How Reginald Hudlin and Shola Lynch Put Together The Greatest Call Sheet Ever

WHEN REGINALD HUDlin Received A Call from Jamie Foxx and Producer Datari Turner in 2019 Saying that Wanted to Make A MOVIE About Leading Black Actors in Hollywood, He Was Al.

“IT WAS KIND OF A NO-BRAINER,” SAYS HUDlin, Director of Apple TV+’S Number One On The Call Sheet. “AS WE STARTED TALKING THRUGH The IDEA, IT WAS PRETTY OBVIUS THAT WAS MORE THANEUGH Talent to Feature in This Film. In Fact, We Needed To Restructure This Sen Was. Lynch. ”

Lynch Came on Board to Direct the Two Episodes on Black Leading Women in Hollywood, While Hudlin Was at the Helm for the Two On Black Leading Men. Together they make up the four-part docuseries in a kind of 30 a-listers, from angela Bassett, Halle Berry, Whoopi Goldberg and Viola davis to denzel Their journeys as Entertainers. The Stars Were FilMed Over A Period of Roughly Two Years Starting in 2022, with Kevin Hart and Foxx appeing as subjections and serving as executive producers personoe. Productions.

“IT was a professional and political feat to get all of these people to sit down,“ Says Lynch, Whose Credits Include the Cicely Tyson Tribute at the 2018 Governors. “After that piece, i though, ‘Oh my goshh, let’s make a piece about black women in filmmaking in Hollywood,’ and she and her and her people were like [is too great]’and It Never Quite Got Off The Ground. SO WHEN All The Guys Circled to Me, My Only Regret Was Ms. Tyson Is Gone, ”Adds Lynch.“ But Here to Mark the Time in a Way that Nobody Else Had the Capacity to Do Are TheSe Films That Are Induced by Black Film Companies. Their Power, Celebrity and Cachet Helped Ride Wave and Get Everybody to Sit Down Because there is no precedent for it. ”

The tone of the Series is a broth Celebratory and raw. The Male Actors Paye To Piors Like Sidney Poitier and Reflext on How Smith’s Box Office Success Shattered Preconcenceved Notions that Black Enterters Couldn’e. The Actresses Reflect on Thrasholdshe and Have Yet to Surmount, A Significant Portion of the Series Centering on Berry’s Post as the Sole Black Woman in the Academy Actress. The Takeaway, However, The Filmmakers Say, Isn ‘to Point Fingers at the Industry Buter Draw Inspiraction from the Ways in Which Each Subject Has Defied the ODDS.

“I THINK this is What People Need – Not Just Want But Need, WHICH IS BLUEPRINTS FOR LIVING,“ SAYS HUDlin. “HERE’S A BUNCH OF WINNers Telling You How To Win, and There’s Not One Path. There Are A Number of Different Paths. Pick The One that’s Right for You.”

Adds Lynch: “It Makes Each One of Us Think, ‘How Can We Be Number One on Our Own Call Sheet?’ How Can We Be the Excellence [that we want to see] or be in our purpose? ‘ Because These Women, they’re in their purpos and they’re going to do it regardless. They’re going to find a Way, and that in itlf is very, very inspire. ”

This Story First Appeared in a May Stand-Alane Issue of the Hollywood Reporter Magazine. To Receive The Magazine, Click Here to Subscribe.