This story about Gina Prince-Bythewood first appeared in the College Issue of ’s awards magazine.
Gina Prince-Bythewood strolled between UCLA buildings in Westwood on a sunny October afternoon and smiled. “It looks like nothing’s changed,” she said as she took a shortcut from the School of Theater, Film and Television’s Melnitz Hall to the nearby Freud Playhouse. “Even the paint looks the same.”She laughed. “I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not.”
Of course, Prince-Bythewood is an unabashed booster of UCLA’s TFT, from which she graduated in 1991. And paint color notwithstanding, there have definitely been changes since she spent time in these halls: For instance, the James Bridges Theater, where many of her student films screened, had yet to be updated and upgraded when she was here, and the framed posters that lined the lobby definitely didn’t include her own film debut, 2000’s “Love & Basketball,”This poster now hangs alongside those of fellow grads, such as Alexander Payne or Francis Ford Coppola.
Prince-Bythewood, a writer and director who was born in Los Angeles, but grew up in Pacific Grove on Northern California’s Monterey Peninsula, is now a director-writer. “Love & Basketball,” “The Secret Life of Bees,” “Beyond the Lights,” “The Old Guard”And the new epic “The Woman King,”An action-packed period drama featuring Viola Davis, Lashana Lynch and Thuso Mbedu as the female Agojie warriors from the 19th-century West African kingdom of Dahomey.
This film is an exhilarating tribute the power and strength of Black women. It’s the boldest statement she has made in a career that has always focused on Black female experiences. Prince-Bythewood was an athlete at UCLA and ran track while making student films. She pointed out that her career was heading in the right direction when she returned to Westwood after she had finished filming.
When did you decide to become a filmmaker?
It’s interesting, because there were definitive stages. My parents used to take me and my siblings to the theater every weekend when we were little. That’s where I saw “Benji,” that’s where I saw “E.T.,”I can still remember how shocked I was to see that it could happen. When my TV broke, I was nine years old. My parents refused to repair it. This was a terrible time for me and my siblings. However, it forced me into reading. I used to go to the library and check out 20 books per week. Then, I just had to read. This greatly influenced my love for storytelling.
Then, when I went to high school I became obsessed by soap operas. I read an article in Soap Opera Digest — that’s how obsessed I was. It was an interview with a soap opera writer, and that’s the first time I realized, “Oh, somebody gets paid to do that.”So that was my goal when i set my sights at UCLA to write soap operas. When I was there, and began to hang out at the film school’s campus, my sights were set higher. You get the chance see great movies on the big-screen. You might like “12 Angry Men” “The Apartment” “The Graduate.” Suddenly you’re immersed with these great films, and I started to see myself doing that.
Did you watch any TV or films before that?
Yeah, absolutely. As a family, we would watch the shows together once we got our TVs back when I was a teenager. “M*A*S*H,” “WKRP in Cincinnati…”Then, there’s always the next day “Diff’rent Strokes”it came on and I was blown away to see myself on television. That show was my obsession. But I still hadn’t seen myself in films until I was 17, when I went to the movies and the trailer for “She’s Gotta Have It”It was amazing. I felt like I was being blown away by the Black woman on screen who seemed to be the star in this movie.
It is a feeling I want to share with others. It’s absolutely getting better and there are more of us making movies and more diversity of content, which is beautiful. But if you really look at the numbers, it’s still dismal. And so that’s always been the fight in terms of putting Black women at the center of my stories and films: to give other people that feeling that I got of seeing yourself reflected on screen.
Why UCLA?
In high school, my goal was to play basketball at college. Cheryl Miller was the reason I was so focused on USC. I’m sure I’m gonna get blasted for this, but I read that at USC (School of Cinematic Arts), not everybody gets to make a film. That it’s kind of set up like Hollywood, where you have to pitch and win a spot to make a film—where at UCLA, everybody makes movies. And that’s really how it should be. If you’re going to film school, you’re going to learn how to make movies. At that point, my loyalty shifted to UCLA.
What was the most valuable thing you learned at UCLA?
The most important lesson is to learn from your mistakes “No.”This is because you cannot apply to the film school for your junior year at UCLA. So, I spent my first two years at the film school, working on student films, a soap opera, and meeting all the professors. I also took as many classes as possible without being a student. I was certain that I would be accepted. You’re supposed to give yourself a backup major because it’s so hard to get in, but I did not give myself a backup. I submitted my application and was rejected. And that wrecked me, because I knew for a fact this is what I’m supposed to do. It was one the most difficult nights of my entire life. I cried for hours.
The next day, I repeated the words: “Let me go to the counselor.”So I went to the counselor, telling him that I wanted appeal the decision. He said. “You can’t do that.”So I returned home, had another cry and wrote a letter. I spent hours writing the letter, basically explaining why they made a mistake. Ruth Schwartz, head of the film school. I received it. Two days later, I received a call from Ruth Schwartz. She said that she would be calling me back. “We’re letting you in.”This changed everything about my life.
The school was everything you expected.
The beauty of film school is it’s a safe place to fail. You’re just making movies and learning with everyone. You’re finding your voice. It was incredibly inspiring to me. Everyone was supportive. Everyone’s giving comments on each other’s work, and you’re pushing each other and working on each other’s things. It’s a beautiful environment and I just feel like I found myself and the kind of things I wanted to do and say.
