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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - When we see like, you know,
00:06 dear white people, bad hair, and this,
00:08 I think one would think like,
00:09 these are like, this is like a vast departure
00:11 from some of your previous work,
00:13 but how do you think this film is kind of like
00:15 the natural progression of your feature film work?
00:19 - Weirdly, "Haunted Mansion" is both of my two
00:22 first features kind of smashed together.
00:24 On one end, it's an ensemble comedy
00:27 about people who would not hang out with each other
00:30 if it weren't for their circumstances.
00:32 Sam, Lionel, Troy, and Coco would not be friends
00:35 unless they were the only ones at this very specific school.
00:39 And then in "Bad Hair," it's, you know,
00:41 we're playing with horror camp,
00:42 and we're playing with these sort of genre flourishes
00:45 to ultimately tell a story about a woman's, you know,
00:49 decision to choose how she walks through the world.
00:52 And here, we have this ensemble comedy,
00:55 we have these genre flourishes,
00:57 we have, you know, all of these different set pieces
00:59 and campy fun that we can get into.
01:01 But at the end of the day,
01:02 it's in service to like a really real human story.
01:06 At the center of my movie is a black man
01:09 who feels his feelings and finds a way to be a father
01:12 to a kid that he just met.
01:14 I'm sorry, that's an important story.
01:16 It's an important story to tell.
01:18 It moved me to my core reading this.
01:20 And I had the same, I was like, why would I do this?
01:23 This doesn't make sense, it's the third film.
01:27 And I started reading the script written by Kay Dippel,
01:30 you know, late at night on my way to bed,
01:32 it's gonna be a quick pass.
01:34 I was up all night in tears.
01:36 It really, really touched me.
01:39 And in all of my stories are kind of these
01:42 would-be father-son stories that are kind of embedded,
01:44 you know, whether we're talking about Troy and his father,
01:48 whether we're talking about Anna Bloodso
01:49 and her uncle in "Bad Hair."
01:52 I don't know why I keep telling those stories,
01:54 but I mean, I kind of do know 'cause I've been in therapy,
01:56 but I tend to gravitate towards those stories,
02:01 kind of mending family ties kind of stories.
02:05 So for whatever reason, reading the script,
02:08 I felt like I know exactly how to make this movie.
02:10 And I don't care what it looks like on the outside.
02:12 I know how to make this movie.
02:13 And I want to make something that is escapist
02:16 and crowd-pleasing, but still has something to say.
02:19 I really wanted to do that next.
02:20 And this movie came along.
02:22 - And how do you think this film will be able to,
02:25 or if you set out to make sure that it was broad appealing,
02:28 'cause you can appeal to the family,
02:30 it can appeal to kids, but also could appeal to adults
02:32 as well as people who are familiar with the ride,
02:35 those who are unfamiliar with it.
02:37 Did you set out to make something that could be
02:39 wide-ranging as far as the appeal?
02:41 - Yeah, I mean, first of all, walking into this movie,
02:45 I knew that this wasn't just my story alone to tell.
02:48 This is a piece of IP that's been around
02:50 since before I was alive, okay?
02:52 So from the beginning, me and the Walt Disney Corporation
02:56 and all the different stakeholders and creative visionaries
03:00 that have been involved in this franchise for its life,
03:04 I knew that this was gonna be a group effort.
03:06 So that was really important to me,
03:08 to be of service in that way,
03:10 because I already love the ride
03:11 and I already love New Orleans
03:13 and I already love what the script had to say.
03:14 So I wanted to be of service.
03:17 That's the first thing.
03:18 The other thing is that I knew that
03:19 I'm the target demo.
03:21 I mean, I am basically a Disney adult, okay?
03:24 Like I grew up on "Little Mermaid" and "Beauty and the Beast"
03:27 and going to Disney World and all that.
03:29 That was me.
03:30 And I felt like with these kind of family movies,
03:35 like I wanted to make sure that like,
03:37 if I had nothing to do with the movie
03:38 and I walked in and I sat down,
03:40 I would really enjoy myself.
