conversation about what? was okay so then that connects to how are the how they thematically connected to 40 right and you can see stuff on certain streaming where the lifeblood of it extends and is exacerbated in a certain kind of way because it it registers for a particular moment digital has just done something else for life right like when it hits a streamer it it can it's a light in a completely different

fashion and so that enables the the residual nature of a thing to live in a in a greater way yeah And so I think that that's critical for indie filmmaking. And I think that there will be new manners in which for folks to be connected to a thing and so that it can live extensively. In the same way that we think about, you know, visual or fine art, right? Like we should be having a conversation about works across the board. It's not going to fizzle out just because it's not in the theater anymore. It's not fizzling out just because, you know, the digital frame has,

has closed, it's never closed. Everything's always open. So keep connecting the dots and just, you know, build from there. Do you think great work is sometimes pointed because I even think about like Till, right? Like they talk about, you know, Till got snubbed by the Oscars and they talked about, you know,

Till might have suffered from wokeness fatigue. And, you know, they were saying it was a boxoff at this point. They were saying all of these different things in regards to this just great body of work. Do you think that that can play a role into it, too? Uh-uh. Why don't know I listening to that? What's the snub?

We're having continuous conversation about the work, about the themes, about, you know, you're dealing with it in the frame, right, on the computer, in the theater, wherever you're watching it. And then people are connecting to it outside. They just, you know, August was just here. You know, I just talked to Ms. Devere, who helps. who runs the the Emmett Till Foundation they're having continuous

you know conversation about it this is since 1955 you know and so you know extending what this means to think about survival I don't know when 40 takes place but 40 is in the dystopic future which feels very like now

and so just the ability to bring this end of the spectrum to this end of the spectrum that's what's happening you know it's not there's no snubbing. Snubbing isn't possible if we are creating something and we are creating the conversation around it. I know when the snub happened, I don't want to get her name wrong, but the director of Till.

Chinoya. Yeah, Chinoya. She had posted on her Instagram. It wasn't directly in response, but the timing, people took it as a response where she talked about how Hollywood, you know, treats black women horribly and they push this white male stereotype. Do you feel like that's changing, has changed since the snub? I know you don't care about the stuff, but has that changed in the work that you're doing or do you think it will change?

I think that we have always been present creating the significant works for ourselves. The funding may not look the same. The ubiquity of it and the marketing of it may not look the same. But there are plenty of black women and a variety of other people of color, joining the fold, of making the stuff that we want to see. there is no true idea of us like not being able to push

you know towards the center we are the center period right and should there be more support yes but you can't you can't hold down what's already you know

that's real moving up moving that's dope how do y'all see storytelling is a tool for social transformation that's like the are going to be very important to us moving forward, especially with them just taking history out of everything. Always been, always has been, you know,

it's a foundation of, like, as we're talking about, of our history and inspiring the future, you know what I mean? It's vital, you know, and for people to see things and reintroduce them to ideas that maybe they don't, that's the important thing. It's like as a younger generation comes out, they don't have to fight the trials and tribulations. They're like, my mother had to fight.

I didn't have to fight some of those things. But it's important to make sure that people understand them because they don't understand it. Then they're coming out with a certain sense of ignorance to the world and may not think that certain things are present, you know, and racism and discrimination. The isms are there, whether you recognize them or not, they're there. So I think it's vital for art to keep speaking from our perspective

so that it's like, oh, no, you've got to know how to handle these things for future generations. It's vital. No, it's just a beautiful poetic looping, right? I remember doing this, it wasn't technically a play. It was like a dance exhibition that was called Women Hold Up Half the Sky, right? as a kid with Total Dance Theater. And I learned about four little girls in that piece.

And then there was also this poem from Nikki Giovanni in the piece. Capitola Williams delivered that hard. And then that makes me connect to, okay, then I'm doing till, right? Like these stories, these fragments jump, you know, between us, right? And oh, okay, Nikki Giovanni, she loved Tupac, right? And so then Tupac raps about this and then this. You are to find the fragment and then expand upon it. I think that it's not just in the art, right?

The art that whatever it is that you connected to, whether it's in hip-hop or whether it's in a film, you take whatever is magnifying for you in your mind and then you are to dig deeper. You are to read more about it. This is the beauty of art. Art takes a single thing and it is to make, it's supposed to enable you to loop

things further into the fold for it. Everything is deeply connected if we but seek it out if we but make the effort. Absolutely. How do you decide when a story is worth the emotional toll it takes on creators and the audience? Because art can be healing, but it can also

reopen old wounds, too. Yeah. You mean for me? Yeah. We're trained at. I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna give everything to a thing if I choose to do it and we talk a lot about recovery I mean I think it's something for me now I'm on sabbatical y'all man we were that supposed to be here like it's it's I'm making conscious choices even more along you know just along the trajectory of the career right like trying to make sure sure that I am well and I'm okay in the midst of the things that I choose to do. That's why I did three comedy-based things over the course of the last year. But the other things are really valuable because you have to refill the cup or you have nothing to give or it suffers or, you

know, whatnot. But I am consciously moving things around to do stuff so that I can be okay. I also have a child. I also have a family. I need to be with them. I need to. This is not just for me. This is for a greater community. And knowing how the community responds to that thing.