What didn’tWhat do you wish your teachers had taught you in school?
It’s great to work with actors. If I ever become head of UCLA film school, I’m absolutely gonna implement that. There was not enough interaction between us and the theater school, and we’re right next to each other. Directing actors is the one thing that you’re not taught, and I think it is such a learning curve for directors. It is important to be able to communicate with actors and work with them. Sundance gave me that when I joined the Sundance (directing laboratory) and required us all to take an acting course. Scariest thing I’ve ever done in my life, but what I learned in that class absolutely influenced my directing from that point forward.
Nowadays, film schools are conscious of the diversity within their student body. But in 1991, I assume there weren’t many women of color at the school.
Yeah. There were probably two of us in my class.
You mentioned your fight to have Black women in the centre of your films. Did you find that important in the student films?
Yeah. I was writing for myself. It was for me. “Let’s just see Black people up on screen living.” Which is what I feel and hope that I’m doing now. I would love to see us in every genre. There was much controversy over my thesis film. It didn’t get put into the spotlight at the end of the year, where they choose the 10 best films and they invite the industry to come and see. While a lot of professors believed that the film should be included, there were some who opposed it. It became a huge phenomenon. It felt strange. That was hard to bear, having people fighting to protect you and others who don’t see the value in your story.
Was the controversy due to the fact that the controversy was centered on the Black experience?
This is an example. There’s a film festival that The Woman King didn’t get into, and their feedback was that I’m a great action director. They didn’t see the humanity and strength of these women. It was quite a shock at first. It was a shocker at first. And that’s what it felt like in film school, where there were some professors who saw the film, loved it and wanted to give it a spotlight, and others who just didn’t get it. And that is the thing: They couldn’t see themselves in these characters.
What was the best way to get into the industry after you have graduated?
When you go to film school, you’re going because there’s only one thing you want to do, which is make movies. When I graduated, I felt like: “OK, I’m gonna graduate and scripts are gonna come flying at me!” Which doesn’t happen. After graduating from film school, I attended a lot of meetings that were based on my thesis film. However, I didn’t have scripts. So I’m sitting with the heads of studios. I recall sitting with Stephanie Allain, the head of Columbia at that time, who was a Black woman I revered. Everyone asked the exact same question. “What do you want to do? What do you have?”I didn’t even have any. I was unprepared and felt that I had missed so many opportunities.
I was able to interview you. “A Different World,”Which was my favorite program at the time. It was a terrible interview. I was completely unprepared and totally fluffed the interview. I was accepted to the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences internship and began working at Quincy Jones Entertainment. And at that point I felt like I was kind of in, but I still didn’t know what I was gonna do. The job was awarded to the applicant. “A Different World”I was doing a lot of wrong things and didn’t take the job seriously. Then Susan Fales Hill, show creator, called me and said that it was time to get back on track. “Hey, we want to bring on another person.” So I went to work as a writer’s apprentice on “A Different World.”That changed my life. Black women ran the show, and they took me under their wing and guided me.
Was it possible to imagine something similar when you were at UCLA? “The Woman King?”
That’s the thing: I was. Then you enter the industry and realize that it doesn’t believe in your dreams. My head would only humourously repeat, “I just said…” “I wish I could make that.”I would love to see. “Gladiator”Oder ich würde sehen “The Last of the Mohicans.”It would be something I would do, but it was not possible for women to enter the door. It was after, I believe. “Captain America: Winter Soldier”When my older brother said to me, “How come I don’t get to see myself in those movies?”And I thought, “This is what I do. I make movies. I need to give him that. Let me give him a chance to see himself heroically, which he’s never gotten to see.”
You need to be in the right industry to make it happen.
I didn’t feel discriminated against as a director, but it was my choices of what I wanted to make that were discriminated against. I would pitch these films to Black women at the centre, but I got nothing. No interest. Literally, people would say: “Can we cast this white?”To my face. It’s the strangest thing that people wouldn’t see the offense in that. I’m here pitching my heart out. This is my vision. These characters are a small part of me. And what you’re saying is that you do not see my value and you don’t see the value in these stories. It is soul-crushing.
Is it any different? You came into “The Woman King” when it was already well along, but it still didn’t have a green light yet.
Yeah. Viola, Cathy (Schulman), and Julius Tennon took six years to get it started. That’s a long time. It was the success. “Black Panther”This opened the door to everything. “The Woman King.”
A film can be viewed as BrosEverybody is treating it the same way. “If ‘Bros’ doesn’t succeed, they won’t make gay movies.”
Yes.
You’d think that “The Woman King” should be beyond that, because we’ve had so many examples of movies with predominantly Black casts that have done extraordinarily well. But I suppose there’s still the question, “Can we do a big movie with a largely female Black cast?”Hanging on to the film.
Yes. That’s in your brain every day. Hollywood has a target. It will succeed, and we can continue making movies. If it doesn’t do well, the pipeline shuts down for a moment and we’ve got to wait for something else to break out. You can be squashed or it can push, and it definitely pushes me.
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