Saturday, September 24 – Following the twenty minute long teaser of The New Edition Story presented at the Urbanworld Film Festival, original New Edition group members Mike Bivins, Ricky Bell and Ronnie DeVoe took center stage along with their miniseries selves: FOX‘s EMPIRE Bryshere Y. Gray, R&B singer Luke James, Elijah Kelly, Woody McClain, Keith Powers, director Chris Robinson, executive producer Jesse Collins, & BET President Stephen Hill for a post-show conversation about why it took so long for this story to be told and the importance to get it right. The 3-part BET biopic backtracks to the groups conception starting in their middle school lunchroom to music stardom; from after school practices, to sold out concerts; and from brotherhood to betrayal.
After literally laying the bricks down for modern-day boy bands like Boyz II Men, N’SYNC, The Backstreet Boys, and New Kids on the Block, it was only a matter of time the story behind New Edition was unfolded. But of course, as the saying goes, nothing great happens overnight.
What was the thing that motivated you to even want o be a part of this project?
Chris Robinson (Director)
For me, New Edition was my first concert. I got my license, two weeks later, I drove from Maryand to , I saw New Edition, Whodini, Lisa Lisa, kojam, I was a fan since then. And then I met Jesse Collins over ten years ago and he started to tell me about this project that he was putting together for New Edition, and I was like, ‘word?’, let’s do it. That was before I did ATL. And then ten years later he reached out, and they didn’t even get it out their mouth before I was like, yes, I’m in.
How did you know that he (Chris) was the one?
Jesse Collins (Executive Producer)
Chris is one of the most vivid, what Chris can do with a visual, he makes the most basic scene look incredible. I never knew a director that could come in and bring a style to this film because Stephen and I, and Chris were like, ‘we can’t mess this up, black twitter will kill us if we mess this up’ (audience breaks out in laughter). So we had to make sure that we covered all basis, and obviously the director is one of the most important pieces, so Chris was that guy.
How did you know that we weren’t going to get it wrong, and why was it so important to tell this kind of story?
Stephen Hill (BET President)
It was important to tell the story because it’s a story of black men sticking together through thick and thin, and that was the bottom line, over 30 plus years, and its about music that means something, you know people had their posters in their room. I’ve had to call it this before, it’s a real Shakespearan story of love, of lost, of betrayal, of great music and art.
It’s something we knew we had to get right… And the guys weren’t going to let us get it wrong. We had several meetings, in several different states, different cities, about how we were going to get it right. So it was crucial to put together the dream team here. Though it wasn’t a breeze, it was destined to be right.
What was the toughest part to make?
Chris Robinson
It’s filmmaking right, so as many dreams that you have and which vision that you have, it fits into functionality. And we told a story that stemmed from 1978 to 2005, and we told that story in 2016.
In order to win a super bowl, everything has to be right with the organization, the popcorn man has to be on point, all the way to the head coach.
And these actors were amazing, it was not only performances, I watched them for six weeks go through the process of learning every dance move, from the original creator Brooke Payne. I watched these guys twist ankles, tear muscles, and then come in, I’d call them on the weekends to sit around and go over the characters and the script. So these guys were dedicated.
It’s difficult to make a mediocre film, it’s really hard to make a great film and I think with the efforts of everybody here we made a great film.
What was the process for you (entire cast) to mentally prepare, with the whole world watching to make sure you got it right?
Woody McClain (plays Bobby Brown)
These guys have been doing for over thirty years, so for us to come in and only have like a month to get the same chemistry that they been having for like ever, that was the most hardest thing to have to do. We were calling eachother late nights, Luke would drag us to his apartment, I didn’t really want to go to his apartment at three o’clock in the morning lol, but it was good to be with these fellas and work on this project.
Keith Powers (plays Ronnie DeVoe)
I got nervous to talk to Ronnie man, and him being the most effortless dancer man. That was nerve wrecking for me, but I remember he would be like, ‘yo, you know Keith, when you do that move, just do it smooth,’ when he would talk to me, I would be like, ‘man this dude is smooth’. I didn’t possess this smoothness, that’s years of being smooth.
Mentally, we had to really get there.
We would really have conversations, when we are eating lunch, text each other in the morning, I’m talking group chats, I’m talking being at eachothers houses building chemistry, just everything; we watched videos after videos, and then we started getting in competition like ‘nah man, Ronnie had the most girls’; we were really embodying and just falling in love with everything.
Elijah Kelly (plays Ricky Bell)
It was funny, we were rehearsing one day, doing ‘If It Isn’t Love’. So we were running the choreography for if it isn’t love, which is the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do. Like you think you can do it like when you were in the living room, no you didn’t. You didn’t do it right. I thought we did it in the living room too, it was never right. Never.
There was a move that I was trying to do and I was asking Ricky for advice, and he was like ‘you know what, do that, but um, just be way cooler,’ and I was like, ‘damn, all these years I thought I was cool, I was luke warm’. Piggybacking off of what they were saying about the thirty years, understanding the professionalism everyday. Literally getting up, and Brooke Payne, he was responsible for that, everyday no matter what time it was, no matter what was. If we were doing the choreography wrong, they would do the choreography with us. Ronnie standing in front of him, Johnny standing in front of him, Bobby came in, Mike, Ricky and they’re like, ‘this is how you do it’.