03:42 And it would not like get me arrested
03:44 by being wildly inappropriate for families and children.
03:48 So those were the two things I had to balance really.
03:51 And the rest of it is like, it's audience testing.
03:55 I mean, this is a big old movie
03:56 and I sort of knew from the get-go
03:59 that like there's a lot that audiences
04:01 were gonna have to tell us while we make the film
04:03 and after we've made the film.
04:05 And so for me, there was a real commitment
04:07 to sort of leaning into that experience
04:09 and just listening to hear where audiences were at.
04:12 And to my end, the studio surprised
04:14 mostly where they were at,
04:15 especially the kids were like, "Bring on the scares.
04:18 We want even more.
04:19 We wanna see the blood.
04:20 We wanna see the gore."
04:21 And so I ended up getting away with quite a lot of stuff.
04:24 - No, I was watching, I was like, I mean,
04:26 I was like, okay, this is definitely thrilling.
04:28 It's definitely like the thriller aspect of it.
04:30 - Yeah, it's got that, you know, just a little,
04:33 yeah, okay.
04:34 I wasn't scared.
04:35 (both laughing)
04:36 Just a couple of those moments.
04:38 - And you mentioned the characters,
04:40 you know, you're bringing together these ragtag characters
04:42 who may not necessarily like even interact,
04:44 but also as far as like the actors and the casting,
04:47 like these are actors who you may not have thought
04:50 would have shared screen time together.
04:52 So what was it like having them as a part of the film?
04:54 - I mean, that's the most fun part of the job
04:57 is working with actors like this ensemble
05:00 and people who really wanna play.
05:02 I learned how to direct in the theater.
05:04 And so coming, you know, working with actors
05:06 in an ensemble environment to me
05:08 is like one of the most fun things to do.
05:10 And creating space for people who are as brilliantly capable
05:14 as these actors are to be themselves,
05:16 but then kind of just like ricochet off of each other.
05:19 Nothing is more fun to me than that.
05:23 And I just felt like if we got the right people
05:26 in each roles, they would sort of find a chemistry
05:29 and a dynamic that would make this thing come to life.
05:31 And that's exactly what happened.
05:33 And I think all over the place,
05:35 there are these dynamic duos that you didn't know
05:36 you needed.
05:37 Like, I don't think I knew I needed the Owen Wilson,
05:40 the Keith, you know, buddy comedy, but I need it.
05:42 I need it more than life itself at this point.
05:45 I didn't realize that I needed, you know, J.B. Lee Curtis
05:47 and Tiffany Haddish to be besties, but I did.
05:49 And I do.
05:50 And I think I want a lot more from them too.
05:53 And that was the fun of it.
05:54 Just kind of putting these people together
05:56 and being like, oh, well, that's a weird shape.
05:58 That's fun.
05:59 - Well, thank you so, so much for chatting with me.
06:02 I can't wait for more people to see this film.
06:03 So do either of you have a connection to the attraction
06:06 in the ride that kind of, you know,
06:08 made you wanna be a part of this film?
06:10 - I really loved the idea of the Easter eggs and everything.
06:14 Like the commitment to the details.
06:17 Justin actually used to work at Disneyland
06:19 when he was younger.
06:20 So like, he just wanted, he just was so specific
06:24 about really making it for the folks who love it
06:27 for so many generations to feel really seen.
06:30 But I loved how he modernized it and just the characters
06:33 and the storytelling.
06:34 And I don't know, I just, I think it's,
06:37 it's quite an adventure and a ride.
06:38 When you go on the ride at Disneyland
06:40 or Disney World or anywhere, it's very immersive.
06:43 That's one of the things that's so particular about it.
06:45 And that's what this film really feels like.
06:48 So I cannot wait to see this in the theater with everybody
06:50 'cause I've only seen it in the dark by myself
06:53 at 10 a.m. in the morning.
