Shola Lynch and Reginald Hudlin turn the lens on Hollywood’s Black A-listers in a two-part documentary for AppleTV+'s 'Number One On The Call Sheet.'
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00:00Authenticity is everything, right? So we have to tell the truth, we have to be
00:05authentic to the culture, we have to do all those things. That's an integral
00:09assumed part of our jobs. As an artist, as a craftsperson, as a storyteller, my
00:15name goes on it. And when my name goes on something, I want it to mean something.
00:22And what that means is the work. I did everything I can to tell the best story.
00:30Hi, I'm Shala Lynch. Hi, I'm Reginald Huttland. And we are the directors of
00:38Number One on the Call Sheet. Black leading women in Hollywood. Black leading
00:44men in Hollywood. On Apple TV Plus. March 28th.
00:51I think we should start with our origin story.
00:59Which origin story? Right. Well, first it was word on the street was Shala Lynch is
01:08this amazing young filmmaker and she made this great movie about Shirley Chisholm. Oh, she made
01:15this great movie about Angela Davis and everyone's just a fan, right? And by then I had moved from
01:22New York. I'm living in LA, but like word on the street had reached LA, right? And my, you had met
01:30my brother Warrington and like everyone's just raving. Oh, she's so great. So that's a wonderful thing.
01:38And then I get chosen by the Academy to produce the Governor's Awards. And the Governor Awards is
01:49kind of a big deal. They, it's where they give the honorary Oscars. And when you get chosen to receive
01:58an honorary Oscar, there's a short film, a documentary that gets made about you. So as the producer of the
02:04Governor's Awards, I get a list of filmmakers they've worked with before that they really like.
02:09And I look at the list and there are no black people on the list.
02:15But we were honoring Harry Belafonte, which happened because I had been quietly
02:21campaigning for Harry to get an honorary Oscar because he had gotten an Emmy, a Grammy and a Tony.
02:31So he was one away from an EGOT. And that could not stand.
02:36Could not.
02:37He had to get the EGOT. So I called some friends who had been politicking and it got done.
02:43Right. So victory one. Now victory two, here I am producing the show and like, well, we're,
02:52there's no black people on the list, which is crazy period. And especially crazy giving
02:57Harry Belafonte and his career of activism, that's not going to do. So I call the legendary
03:05Sharla Lynch. And I'm like, Sharla, I need to talk to you about something. Oh, I happen to be in LA.
03:11Great. So I go by the hotel.
03:14This is where I pick it up. So he calls me up. He's like, oh, great. You're in LA.
03:19Okay. Let's meet. So we meet. And it was, I was here for the International Documentary Association
03:26event, et cetera. So we're sitting probably in the W in Hollywood. And I'm like, Ooh,
03:32a Hollywood meeting. And you know, he orders a something, I order a something and Reggie's,
03:38you know, being Reggie. And he says, and here's somebody I know and trust. So like,
03:45you know, he says, I'm going to ask you to do something and you're pretty much going to have
03:50to say yes. And not only that, you're going to have to kill it. And, and then he explains what
03:55he just explained about the governor's awards. And he says, I can either bring people along
04:00or I can go with the list. So are you going to do it? And are you going to kill it? I said,
04:07yes, I did hesitate. The key part of the story. Okay. Okay. So I sell that. And then he asks me
04:19which of the force for four people are being honored at the governor's awards. And I can't
04:24remember who they were. And he gets to Harry Belafonte and I go, Harry Belafonte. Okay. The
04:31part you're skipping is you're like, well, Reggie, this sounds great, but I'm really busy right
04:37now. Oh, right. I forgot about that. Of course you forgot about that. You erased that. So she's
04:42like, I'm really busy right now. I just don't think I can fit it in. And I'm staring at you
04:46with laser beams, right? Yeah. And you're feeling the heat of the laser beam. And then you go,
04:52wait, you're, this is not, you're not giving me a choice. It's not a do over event. It occurred to me
04:57and I was like, Reggie. Yes. He, but he wasn't going to let me say no. No, there was no, no.
