In the final part of the conversation I moderated between the actresses Zainab Jah (who will next be seen in Seacole) and Jayme Lawson (who will next be seen in The Batman), they talk about going to Sundance for the first time. They were there in January to premiere their film together Farewell Amor in which they play mother and daughter immigrants. With nostalgia for film festivals in full bloom, let's take a trip back to a happier time just a handful of months ago...
JAYME LAWSON: I think that was just about everybody's first time at Sundance. Right?
ZAINAB JAH: It was my first time.
JAYME: A first for a lot of the cast and crew. So of course we were all very nervous for that first screening. I went to you and said 'please sit by me.'
ZAINAB: Yes, I know, really scared.
JAYME: Because [Farewell Amor] was such an intimate set. So then to see it, to see what the final product would be and share it with everybody, it was nerve-wracking and emotional.
ZAINAB: It was my first time seeing it, too. I was like, Oh my God. Yeah.
JAYME: There were a lot of beautiful surprises. Esther's role [Zainab's] really stood out, and came across in a way that wasn't on the page initially. But when we saw it at Sundance -- Yes. That's it. That's the storyline.
ZAINAB: Wow. I never thought about it like that. It was exhausting with all the press leading up to events but I think the Tony Awards might have been more exhausting because we'd have to do all these luncheons and dinners and press events at like ungodly hours, like 8:00 AM -- I'm not a morning person -- and then have to go and do a matinee. I'm like, 'do you realize I have to go put myself in this emotional place for the whole day and now you want me to go and smile and wear a pretty dress?' But it was really exciting. Of course the day of the Tonys is really exciting, very glamorous. Seeing all the stars.
It wasn't too dissimilar to going to Sundance, seeing all these people who you only ever seen on screen that you admired. So that was exciting. One fun thing for me at Sundance was seeing Ethan Hawke. He was on the jury. We had just finished shooting a TV show together. They were both just really exciting fun but exhausting, really exhausting.
The conversation ends with the 2020 Sundance Awards. Zainab had stayed for the event but Jayme had flown to London.
We were there for the final night at Sundance, the awards. Radha Blank, who had made The 40 Year Old Version is a good friend of mine. It was hilarious that speech she made [for Best Director] because she didn't know they were going to call her name -- they don't tell you! So we'd been pounding some alcohol... [Both laugh]
When they called her name she just started bawling. It was hilarious. And then Dee Rees handed her her award. That was funny because I hadn't seen Dee since we were doing Eclipsed at Yale when Adepero had left to go do Pariah with her. And then the last time I was with Dee and Radha was at my house. So it was one of those really weird but cool moments. All these people are coming together. Wish you'd been there, Jayme.
JAYME: I know!
ZAINAB: But somebody needed to go to London to go do fancy things.
Previously:
Part 1. Mothers - Mother/daughter relationships in the movies
Part 2. Stage Acting - Working with Lupita N'yongo in Eclipsed