06:54 So that immersive feeling, like being on the ride
06:57 and seeing yourselves, there's that moment
06:59 where you're kind of on the ride in the little buggy
07:02 and you see a, you know, a hitchhiking ghost with you.
07:04 But you also in those mirrors see everyone else.
07:07 So it's one of the first things,
07:08 before you ever see yourself with the ghost,
07:10 you can see everyone else in the buggies around you.
07:12 Like it's such a communal scare, you know,
07:14 like you hear people freaking out ahead of you
07:17 and, you know, and kind of jumping at the thing
07:20 that you just jumped at behind you.
07:21 And I think that's just so fun about it.
07:23 So that to me makes it feel like the perfect ride
07:27 to turn into a movie that you see in the theater.
07:29 - Yeah, it's also what happens in the theater, you know,
07:31 like that's what makes the experience so fun.
07:33 You're with other people, they're reacting,
07:35 you're reacting, you're reacting to them reacting.
07:37 We're so social that we like to see other people reacting
07:41 and so it either validates us
07:43 or sometimes makes us feel like, I disagree.
07:45 Or you know, but it's just dope to be in a communal space
07:48 with people experiencing something.
07:50 And so much of the ride is incorporated into the movie
07:54 that, I mean, it's gonna be so fun for a bunch of people
07:57 who are fans of the ride to be in a theater together,
08:00 watching this movie and knowing that that's the thing,
08:03 you know what I mean?
08:04 Like there's so many of those.
08:05 And there's actual literal scenes where people are on,
08:10 like you're on a ride, your chair's moving,
08:12 like you're in a ride.
08:13 - No, like the funniest part during the screening
08:15 was the characters getting thrown out of the chairs.
08:18 And like, I felt like, you know,
08:19 I felt like it still would have felt the same
08:20 when I was watching it at home,
08:21 but just being in a theater and around people
08:24 and seeing people react the same way I did
08:26 was pretty special.
08:27 So I definitely know that resonates with me as well.
08:30 And this film is, you know, it's for everyone, I feel like.
08:33 You know, I feel like, you know,
08:34 the whole family can watch it,
08:36 but it also has like a lot of important themes as well.
08:39 So Lakith, for you,
08:40 how would you describe Ben's journey throughout this film
08:43 and kind of how that also relates to, you know,
08:45 like grief and healing and kind of like reconciling things
08:49 that you may not have thought about before?
08:51 - Yeah, I think grief, like a lot of, you know,
08:57 less than favorable or negative emotions
08:59 can be seated in the soul
09:01 as something that can sort of start to bog you down
09:04 over time if it's not properly therapized
09:07 and like learning how to deal with those
09:09 harder, tougher questions.
09:12 So figuring out what is the best way
09:14 to ingest your experiences
09:16 and deal with things like PTSD or mourning
09:20 and things like, and how you're gonna do that.
09:21 I think actually the best way to do that is with community
09:25 and through other people and reflections,
09:26 but ultimately it's gonna call
09:28 for some internal investigation
09:30 for you to make the proper decision for yourself.
09:33 And so I think Ben finds himself going through those things
09:36 where he feels isolated and alone until people show up
09:40 who give him an opportunity to interact with others
09:43 and interact with things that he thought
09:44 he knew the answer to,
09:46 but he had to humble himself and re-ask these questions
09:49 and make new decisions in order to discover new things.
09:53 And I think that's what we all have to do.
09:54 We have to make a choice
09:56 to try to start a different internal conversation
09:59 and then we can navigate and move
10:00 and perhaps open ourselves up to seeing things
10:03 from a new, fresh perspective.
10:05 - Yeah, that's the reason why some of my favorite scenes
10:07 in the movie are between Ben and Travis,
10:09 because I feel like they kind of needed each other
10:12 in different ways from what they were going through,
10:14 whether that was his grief or him just being
10:17 in a new town, a new school.
10:20 And it kind of, yeah, it just really made me feel like,
10:23 wow, people coming together really sometimes changes things.
