Issa Rae & Director Stella Meghie Break Down the First Date Scene in ‘The Photograph'

I love hip-hop, so there's certain things

I would like to think of as bars in the movie.

Bars.

And it's like that line of what if

we're just who we are in the,

around in the moment.

Try that again. Let's try that again.

To fumble that's bars.

Hi, I'm Stella Meghie,

the writer, director, of The Photograph.

And I am Issa Rae, one of the actresses in The Photograph,

and this is Notes on a Scene.

I like Kanye, Yeah.

but I'm just concerned that

he don't care about music no more.

He does not, He don't care about us.

That's a valid.

He does not care about us, anymore.

He cares about interior design,

like when did he get into that?

Like I'm not tryna buy Kanye pillows [laughs],

you know?

[Stella] I wrote The Photograph about five years ago,

it started off kind of with an idea you wouldn't think of.

It was my grandmother kind of being reunited

with a daughter she had not seen in over 30 years,

and I was experiencing what she was experiencing.

And ended up flipping that into kind of more romantic love.

As things started picking up to get it made,

I'd just done an episode of Insecure with Issa.

And we seemed to like each other.

I really liked her.

She was like a trash person but I really liked her.

Like Issa was hard to deal with,

but she was fun to drink with.

So there was a compromise.

No I got to see the nuances of all her performances,

and so when we were getting close to green light,

she was the first person I thought of

and sent it to you.

I was like Oh,

and read it immediately.

You're a fast reader.

Thank you so much, that's a compliment.

And was honored that she thought about me for it.

I was like Oh where is the best friend character,

'cause she's probably, [laughs]

thinking of me for that.

[Stella] The scene that we're breaking down is,

kind of your first date with Lakeith,

or Michael as he is called in this movie.

We shot it at Indochine in New York City,

we were really looking for something that felt layered,

and storied.

I was eyeing the food the whole time,

and we do this thing that

will show you all the dishes. The food is good there.

You didn't go eat there?

No we didn't go eat there.

We can go when we go back to New York.

False promises.

Yeah, It's funny 'cause with Indochine,

I was looking for the place and my production designer

'kept telling me about this place,

and I 'kept being like, I don't think it's right.

And he was like Please, let's just go see it.

And when I walked in, it was the color palette of our film.

Like, these jewel tones, these dark greens,

and the deep [bleep]. You see the lights

right here? The lights,

everything about it is so rich.

Even the plants and they kind of added to the pastoral vibes

of kind of connecting to Louisiana.

It was kind of based on a real date that I've had.

It was this really great booth date,

and I just kept thinking of this booth.

And you guys really getting to know each other,

and being kind of really close in proximity.

I mean I loved the back booth,

and even though putting you back there didn't add

kind of depth behind you,

we had this amazing, you know,

this amazing mirror back here.

[Issa] I remember moving a lot,

of just like, No, it's not right here, It's here.

[Stella] We tried it a few, Back to this spot.

[Stella] yeah.

And it was like amazing because I wanted you guys,

the restaurant to feel busy.

But I wanted y'all to feel like

you were alone, and intimate,

and only could see each other in the moment.

I really wanted to start creeping in on their conversation,

so there's a long dolly track,

that just pushed slowly in.

Past all the patrons in the restaurant.

Drake.

Drake, okay.

See Drake for me,

Drake is like the homie,

you know, he's like a friend at school who you know and.

Who knows us.

[Stella] You guys were ad-libbing,

'cause the scene wasn't really supposed to start

'till the camera stopped

Oh yeah, yeah we were ad-libbing.

And you made up this fun ad-lib about Kanye pillows,

and interior design that I ended up keeping.

It was very much like true to our actual lives,

I wasn't really acting there.

Because I'm a Drake stan

and Lakeith is a Kendrick stan so.

It was a real battle.

It was a real battle.

I thought that was kind of a fun way to show chemistry,

'cause sometimes when you're on dates,

you connect by arguing a little bit, you know?

That's very true,

that flirtatious banter. Which is a little immature.

But you're trying to be flirtatious,

you're trying to like connect and have fun with each other,

and a little debate can be very fun.

Just no, hear me out,

I just, you make me feel guilty.

[laughs] 'cause I can't

I hope so.

I just feel like everybody can't be a change in the world,

everybody can't do that.

It's too ambitious.

[Stella] As the date progresses,

it's meant to get a little bit closer.

So right now, you know,

it went from, kind of, that wide

to this like closer shot of Lakeith,

where he's really getting in.

[Issa] His eyes, look at his piercing ass eyes.

[Stella] Lakeith's eyes are very soulful,

you can get caught up in them.

Oh you do. I believe anything he says

when he tells me it.

100% lying ass.

[laughs]

He's not a liar

in this movie. Okay, you're right.

I remember in the edit room,

going back and forth with my editor, Shannon,

of that moment where he's like,

building up the courage to get closer to you,

and wanting to see you both in the frame as that happened.