05:06Which I appreciate. Right. Cause I will always appreciate that. This is the, this is the life
05:10changing moment. Yes. And I get it. We all are juggling a lot of things, but this is not a no.
05:16This is, this is like, here is your quest. Get her done. And you know, one of the things is it's a
05:22small budget. It's for, you know, it's an awards video, but we had the, we wanted to elevate it to
05:29a short film and to honor Harry Belafonte. And I, you know, it was such, it was so exciting to do
05:36and to be able to go, bam, literally with the first shot and the room went and it played.
05:44And it was such a good night. But here's what happened before that. Right. So sure enough,
05:49she's killing it. She's killing it. She's putting together this amazing short film, exactly why I
05:55knew she was the one and she's doing the damn thing. It's all good. Right. And again, I'm sort
06:03of the producer. So I'm just the buffer between her doing her thing and the Academy. And I'm getting
06:10these weird notes, right? About so many notes. And I'm like, wait a minute, what's happening
06:17right now? And they finally admit, you know, we think we won the civil rights battle, but
06:26the civil rights battle was still going on. And there were people within the Academy who
06:32were like, why are we giving this award to Harry Belafonte? And why are you bringing up
06:36this political stuff? And it's like, because that's why we're giving it to him because he's
06:41the man and he changed things for the better. And I'm like, oh my God, the fight continues.
06:48And just to tell the truth about him became this fight. So my job was to like block and tackle
06:57all the bull so she could do her damn thing, which she did. And there was no compromise and
07:05she rocked the room. And it was a thing of beauty. But Harry Belafonte was happy. Yes.
07:12Sidney Poitier gave me a hug. Right. Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier are there, right?
07:20Yes. Because Harry's only condition to accept the award was Sidney had to give it to him.
07:25Okay. And I've given a lot of awards to Harry Belafonte. I've given it to him at BET. I gave
07:32it to him at the NAACP Image Awards. I gave it to him at the Image Awards because the least
07:39we can do is honor the Titans that made it possible for us to do any damn thing.
07:47And the moral of the story though is sometimes you have to take a chance to bring somebody along.
07:53Yes. And you have to A, reach out and empower people who deserve to be empowered. Number two,
08:03understand that wars are never over. And their generation fought, which is why we're honoring
08:11them. And guess what? It's our turn to fight now. And you better get your knuckle game up.
08:17And before you think this has nothing to do with being number one on the call sheet, it
08:21has everything to do with being number one on the call sheet. Right? You got to bring
08:27people along. You got to honor the past. You got to be aware of the present, but not so mired
08:34in the negativity. Yes. There's some terrible shit going on always, et cetera. But if you focus
08:42on that, you're never finding the way forward. And what I love about the films we made, this
08:48story, right? And thanks for tapping me for this one. You know, the guys are sitting around,
08:53you know, I'm sure. Like I imagine it smoking cigars. Him, Jamie, Datari, Kevin Harp going,
08:58yeah, man, we're amazing. Yeah, we're so great. We do so much. Wouldn't that be a fantastic documentary?
09:05Fantastic. Fantastic. You know what I mean? And then maybe we should do one about the women
09:10too. Who's going to do that? At least they knew that. I mean, I'm sorry, Reggie. At least they knew
09:17to hire somebody, a woman to do it. Yes. No, I mean, part of these movies are documenting black film
09:25history. Period. Right. And look, we're in this amazing period of black girl magic, which is great.
09:32The world is full of unintended consequences. So now with all this wonderful black girl magic,
09:39we now have to lift up men. Right. And that doesn't mean you don't lift up women. It means you lift up
09:48everyone. Yes. Right. And we both have a son and a daughter. Right. Both of us, we, again, at least
09:55half our time is talking about parenting. Right. And like tricks, like, what'd you do with that?