10:26 And the fact that this is a theatrical release
10:29 and we're still having movies and theaters,
10:31 but being together in communal spaces
10:33 is still something that's still relatively new for us,
10:36 even in 2023.
10:38 So that's something to think about as well, for sure.
10:41 And for your character of Gabby,
10:43 she kind of has this important role
10:45 when this rag tag group of characters comes together,
10:48 she's kind of the one that gives purpose
10:49 and grounds everyone and has everyone stay on task
10:52 for trying to get rid of this once and for all.
10:55 - Protect herself. - Yes.
10:56 Yes, and for her son too.
10:58 So why do you think that it was so important
11:01 for this character to have this sort of role
11:03 within this group, this ensemble,
11:05 but she's kind of like that force within it?
11:08 - I love it.
11:09 I love playing the mom, you know, and the hostess.
11:11 I think she feels a lot of responsibility.
11:14 I think she feels a lot of guilt,
11:15 as you do when you're a single mom and, you know,
11:18 you put your child into a precarious, dangerous situation
11:22 and, you know, she feels a strong sense of responsibility.
11:25 And, you know, she's just got also a lot of conviction.
11:28 She's a very strong person, you know,
11:31 and she's constantly always wanting
11:33 to put her best foot forward.
11:34 And I just loved how she didn't succumb to her fear.
11:38 She didn't succumb to her anger.
11:40 She didn't succumb to her guilt or her shame.
11:42 You know, she had those emotions,
11:44 but you could see what her driving force
11:46 was her love of her son and her faith and her belief
11:49 that, you know, that something better could come from it
11:51 if they put their effort towards it, you know?
11:54 And I think that's what she was constantly pushing
11:56 for the other folks around her.
11:57 She's, you're an expert, you know what you're doing.
11:59 If all of us together, we can make something special.
12:02 And I loved that alchemy.
12:04 I loved her understanding and appreciation of that
12:06 and her faith and, you know,
12:08 just sort of that representation.
12:09 Like ultimately this is exactly what she wants
12:11 in this house.
12:12 That's why she got it.
12:13 It's 'cause she could do this B&B
12:14 and have all kinds of ragtag people come through
12:17 and kind of show them to her son, like the diversity
12:20 and the beauty of this world, you know?
12:22 And so I love that that didn't get lost, you know,
12:24 it wasn't like this could be an expression
12:27 that could shut everybody down and show like,
12:29 never try, never make an effort, you know?
12:32 But instead it turned into, this is why we show up every day
12:35 and do our best because magic can happen, you know?
12:38 And I loved that being a discovery
12:41 almost for every single character.
12:42 It's like a validation of why they get up, you know?
12:45 And in like, while we're alive,
12:47 like this is what we get to do while we're alive.
12:49 - Yes. - Love it, yeah.
12:51 - And lastly, what was it like having,
12:52 not only being a part of this movie that's set
12:54 in New Orleans, but also filming in New Orleans?
12:56 Like this is my first time here and like,
12:58 the humidity is like, it's sticky, it's sticky.
13:01 But what was that experience like?
13:03 - Yeah, there's like the hitchhiking ghost
13:04 who sticks with you, just saying it doesn't leave you.
13:07 - Yeah. - Yeah.
13:08 - It's, the air is thick with humidity
13:13 and with spirituality, it's like sort of
13:15 beating through the city.
13:17 But I love it, you know, I love the heat,
13:20 California kind of tripping right now with the heat,
13:22 so I want it to turn up a little bit.
13:24 So I like it, and I like the history
13:26 and the spiritual nature of people here.
13:29 You know, sort of African-ness that exists here,
13:32 just feels good to have in the backdrop, you know,
13:36 of anything that you might be doing here.
13:38 I filmed another movie here called "The Photograph"
13:40 and it was beautiful as well.
13:43 And that was my first time here,
13:44 so I really wanted to come back,
13:45 so I was glad this film brought me back here.