I mean, we constantly referring back to Teal, but, like, Chinoya talked about not wanting to traumatize or trigger in the experience of things. There are all kinds of ways to tell the story and not take people down into a, an experience in a certain kind of way you can you can tell a story and and and and with nuance and modification in a certain kind of way bring them into the fold of the thing it doesn't have to be utterly drud you know drudgery and treacherous the way that it

makes yourself or the audience feel what it would it chill would it till change about you was a mother because you're already a black mother oh but you know the night I went to go see till I saw it at a premiere and Sabrina Fulton was dead and like that was like wow you know just watching that what happened to you know mother till but then seeing Sabrina there I'm like you know it's still happening right now mm-hmm I feel like it changed I had a different understanding of the rigor of the era of woman to to live in that kind of femininity to live in that kind of presentation of self that shifted for me I my motherhood is is straight up it was

continuous we have to protect our children in a certain kind of way in the same way that haley is in here like you're about to learn how to shoot this gun and you about to learn how to beat these you know like that's the kind of thing that is always present but how do you present how do you I think the value is showing the diversity of your womanhood um so that your children know that you are a human uh that was critical and from from till to 40 um and so you're always gonna you know mother tiger over your kids um but you know i want to ask you r t i want to go back to the question about when do you decide when the story is worth the emotional tool it takes on i think on you as a creator and on it yeah i think i think it's it's a it's a gut thing right

like it's it's it's something that you you know i mean when you get into a work and you know that this is this is something important for you you just willing to take what that process is going to bring and you know that any process that we dive into with our whole selves is going to it's going to yes it's going to it's going to hurt us some days and some days it's going to be challenging but it's also going to make you grow at the end and I think at the end of the day it's like you you look forward to that growth truthfully you know what I mean I look forward to coming out the other side and learning from what the process brings me and know that I'll be I hope that I'll be a better person from the interaction and

and the community that you do when you build these things, you come upon a community. And you learn your lessons, you know what I mean? Like, you learn your lessons through that process. And you say, okay, cool, never going to do that this way again. You know what I mean? But like, you have a sense memory. You know what I mean?

So you just, you know those things. And so there's a beautiful thing when you come out the other side because you're a stronger person for it. And that makes it worthwhile. You know, that makes it go, okay, next one, I'm gonna learn some more I'm gonna grow a little bit better you know what I mean

so it makes a process this is baby you're making a baby you're gonna ride with that thing for a few years right like whether you're writing it like I mean we're talking this is from pandemic it's 2025 now

this man's been riding with this thing for that long and so you want to make an extremely conscious decision about what you are what you are rearing what do you hope future generations of artists

especially black creatives take from the work that y'all are creating right now. What do you want me to take from 40 in particular? Hmm. I just feel like, you know, I think it's all there. I think it's all there. I think it's like, you know,

I want people to mind the past, make sure that they have that expression, you know, because we're the only ones that are going to tell our stories, you know? Like the whole interaction between the indigenous and black community is like rarely talked about across history because history has been presented in kind of one way from one perspective.

So, you know, we wanted to pay tribute to some of those things in this film. And I just think it's important that we keep doing that, go back to our past and remind people. But then also, I'm about creating stuff for the future and cinema for me has always been a beautiful art form of entertainment,

you know what i mean of visceral thrills like there's nothing i love better than being in the theater and the whole audience moving with you you feel it it's like a concert like you feel that you know you people you feel everybody tighten up when something's about to happen you feel that release when you know when it does and this there's something really beautiful about that and i encourage you know future generations and other directors and storytellers to like embrace that feeling that you get from whatever that our form is for you you know whatever that our form is for you i would throw three things out um rigor is critical i mean we're getting this from from the film to just in real life too like rigor and discipline is the utmost imperative and essential

for any kind of art making learn the craft so that you can therein move to intuition the intuitive spirit is is yeah it's it's pivotal you have to have that so that it can have your stance your unique imprint and then love Michael Grayeyes taught me one of the indigenous terms for love it's Kasagatine and it's to grow into oneself right like love isn't just this romantic notion it's it's about seeing something flourish I think that's an inner thing and an outer world thing and so to have the utmost of rigor and discipline and thing in the thing that you do move that into the into the spirit and your own inner world

and do it with the utmost of love well definitely go check out the film 40 acres and we appreciate you guys for joining us yeah thank you so much Apple TV Prime yeah yeah yeah yeah it's on digital Apple and Amazon and everywhere you know yeah all right well Danielle Deadweiler R T Thorne thank you so much for joining us thank you guys yeah man thank you

it's the breakfast club good morning every day I wake up wake your ass up the breakfast club are you all finished or y'all done Come on, why is this taking so long? This thing is ancient. Still using yesterday's tech, upgrade to the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, ultra-light, ultra-powerful, and built for serious productivity,

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