10:01He's not kidding. And which makes our work, our day job, even more supercharged. Right. Because we both
10:16come from political households. We both came in it with a sense of mission. Yes. And we also have to say
10:23we both came in with fantastic partners. Yes. Like partnership, personal partnership is just as
10:30important as the work partnership. Right. Yeah. Exactly. So when you're actually doing the real
10:38work of raising the next generation, right? And you go, okay, there's a bunch of theories that we all
10:44have, but how are we actually going to do this? How do we raise children in today's world? And what do
10:51we, what did we get from our parents that is relevant? And what do we, what do we get from
10:57parents, which is baggage? Yes. Right. Yes. And that's the real work. And part of it is make,
11:05when you make movies like this, I mean, for me, you tell me, I'm always thinking about my kids
11:10because I'm like, you need to know this, but how do I get you to watch it? You know, someone last
11:17night at the premiere was saying, oh my gosh, this is a roots moment. And I was like, oh, because if it
11:24is a cultural moment and enough people watch it becomes part of a cultural conversation, whether you
11:30agree with our choices or not, it's the conversation that we're interested in. And no one will be able to
11:36interview this group of leading men and the group of leading women that I talk to ever again. It,
11:43it's like, imagine if we had had that for the seventies. Yes. Right. Imagine if we had that even
11:49in the nineties. Yes. Right. And so here we have this chance and it is a, it is a piece of history.
11:56It's a capsule. And what's incredible about it is because of all the four mothers and fathers,
12:02because of the cities and the Hatties and everybody, this generation is killing it.
12:10They are actually number one on the call sheet. Right. You know what I mean? Not like number one
12:14on the call sheet in my own mind over here, et cetera. You know what I mean? They're, they're like
12:18killing it. And what I didn't realize is we think we know these people because we see them on the red
12:26carpet, this, that, and the other thing. But when you sit, I was literally blown away each time by how
12:33much I learned from each woman and wanted the film to recreate that for the audience. Like, so I hope
12:44the curiosity and the wonder and, you know, the, the grief and sadness. Yes. But also the,
12:51oh, the fire and the love of craft all come through. Yeah. I, a hundred percent. I mean,
12:58that's what struck me. I'm like, wow, everybody is really smart. But wait a second. You know,
13:06most of these guys. Yes. So I really wanted to ask you what you learned.
13:09I still learned so much and you're right. I knew the vast majority of them I had a relationship with
13:16and it was great because even though we have a relationship, we may have worked together or we
13:23may have socialized together. I don't get to, we're all working. So we don't get to hang, hang.
13:28Right. Right. So we're talking. And because we're not talking about a specific project,
13:35right? They're not having to hype something. I'm not trying to sell them an idea.
13:39We're just talking about life. Right. So when I ask them questions that, I may not normally ask,
13:47which is like, well, did you have a plan? And half of them did, half of them did not. You know,
13:56how, how do you even define success? And the definitions of success were all over the place.
14:03Right. Cause I mean, when Fishburne says, what is about the diversity of roles?
14:09You go, Oh, okay. That's a measurement. And I relate to that because I'm like, I'm always like,
14:16wow, I've made a movie and a TV show and a comic book. And I did a lot, you know, I did a live
14:22concert and I go, well, no one else cares that I did all those things, but I care. Right. So we all have
14:29for our own measurements. And then there are folks who are just like extraordinary businessmen. They're
14:34moguls and they are smart, smart. And you just go, God, they are incredible. Right. And all these
14:42people were, no matter what their path, they're all at number one. It's bananas. It's bananas. It really
14:50is bananas. And you know, for the women, um, they wanted to talk about their love and craft and how
14:57they've gotten to number one, but they also wanted to talk about pay inequity. Yes. Right. Real,
15:03real. Right. You know, they wanted to, um, talk about the kind of behind the scenes struggles over
15:11things that we don't, we take for granted, like hair and makeup, having somebody who can do black hair
15:16and you know what I mean, dress a certain kind of body. Um, but also they all just want to work
15:23and be seen. And I think that's what translates, I think for a wider audience is who is not number
15:31one on their own call sheet. I don't mean diva style, but I mean like, this is my life. This is
15:37what I want out of it. These are the people I want in my circle, you know, and to hear these stories
15:45from these 17 women who have figured it out for themselves and are still figuring it out because,
15:49you know, one of the lines I love in the, in the men's film is what do you do when you get to the
15:54top of a mountain? Make more mountain. Right. You got to keep going. You can't stop dreaming,
16:00you know? Right. And, and, and it's interesting because part of the challenge for these actors,
16:07right, is you're making movies that fit the era that you're living in. Yep. Right. And, you know,
16:16when you look at the movies of the seventies, some of them were written by great playwrights. Right. Yeah.