Bryshere Y. Gray (plays Michael Bivins)
It was a lot of pressure, you know Mike was like, if you are going to play me in real life, you have to stay with me for two weeks, so I stayed with him for two weeks. Getting his whole charisma, everything about him, just getting all that stored in my brain. And then these guys right here, I just want to say this has been one of my most favorite casts I’ve been working with right now. Working with Chris Robinson has been amazing, I haven’t worked with him, I’m just honored to be working with him as well.
And you know, the whole Michael Bivins thing, he is the smarts, he is the brains. He came up with big trends with Boyz II Men, so many. It was an honor to play him, fifteen to thirty.
I just wanted to capture that essence of who he was back then.
Was it challenging for you to play a character whose life was already?
Bryshere Y. Gray
For me being in television every week, I just wanted to pick a character that you could step away and not see Hakeem, you’ll see Michael Bivins, the legendary from New Edition. So I took it as a responsibility. I can’t wait for y’all to see it.
What was it like seeing yourselves up there on the screen like that (Mike, Ricky, Ronnie)?
Ronnie DeVoe
I was nervous as hell. You know, as a matter of fact, about two and half weeks ago, Jesse sat down with Rick, myself, Mike, and my uncle. And he brought his laptop and was able to show us like two or three of the scenes, and it just felt like, wow, those NE4Lifers that have been holding us down. This is just a passion for us, but they lifted us up for the last 33 plus years in a way that now our story can be told. And just sitting here man felt like its a surreal situation. A lot of times in life when a persons story is told, they are not here to see it.
My grandmother would always say, ‘let me smell my roses while I’m here,’ and it smells really good.
What was it like to come up as an artist in an age when they could get you to sign your life away for $500?
Michael Bivins
$500 in the eighties was like $10,000. You gotta think, where we were living, our parents had the other money, the foodstamp money. So to see green money. When we got the money, we were like, ‘we are going to buy a car, we are going to buy some furniture, a house’. We didn’t know that we were thinking too far and didn’t have enough money for all of that, but what we did do that made us even closer was, we all decided to buy Mopeds. So, we were fourteen, you use to always see us riding through the projects on them and nobody would mess with us, it was like they understood that we were doing something for the projects.
I think, we were in a blur, we were just on stage just trying to sing to them. We didn’t know literally what they were taking from us, we didn’t care, we had a little money in our pocket, we could go buy sneakers, we could do what we could do, not realizing that all that other money was gone. As we started talking to eachother and realizing that, we were playing Madison Square garden two-three times in one day, that’s what the circus do. WE were like, well damn, look at all that money. It just set off a light, and hopefully our story helps other groups come together.
I hope when our joint comes on, that people call eachother.
In our houses, we had single parents, it was really about our mama’s. I don’t even think we would be here or grew up the way we did if it wasn’t for this guy, this guy was our father (speaking of Brooke Payne), he was more than just our choreographer. I just wanted to tell you, I know you don’t do a lot of talking, they don’t make them like you. And whatever you were feeling for us when we were trying to get on, and you saw this vision, thank you for raising us so that we could sit here to talk to NE4Lifers. We love you.
What did you see in them to actually make the sacrifice to mentor them?
Brooke Payne (founder of New Edition)
Before they even came to me, where we lived at it had some kids, and I seen the termination of them, like you see in the movie. There were these set of kids that I could help in some way to have them go a different way. So they had something they could do after school, they had a goal to go after.
That was important to me than them becoming like several other black kids that turn out to be dead or in jail.
What does New Edition mean to the music scene over the last thirty years?
Stephen Hill
Its something special when you start early and you have a teenage fan base. When they put your posters on the wall that means something, they buy two or three copies of one album, and that’s in the day when the album would come out and you would still buy the single when the single came out. There’s an energy that exists in that type of behavior that doesn’t exist anywhere else. I believe that they are the last black male group that became hot when they were young, that really understood what it means to be true to their fans, and to bring a great show.
What surprised you about the audition process? Was it difficult to find the essence of New Edition?
Chris Robinson
The audition process was interesting because we went all over the country, Boston, Los Angeles, we put word out in DC and Atlanta and the guys came together just like I feel the group came together, one piece at a time. Bryshere was actually recommended by Michael Bivins’ wife who said, “I think he could play you”.
Quick story, we were like, Elijah Kelly he can sing, he can dance, he just did the Wiz, he’s an amazing dude, so we sat down with him and truthfully trying to convince him to be part of this, then he recommended and said to me, “who were you thinking about playing Johnny Gill?” We were like, you know what, we are really wrestling with that, and he was like, he said “you ever thought about Luke James,” so that brother opened up to give that guy a shot.
Woody, we had a lot of guys, and I talked to Fatima and she told me about Woody. I went online and looked at his crazy videos, I met him, and he’s a great dancer.
And then Keith, we actually brought him on for Ralph, but he really wanted to play Ronnie. It didn’t work out for Ralph, but he became the top choice for Ronnie.
I can hardly wait until 2017 for the miniseries to air. NE4Lifers will certainly be reliving childhoods all across America on that premiere night.
