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Did you ever think of setting it in Nashville?

DR: The story wouldn’t work in Nashville. There wasn’t that space where Alike and Laura could even be themselves in that way. When I moved to Brooklyn that was the first time I saw “out” teenagers on the street. …Also because Nashville is a driving city and you need the public transit.

Have you brought the film back home?

DR: Not yet. I guess [I look forward to it]. Nashville is the buckle of the Bible Belt so we’ll see how it goes (laughs).

Can you talk a bit about the soundtrack? The opening number is … pretty powerful.

AO: (Both laugh) I like how you put that!

It sets a stage for what we’re seeing.

DR: For the opening song, it was important for it to be provocative. You are either gonna get up and leave or you’re locked in, so it weeds out the audience (laughs). But basically it is very important for the audience to feel as uncomfortable as Alike is. Alike is thrust into this hyper-sexual environment and she doesn’t feel at home there, but it is where Laura tells her where she needs to be. We pat you down and shove you in.

For the soundtrack, I wanted it to be female-centric so it is all female voices. There is no monolithic idea of music in women so each character has a different taste in music. Alike is soul, Bina is punk, Laura’s hip-hop, so they have different voices which heightens who they are and as Alike grows, she realizes that there isn’t one way to be and she likes these different types of music – she doesn’t have to be one way and check a box. The soundtrack is largely independent music artists who loved the project and contributed.

…Again, people see the poster and cast and assume it is a hip-hop hood movie and we want to subvert their expectations on every level. You don’t know who these characters are and you have never seen this movie before.

Speaking of the poster, did you have any creative decision in it? I noticed how on the poster and in the beginning of the movie, you define "pariah." What was the choice in that?

DR: Yeah, the definition came, because at every festival, I thought it was a common word, but people asked what it meant. It’s not about a carnivorous fish (laughs). We let the audience choose the poster at the festivals and out of all the options that is what was chosen.

After the intensity of this film, Adepero, as an actress, do you feel like you need to do something completely different now like a Bond girl?

AO: (laughs) I’d love to be a Bond girl… But I just want to continue to tell really awesome stories. I love character driven pieces. Whatever comes and grabs me is where I’ll be. But I’d love to do an action film (laughs).

Would you want to direct that action film, Dee?

DR: (laughs) I’m interested in sci-fi. Phillip K. Dick and all that stuff.

I just finished another script for Focus Features called Bolo [set in the South] and I am working on a [TV series] project with HBO with Viola Davis. Then I have a large print, my next baby, about a woman who is recently divorced and has to redefine happiness.

AO: I’ve just been reading a bunch of scripts with my great team of people so I guess we’ll see.

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