16:21And you just go, Hey, I mean, we have a few great playwrights, but we don't have what we had in the
16:27sixties and seventies. Yeah. Right. And is that what people want to see? Or do they like, no,
16:34I really want to see a big popcorn movie and believe me, I love popcorn movies, so I'm not
16:39knocking it, but you know, so, and I think about that in particular when it comes to women,
16:45right? Because, you know, women getting the, the nuanced, detailed characters of the day deserve,
16:54right? Right. When you see Denzel and Viola in fences, right, you go, thank God this movie exists.
17:00Right. And a lot of critics talked about Viola did to Denzel what Denzel does to you actors in other
17:08movies. Like, but the thing is, well, but Denzel directed. So he was like, okay, please Viola do
17:15the thing because I know who you are and she got to do the thing. And that was transformative for her
17:21career. Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. One thing I think we need to do though is shout out, you know,
17:28like the directors get all the gloss, but we don't make these films alone. Oh God, no. There's like,
17:32the credits are meaningful and you know, for us, we wouldn't have gotten half of the, the women didn't
17:38sit down to speak to Shala Lynch, you know, maybe one day, but not today. That's okay. Um, and so it is,
17:46you know, the work that you did, but Datari Turner, right. With Foxhole who had all those relationships
17:51to you guys, like, come on, come on. Well, I mean, first of all, it was Datari's idea to do this
17:57thing. Right. So that was incredible. And then he is, you know, in partner with Jamie, who was like,
18:05yeah, let's do that. And then them going to Kevin Hart and Kevin goes, yeah, let's do that.
18:10So already that teamwork between the three of them is extraordinary and wonderful. Right.
18:18And then they're like, okay, let's call Reggie. Uh, you know, cause Jamie and I have worked together
18:23on a bunch of projects before and, uh, you know, Jamie and I have a very comfortable work. And he
18:29was like, well, yeah, Reggie. And then it was like, yes. Oh yes. Shala. So suddenly all the pieces are
18:35coming together. And then we put together our respective producers and our respective DPs and
18:42the, I mean, it's such a cliche, but it's like, no, it really is a giant army effort.
18:49Yes. And we're so grateful to every member of the team because it's like,
18:57it does not happen alone. Oh. And it's a, you know, documentary. So it's documentary money.
19:03Right. So you're definitely working another job, you know, West Indian background, more
19:11jobs, more jobs, more jobs, 10 jobs, man. Right. Right. Exactly. So everybody's got 10
19:18jobs, particularly at this point in our industry, which is an incredible inflection point. So
19:24all those things, I mean, I have a, uh, a company I use when I cast documentaries, uh, a cultivated,
19:33which is really fantastic. But a lot of it came down to personal relationships. It was, you know,
19:39me either calling the person or to Tari calling the person, um, calling their agent, calling their
19:47publicist. It was a lot of that. And again, that's where Chrisette came in handy because she was a publicist.
19:53So she had relationships with other publicists. Yes. So we came in, we thought we could schedule
19:59all the interviews in two weeks to a day, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. And boy, oh boy, these are
20:05working people. It was not easy to get the schedules aligned or even to schedule the interviews.
20:13So I have to shout out the 17 women that came, sat in the chair. Amen to that. Really? For real.
20:20For real. When you have a brand and you're number one on the call sheet, the implications are even
20:27greater. And I think, um, it took a lot longer to reach the right people and build the trust.
