Hulu's upcoming film She Taught Love is different from most other love stories, and the cast is here to explain why.
The film is about Darrell Britt-Gibson's Frank, an aspiring actor who meets Arsema Thomas' Mali, a sports agent who is doing her best to live life to its fullest as she faces a ticking timer due to her cancer diagnosis. It doesn't take long for sparks to fly between them as their worlds change and evolve due to intense love.
She Taught Love Is a Unique Love Story For Many Reasons
The Direct's Russ Milheim was on the red carpet for the premiere of She Taught Love, where the cast behind Hulu's newest film helps break down what makes this love story stand out from the rest.
Arsema Thomas, who plays leading lady Mali in the movie, feels one of the key components of this love story that sets it apart is how "you don't usually get to see a woman of [her] skin tone and complexion at the lead of their own narrative:"
"It's a mix of a couple of different lovely elements of this equation... You don't usually get to see women of my skin tone and complexion at the lead of their own narrative. You don't usually get to see a black love story that doesn't have racial trauma, and you don't get to see such nuance in three-dimensional characters that don't really fit into any type of stereotype or caricature."
One key element of Mali is how she loves science fiction and Star Wars despite not looking like the stereotypes that would come to most people's minds.
"There's something beautiful about recognizing that every demographic is not a monolith," Thomas explained:
"Mali is a character who loves Star Wars, but when you think of that and the way that the media has portrayed people who look like that, you think of one type of person, and she doesn't look like that. And there's something beautiful about recognizing that every demographic is not a monolith. We don't have this little avatar that we all subscribe to. So, in a lot of different ways, this movie is about breaking."
Starring across from Thomas as the other half of her, the film's love duo is Frank, played by Darrell Britt-Gibson.
"It's just been forever since you've seen it. It just feels very necessary, feels timely, and we're just telling a story in a way that I feel will open the door for many more stories like this to exist, especially in the space of black people... We get inundated with our traumas, and whether it be film or television, and so just to be able to show us loving each other and feeling love, I think it's a revolutionary act. And so it just feels different."
Gibson also wrote the film, a side of the process he's never been on before. One of the most unique experiences for the filmmaker was being "on a set hearing people say words that [he] wrote:"
"I'm on a set hearing people say words that I wrote. That's different. I've never been on that side of it. I've always been on the other side, saying words written by other people, some of the greatest writers of all time; I've had the pleasure of reading their words. So, to have my own words being read on a set, sometimes I was like, 'Wow, this is like, we're here.' I've been working on this film for seven years, so to really be here and on set was just a blessing, man."
Edwin Lee Gibson, the man behind Kevin, Mali's father, explained that the love story in She Taught Love is "not relegated to just two people:"
"[The love story is] not relegated to just two people. There's just love. It's a love story. You see it in their friendships, in their marriages. You see it in this relationship. You see two characters that have a love for themselves. That's what I think sets it apart. Usually, like, you know, just like a thing, there's this thing, and then there's everything else that doesn't relate to it at all."
Gibson was also thrilled to be able to play a father in this movie, which is not something he's able to do very often in his roles:
"I haven't had a chance to play a lot of fathers, so that was unique. And being able to care for Arsema and Darrell in different ways was a lot of fun for me."
In the film, Frank's manager, Laura, is played by D'Arcy Carden, who noted that the entire movie is "a love story to love stories:"
"It feels very real. It's a love story to love stories if that makes sense. It's a love letter to the idea of a love story. It's so beautiful... There's just something very real about it... It's a beautiful, emotional story with two actors that really connected, and you can really see it in the film."
Alexander Hodge, the actor behind Justin, Frank's roommate, compared the film to famous Hongkonger film director Wong Kar-wai, while also pointing out how She Taught Love "[feels] so intimate and so unpolished," which he feels is rare these days:
"I was reminded of Wong Kar-wai, and interestingly, I'm reticent to elicit that name through Western storytelling because I think Wong Kai-wai, you know, exists in his own space for a reason, but this felt so intimate and so unpolished that I couldn't help it but reminisce on movies that raised me. And I don't think that we seek an unpolished story anymore. We don't seek something that's a little rough around the edges anymore. We seek perfection. And this movie doesn't seek perfection. And I love that it seeks reality. And to me, it feels real."
She Taught Love starts streaming on September 27.
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