Prince-Bythewood keeps her eye on the prize in each project she takes on.
Her latest,The Woman King, feels like a crowning moment for her in more ways than one.
The cast is bananas, the reviewshavebeenstellar, thebox office big, and the broader impact undeniable.
And this one,The Woman King,whew wee.
Theres a lot to unpack.
Prince-Bythewood spoke with me via Zoom from a hotel in San Francisco.
And boy, do people want to talk about this movie.
Did these themes affect the choices you made as a director?
To infuse those things in the script, and into these actors, that was everything.
The thing people dont understand about making movies is that it starts with a really good script.
Dana wrote a really good script.
She is a hella talented writer.
When a director comes aboard, it becomes a directors vision.
This movie is my lens, my vision as a Black woman.
Dana was incredibly collaborative, open to everything.
Its not just a sore arm muscle; its a sore heart muscle.
How did you keep your hearts healthy?
So I need to have knowledge [about] what they are drawing on.
Its such a responsibility.
Nobody was going to be laughing and joking.
Everybody respected that moment, respected what they were doing, respected where they had to go.
I mean, how do you even direct a scene like that?
When I watched that I was like, How did Lashana tap into that real physical pain?
Giving each other permission to be real in the moment, that is a gift as the director.
Izogie is much funnier in the movie than she was on the page.
Not everybody can do comedy in such an organic way [like Lynch].
The moment I saw that, I started to write to that.
I started to see this beautiful chemistry between Thuso and Lashana, an I started putting them together more.
Viola Davis, man, every time she would come to me with Hey, can I try something?
I have this idea, it always completely elevated the scene.
A great example is the scene where [her character] says, A warrior must kill your tears.
Toward the end of the scene, she dismisses Nawi, and Nawi starts to go.
Nanisca calls her back, pulls Nawis machete, and takes it.
That was not scripted.
That was Viola in the moment.
Viola didnt tell Thuso what she was going to do.
As a director, you know when to step back and let great actors do what they do.
What about the romance, or should I say the almost romance, between Nawi and Malik?
What do you hope audiences glean from that?
I love Maliks character.
This particular storyline felt so visceral.
Exactly, and again, I love his arc in that.
Does this film feel like an opus for you?
Well, certainly Violasays its her magnum opus.
It still feels like a miracle that this film got made in Hollywood.
Dont get me wrong, there were fights.
It felt like every moment [I was] fighting for my vision.
This one is special.
I mean, I love all my children.
This one is special.
I’ve never seen anything like it, in terms of sexual assault as depicted in film.
You must have had a lot of conversations around that.
Yeah, we did.
Also, this was going to be part of the fabric of the film.
We werent going to shy away from it.
[We asked,] How are we going to show this?
Again, knowing as a director what the actors are drawing upon, you have to respect it.
I get the respect part, but what does that actually mean?
The actual scene with the young Nanisca, that was an absolutely closed set.
We had these conversations prior to even stepping on set, so I knew what she was drawing on.
I had as few crew as possible, and they all knew to respect the moment.
Respect what is being pulled from ones heart or head or gut or past.
Be quiet and honor what youre witnessing.
I miss the beauty of the experience.
I shared it with the actors at the end of the shoot.
That has stayed with me.
Me, the actors, were not taking off the crown.
Thats what the film did for us.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
This article was originally published onOct.