13:48 And yeah, it was a super beautiful experience
13:52 and it just, I didn't get a chance to go on
13:54 any haunted tours, but hopefully I can do that
13:56 before I leave this time.
13:57 - Have a good day.
13:58 - So have you done this?
14:00 - Yes, I went on one today.
14:01 - Oh really? - Woo!
14:02 - Yeah, apparently our hotel, the Press Hotel is haunted,
14:04 so like, that's-- - Oh, nice.
14:06 - We had to keep an extra eye out tonight.
14:08 - Okay, so you want to eye open, okay.
14:10 - Yes, well thank you both so, so much for chatting with me.
14:13 I enjoyed this film so much, and I wanted to know,
14:15 like, did you, both of you, either have any experience
14:17 with the ride that may have influenced, you know,
14:20 your portrayal in this film, or just wanted to be
14:22 a part of it?
14:23 - Well, I knew the ride, the attraction.
14:25 - The attraction.
14:26 - The attraction, haunted mansion, I was, I'm old,
14:31 I've been on it since I was a very little girl,
14:33 and there's something about the nostalgia of the ride,
14:37 the attraction, that I really, that is very important to me.
14:42 Justin was gonna make his own movie,
14:46 using beautiful homages to the attraction,
14:50 but I felt like what they were doing was very unique
14:53 to what the movie was.
14:55 - Mm-hmm, and for me, you know me, I used to go
14:58 to Disneyland all the time, and you had to get
15:01 on haunted mansion.
15:02 Because, you gotta get in that line,
15:04 'cause it's the coolest ride.
15:06 It's most like, it's air conditioned once you go inside,
15:09 now it do be scary when the walls get tall!
15:11 And then you like, go into this little dark place,
15:13 and then you get into the theater, you turn around,
15:15 and then, ooh, ooh, ooh!
15:17 But it feels so good at the same time.
15:19 And that's something that I loved about it.
15:21 And that's kinda how I felt on set, like,
15:24 it'd be a ghost over here, I forget that there's a ghost
15:27 in the scene that day, and I'm like, oh, hey,
15:29 but it's nice and cool on the stage, sorry man.
15:31 - And it was beautiful.
15:32 They rebuilt an entire mansion on stage.
15:37 And it was done so beautifully, and the costumes are,
15:42 I've never in my life worn costumes like that.
15:44 - How long did it take you to put your costume on?
15:46 - I had four helpers.
15:49 - You had four helpers?
15:49 - I had to have four people to put that on.
15:51 And they created a slant board for me,
15:54 like the old movie stars, 'cause it was very hard
15:56 to sit in it, because I was in a corset very, very,
16:00 very tight, 'cause Jeffrey Kurland gave me back
16:03 my waistline, which had been lost for a decade!
16:05 - Had to snatch!
16:06 - And he, boy, they tied me in one day,
16:10 and then he walked in and he was like, mm-mm.
16:13 And he put his foot on my back and yanked that thing.
16:16 - He was all gotta get together.
16:17 - And gave me a 31-inch waistline for about a week,
16:21 and it was unbelievable.
16:23 - Be ready!
16:24 Wait, wait, so it was like, what, like an hour, two hours?
16:27 - Took about an hour.
16:28 - Now, me being a hard head, I didn't want everybody
16:31 touching on my body, and they gave me one person,
16:34 but then I still was a hard head, I'm like,
16:35 I will put on my own pantyhose, I will put on my own,
16:38 I'm a big girl!
16:39 - You were like, I got it, you were like, I got it.
16:39 - And it took me an hour and a half, and I had these claws.
16:42 - You had claws, you had super long nails.
16:44 - So I would put everything on, but never tighten nothing,
16:47 and then the girl would come in and tighten everything,
16:48 and it'd take me about an hour and a half
16:50 to get everything on, the makeup, the hair,
16:52 like the big old wrap.
16:55 I always felt like I was transforming
16:58 as I was putting it on.
17:00 'Cause I imagined this is what Harry would be doing.
