Marsha Stephanie Blake is having a great year.
She stars in three films which played at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival. We spoke with her at the premiere of Luce. Check out what she had to say below.
The Knockturnal: So, tell me about your role in this film.
Marsha Stephanie Blake: My role is Rosemary, I play Harriet’s sister, and Harriet is Octavia Spencer, and Rosemary is the side of Harriet that she might want to keep from the rest of the world. But I come out and I shake things up a little bit.
The Knockturnal: How was working with Octavia?
Marsha Stephanie Blake: She’s incredible. She is everything I was hoping she would be, and she lived up to those expectations and beyond, because I always felt like she was on my side, and she’s a very generous scene partner. And if you know anything about this film, everyone who sees this film, you will understand what I mean when I say I needed someone that I felt safe with but who I also felt was on my side and who was going to work with me in any iteration of the character I came up with, so yeah, she was all of that, she was all those things, and no ego. I mean, she was awesome.
The Knockturnal: Awesome. So this was adapted from a play.
Marsha Stephanie Blake: Yes. Which I saw, I saw the play.
The Knockturnal: Tell me about that.
Marsha Stephanie Blake: I had seen the play when it was at Lincoln Center, I just happened to go see this play with my friend, loved it and then…
The Knockturnal: Real full circle moment to actually be in the movie, right?
Marsha Stephanie Blake: Completely.
The Knockturnal: And you also have several other projects at Tribeca. How exciting is that?
Marsha Stephanie Blake: It’s so exciting. It’s unbelievable that everything happened this year, but I have two other films, Goldie and See You Yesterday, both very unique in their own ways. Very different from Luce, but, yeah, it’s a blessing.
The Knockturnal: Can you tell us about your role in Goldie?
Marsha Stephanie Blake: My role in Goldie, I play the mom, so there is the storyline of a family, a homeless family, they live in a homeless shelter and then the mom gets arrested and Goldie then takes her sisters on a journey, trying to run away from Child Protective Services. So I am the mom. I’m the mom who creates this huge issue for her kids.
The Knockturnal: How was working with the young talent in that?
Marsha Stephanie Blake: Oh, awesome. They’re great. The lead, Goldie, Slick Woods, first time, first film. She is incredible. An incredible actress, but very raw, very real. The story is based on her life, loosely based on her life. There was a lot of moments, like really emotional moments, for all of us.
The Knockturnal: Cathartic moments?
Marsha Stephanie Blake: For her I hope, and I think so. I think from what she said that she definitely had some, she said it felt like therapy, and then the little girls were just delightful. I think when we shot they were 10 and maybe five? And I have two little girls, so I see them, they still call me Momma. Slick calls me Momma. You know, those are my babies. I love ’em.
The Knockturnal: And tell me about your other film See You Yesterday?
Marsha Stephanie Blake: Directed by Stefon Bristol, produced by Spike Lee and this one is a little bit more intense, I guess. It’s about a young man in Brooklyn who gets shot by the police, wrongfully shot by the police and his sister, who is a STEM kid, a scientist, decides to try to build a time machine, to go back in time to save his life. And I play that mom. The mom of the lead.
The Knockturnal: And you also have When They See Us directed by Ava DuVernay.
Marsha Stephanie Blake: It’ll be on Netflix May 31st.
The Knockturnal: And how excited are you for the world to see that?
Marsha Stephanie Blake: I can’t wait because it’s a story that I think the world doesn’t know, which is the true story of what really happened to these families when their lives were destroyed. It didn’t just happen to those boys. It’s not the Central Park Five, I think specifically because what Ava says, it’s that entire neighborhood and all their families. Hundreds of people affected by it. So it’s not Central Park Five, it’s like Central Park hundreds. So, yeah, I am so excited for people to see the true story of how these boys’ lives were affected and their families and their friends and that neighborhood.
We also spoke with actress Andrea Bang on the red carpet. Check out our interview below:
We spoke with @LuceMovie star #andreabang at the @Tribeca premiere @ATT pic.twitter.com/VajVL2CCq0
— The Knockturnal (@_TheKnockturnal) April 29, 2019