And he kind of says the wrong thing,

and then we kind of pop out.

It's just I always say the same thing

that I've said to another woman, you know.

Are there a lot of other women?

No, there's a lot of first dates.

Yeah, I'm terrible at first dates.

Why?

Well I just don't know whether to be

vulnerable, aloof, funny.

Why don't you just be yourself?

I don't know who that is.

[Stella] I mean this part is one of my favorite things.

You're like trying to present

the best version of yourself on a date,

and figure out also what will kind of captivate him,

and he was like just be yourself.

And it was such a simple thing to say,

but it was such a moment where

you said the most honest thing.

Like, who is that?

[Stella] Yeah. And that's

why we're really close on you here.

I think those little moments are when you realize,

oh he's kind of seeing me.

For Mae to not know who she is,

and to kind of just have this word vomit

of self deprecation with insecurities.

[Stella] Yeah, and he's so secure in his...

In his discomfort,

he's very very.

He's secure in his flaws.

Exactly.

I don't know maybe I'm just a collection of

rum dresses and henday wylie prints.

[whispers] I don't think so.

You know I love hip-hip, so there's certain things

I would like to think of as bars in the movie.

Bars.

And it's like that line of,

what if we're just who we are

in the, around, in the moment.

Try that again.

Let's try that again.

Fumble, that's bars.

Hey, when if we're just ah.

You ever wonder if we're just

if we're just who we're around in the moment?

Not if we think that it's important that we pay attention

to who we surround ourselves with then.

True.

[Stella] There's such a fine line

when you're doing romance.

Of like, what sounds profound and what sounds corny.

But I was, the way that you ended up saying,

like what if we're just around who we are in the moment.

It was so soulful, like I was like Oh.

And you felt very vulnerable when you said it.

What?

Wondering if it's not too early in the night to kiss you.

[Stella] This was one of my favorite scenes to shoot.

[Issa] Same, this was the big kiss moment.

This was the big moment, we had to get it right.

We scheduled the whole day for this scene.

I had a whole playlist going,

do you remember?

I don't.

[laughs]

I brought my speaker,

I had a playlist going.

There was probably Drake on it.

There was, I do remember now.

Okay, yes, it was a good playlist.

And it's one day on set

I've ever worn heals in my whole life.

Because you knew a photographer was coming.

Well that is true.

[laughs]

We did get a fire photo on this day.

We did.

[Stella] I wanted to kind of dress up

and be in the energy of the date,

and just wanted to kind of get in the mood with you guys,

and create the atmosphere

I wanted it to feel like on screen.

I remember just feeling really excited to shoot this,

because this was kind of the meat

of a lot of their initial chemistry.

This was also one of the lighter scenes

in the film.

You know, of just Meghan getting to be herself

and expressing someone who sees her,

in a way that she's not used to.

And obviously having just lost her mother,

it felt like the first time that her mother wasn't

so present on her mind.

There was drafts where you spoke about your mother in it,

and I purposely was like I don't think

that is the mood I want here.

I want this scene to really build the connection

in the present of showing you two

falling in love.

I debated it back and forth,

but in the end I felt like if you talked about your mother

the scene would take on a heaviness.

That would make it impossible,

as good as Lakeith is as an actor,

to make a turn and kiss you.

Your mom dead, cool.

[laughs]

This is pretty early,

this was like week one or two.

[Stella] I think it was the end of week one we shot this.

I mean you guys had great chemistry from the first read.

After I talked to Lakeith,

and I felt like he was really Michael,

we flew down and saw you in Louisiana

where you were shooting,

and this was the scene we read together to see

if we felt like this was all a match.

As soon as he started talking.

Even then, when we were doing the test,

obviously improv was allowed,

and we were going back and forth

with these tangents about music,

and everything he brought up I was like,

Yeah I really do want to talk about this, yeah okay.

Okay, we can keep going.

Yeah you guys were passionate about it.

Oh this is that moment where he leans in and kisses you.

I remember the energy on set was just,

it was just it was [laughs].

You have to rewind.

I tried to do the heart, and it wasn't me.

This gives me anxiety,

when people leave their markers uncapped.

It's drying.

Is it dry?

I had a teacher that did that,

and I was like [bleep] that's why you can't teach.

Because you out here doing this.

[Stella] Oh this is really intimate,

rewinding backwards of you guys kissing, okay.

When you guys finally kissed,

it was electric.

Everyone on set, I remember Will was behind us

and he was like Oh this is a trailer moment.

And it definitely did end up in the trailer,

you could kind of feel the electricity.

The moment that I think is the best

is this moment right here.

When, because this was ad-lib.

It was, sure was.

It wasn't too early.

Oh, [laughs] I see.

It wasn't too early,

and that was like the best ad-lib ever that,

you know, you could only come up with on the spot.

I'm Stella Meghie, the writer, director of The Photograph.

And I'm Issa Rae, one of the actresses in The Photograph.

The actress in The Photograph.

Thanks so much for watching our episode of Notes on a Scene.