17:02 Every ring that I had to match, I would put it on,
17:05 like I was, like, ugh, this is gonna kill them
17:07 in the mansion today.
17:10 That's what I was doing in my room.
17:11 - I feel like the transformations in this movie
17:13 are both literal and physical,
17:14 like in every sense of the word.
17:17 - Yes, and the nails.
17:19 - The nails, the nails.
17:19 - Oh, she has.
17:20 I asked her about wiping.
17:23 - Everybody asked me about wiping.
17:26 I mean, there's a technique to it.
17:27 - I'm telling you, her nails were this long.
17:30 - There's a technique to it.
17:31 - Well, we can't do it on national television.
17:34 - I mean, you just gotta, ugh.
17:35 - I know, but it's a this.
17:38 It's not even, forget I even mentioned it.
17:41 - In the movie's context,
17:42 like, J.Lo, for you,
17:47 you play such a character that's iconic with the ride,
17:50 and you have so many big moments in the film,
17:52 but some of those moments are in the context
17:55 of the crystal ball at the same time,
17:57 so what was that, being able to channel that,
18:00 but it's kind of within a confine?
18:02 - I've also, it was the first time
18:04 I've ever had costumes made to that specification
18:08 and that elaborate of a costume,
18:10 and I've never done motion capture,
18:15 where you wear dots on your face,
18:17 and you are put in, I mean, we were there together.
18:20 I mean, it's just, they hold your head with a vice,
18:24 'cause you can't move your head,
18:26 so it was acting with your face,
18:28 but without moving your head around was interesting.
18:32 - It was so cool to watch you do that,
18:34 and I felt like I learned so much from you,
18:37 and the way she did it, she would hit every time,
18:39 and then Justin would give her some suggestions,
18:41 and she would just, the way she would move her eyes,
18:44 and I'm like, oh, I wanna learn how to do that,
18:46 and nothing else was moving, I'm like, how do you do that?
18:48 - It was intense.
18:50 - How do you do that, though?
18:51 - It's control, right?
18:53 'Cause I can't talk when I'm moving.
18:56 - It's age, darling, it's just age.
18:58 - And I wanna be just like you when I grow up.
19:02 - And Tiffany, for you, I wonder whether
19:04 any other cinematic references that you had
19:06 for the character of Harriet,
19:07 because I was getting a little bit of,
19:08 like, you know, whoopie and ghost tease,
19:10 like some things like that within your character,
19:12 so I wanted to know what you think about any of those
19:14 when you were approaching the role.
19:16 - Yeah, I definitely watched Ghost,
19:18 I definitely, you know, watched our girl, Miss Cleo.
19:21 I have found some old episodes,
19:24 'cause you know she used to do long infomercials,
19:26 and be taking people's calls.
19:27 Miss Cleo, call me now!
19:29 - The commercials, like the--
19:31 - And then I watched some documentary.
19:32 - They would come on late at night.
19:33 They would come on real late at night.
19:33 - Yeah, 'cause you late at night.
19:34 - And I go to bed early.
19:35 - Yeah, yeah, 9.30, right?
19:36 - 9 o'clock, 8.75, 8, 7.45, 6, 6.30?
19:41 - There you go.
19:45 - Oh my God, I couldn't do it, I couldn't do it.
19:46 I'd be up at 3 o'clock in the morning.
19:48 You know what I'm saying?
19:50 - I am.
19:50 That's the point.
19:54 (laughing)
19:56 The point, you bed at 6.30,
19:57 and you wake up at 3.30, 4 o'clock,
20:00 and then the world is your oyster.
20:03 - Yeah, but then, like, everything's closed.
20:06 - But you can control the universe.
20:08 'Cause ain't nobody up.
20:11 - They are in New York.
20:13 - You right, you right about that?
20:14 You right about that?
20:16 But what if you are in New York,
20:17 then you go to bed at 3.30?
20:19 - We'll talk later.
20:20 (laughing)
20:21 - Well, thank you both so, so much for chatting with me.
20:24 And I can't wait for more people to see the film.