![]() We know what become and they lead this really incredible grand life, but a lot of people don’t know how they started out. I wrote the song, “Start,” for the film after having seen it and really sitting with it and listening to the other music in the film. We saw a rough cut and were so excited by it. We read the script in pre-production, but we didn’t become formally involved until after it was shot. When did you first get involved in Southside with You? So we try to make films and television that show a range of experiences and ranges of points of views and interesting subcultures and interesting communities. We want to see us enjoying each other and building a family. All these other things that human beings do. But we also want to see us falling in love. Slavery is important for us to talk about. I think, particularly when we’re talking about portraying black characters on the screen, we want to see a range of stories. They can be these heavy stories, like the series Underground or Selma, or they can be loving and light, like Southside with You. ![]() I’ve noticed that in terms of your film and TV work, you've chosen to tell really important stories. But either way, my mission in life is to make the world more interesting, more beautiful and bring more light to it. ![]() I think film and TV are more collaborative than music there are more moving parts when you’re putting together TV or film production. It’s all part of the same story about trying to put out great art. Well, in a lot of ways it’s the same to me. What was the transition like from doing music almost exclusively to having a production company? It brought a lightness and a feeling that Janet’s voice gives you, that that beat gives you. It gives you a certain sense of-well, I grew up in that period when that song was big-nostalgia for that era. And it lets you know what time period it is. It creates a certain tone that you wouldn’t make just through the shot. I think you can see it in this film from the beginning, when the Janet song, comes in at the very beginning of the film. Why do you think music is so integral to storytelling? ![]() In a recent chat with Chicago, Legend discusses the importance of telling stories with diverse characters, reveals his songwriting process, and touches on why he values speaking out rather than staying quiet. Legend also wrote the song “Start,” a lovely, falsetto-heavy accompaniment to the film. “Seeing the beginning of what they became is really inspiring and really makes you believe in love and its power,” says Legend, who is married to model and TV personality Chrissy Teigen. Besides Southside with You, Get Lifted also produces the heavy and underrated WGN show Underground with nine works currently in development.įor Legend, adding his name, production company, and promotional efforts to the film was a no-brainer. Legend, best known for his pop and R&B musical stylings (which have scored him Grammys and Oscars), is not new to film production. Parker Sawyers (Barack Obama) and Tika Sumpter (Michelle Obama and producer on the project) effortlessly carry all 84 minutes with stirring romantic tension and performances that are a loving tribute to the real-life First Couple.īut Southside could have been a small-time indie if not for the starpower boost from executive producer John Legend and his Get Lifted Film Company. Quiet and winsome, a warm haze filters through the lens for most of the Richard Tanne’s debut film, steeping it in a sort of “unremembered” nostalgia that will make most audiences contemplate their own past perfect dates. And yet Southside manages to far exceed its expectations and give audiences something increasingly rare: a lovely little romantic comedy. Reading a description alone (“27-year-old Barack Obama takes his boss, 25-year-old Michelle Obama, out on the most epic first date ever”) would make even the less discerning filmgoer wince. A film like Southside With You shouldn’t work.
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