20:32And I'm grateful to all of you with the personal relationships to make it happen. Yeah. I knew I
20:37could kill it once it happened. Um, but it was a lot because again, they are extraordinarily busy people.
20:46They're incredibly successful people. Yes. And this is not their movie. Right. Uh, so, and what are you,
20:53like, what are you up to? Right. And my thing is always like, this is not 60 minutes. I'm not here.
21:00I'm not digging for scandal. I'm just want to have an honest conversation. And they were like, oh,
21:08this is that thing. And eventually kind of work to stress to get out. Like, cause they all talk. Yeah.
21:14You're like, what is this thing? Oh no, they're cool. You know? So, uh, it, it takes time. Um, and then,
21:22you know, for the women, what we were thinking about is a lot, you know, sometimes you go and the lighting
21:28isn't right and whatever. So I bring, we brought in Bradford Young. I worked with, um, my producers,
21:35Mishka and Nanette, and we got Bradford Young to come in and design the lighting. So there was beauty
21:40light, two cameras. And I wanted, we were, because they, they didn't know me, they weren't going to let
21:47me in their house. Reggie, different story. But I wanted to create the set that was, um, the backdrop for
21:54an intimate conversation and never in my life have I gone so pastel. Like I was like, it's like a box
22:00of chocolates. You open the box and each one is so beautiful from the white chocolate to the dark
22:06chocolate. And then each one is so different inside. And like, so I say all of this and I also, you know,
22:13my feminist theory classes, I don't mean to compare anybody to an object, et cetera. I mean this in a
22:18metaphorical, beautiful way. But, but that's a really good point, which is that to me,
22:24when I started seeing what you were doing, I was like, oh, that's super cool. And it's very
22:30different from what we're doing. And that's beautiful because she's a woman making a movie
22:37about women with women. And, you know, I'm a guy, you know, making a movie about guys with a bunch of
22:44guys and the movies reflect each thing. All the guys are center shot and they're all like, yeah,
22:53yeah, yeah, yeah. It was, it was so like, it was so much fun to watch. The women, each one is on the
23:00side, literally giving them their flowers. There's the beauty light, there's the second camera.
23:04It's just different. And the, the way we cultivated the personality of each story and honored,
23:13which is different than like marketing bullshit, but honored in a true real way,
23:18each individual story. So that through our conversations, the audience can get to know a
23:24little bit about each person. Yeah. Cause I mean, with all these people, I'm fans of them.
23:31Yes. Right. I'm like, yo, I'm a fan and I get a fan. I'm a fan who gets to ask questions.
23:37And then there's people like, no, I really know you. And I want to bring out the things
23:44I know about you that people don't know. And when they find out, they're going to be like, oh,
23:50like, like, I love the beat when Eddie Murphy goes, look, what keeps me from making, like,
23:57going off the deep end mistakes is I'm spiritually grounded. And people are going to be like, what?
24:03Right. But it's like, yeah, he's telling you like, no, this is what's really going on.
24:08Yeah. Like you may not get it, but I'm telling you right now, you can accept it or not. And
24:14that's what you get in this movie. Yes. Those moments. And we ask the questions that sometimes
24:24people outside of that won't ask. Yes. Every story I tell and a lot of them, whether it's a documentary
24:34or a scripted movie, you know, I have a feeling of like, well, don't waste everyone's time and money.
24:42Right. Authenticity is everything. Right. So we have to tell the truth. We have to be authentic
24:48to the culture. We have to do all those things. That's an integral assumed part of our jobs.
24:55A thousand percent. I, you know, I'm even a little bit more baseline.
24:58Um, as an artist, as a craftsperson, as a storyteller, my name goes on it. And when
25:07my name goes on something, I want it to mean something. And what that means is the work.
25:13I did everything I can to tell the best story, you know, best narrative, the best, the truth,
25:20the best story possible with whatever the budget was, whatever the constraints were,
25:24I was going to go 110%. That's what a film by Shala Lynch means.