The Source Magazine sat down with “About Last Night” Producer Will Packer and Director Steve Pink to discuss their latest film which came out nationwide on Valentine’s Day.

Check out what The Producer, Director Duo told reporters at our roundtable:

Q. You guys did a great job with casting this film. The chemistry between both couples are off the charts and Kevin Hart and Regina Hall, who I personally feel are at her best in this film get it so right! What was the casting process for this film? 

Will Packer: You know when the script came to me there was no cast. And I immediately thought Kevin hart would be great for it. You look at of course how Jim Belushi portrayed Bernie and it’s completely different from how Kevin portrayed Bernie. But the way Bernie is written, he was so engaging and so funny and such a wild card and spontaneous and because I have worked with Kevin multiple times before and I knew that it would be right down the center of his skill set. And then from that point it was about fleshing out the rest of the characters and figuring out the rest of the cast, finding actors that would bring a voice; because you put a film together, you have a great script, but until you have the right director and the right actors, you don’t know what the execution is going to be. So as a producer, it was my dream to get this cast, I’ve worked with Kevin, Michael and Regina who I knew would could give as good as she got, I knew she could keep up with Kevin, she just hadn’t had a chance to do that yet in the way that she does in this film. And I love the dynamic of those two juxtaposing the dynamic of Mike and Joy. And I hadn’t worked with Joy before, but she fit right in. So I think as a producer when you have go to talent that you know does something really, really well you let them do it, you let them run and you go to them again and again. And putting them in the hands of Steve with this material, I knew that this combination would win.

Q. Your short hand with Kevin, how does that work? 

Will Packer: We’ve done 5 movies together now and Kevin is someone who works well between the lines and outside the lines, so you have to let him go and do what he does because he’s so good with timing a rhythm. You kind of give him a template and let him go. When I was thinking about who I wanted to direct this, I wanted to make sure that we had somebody who would have an even hand and allow the actors the freedom to play. We obviously had a story to tell, we had perimeters we had to stay within, but if you give Kevin the perimeters and just let him run, he’ll give you comedic gems because he understands rhythm and timing, and Regina as well, so that dynamic worked really well. In terms of a short hand, there’s no question, when you work with somebody for that long there are just things that you get and things that you understand and things that you know.

Steve Pink: It’s a bit deceptive when it comes to actors like Kevin who are so comedically on fire. He’s such a comedic genius and I think it’s a bit of a myth when people automatically think “Oh, he just goes out there and is outrageous, and it works”, Kevin is very concerned with the emotional context of every scene, so when he’s being really funny, he also understands what the emotional dynamic is in every particular scene and he knows where he is in his relationship with Regina. He’s always very aware of where he is in the movie and he makes it look so effortless, he makes it look like he’s just having a great time and just makes it look easy in that regard. I think that when you see actors that have that kind of comedic genius, you don’t really see the technical part of it, but he was always really concerned in any given scene through the whole course of the story where he was emotionally. He cared how his character was evolving and that’s really true of all the actors in how they dealt with their characters throughout the story and it’s especially true of Kevin.

Watching the film made me realize that this was a great film to go see with the ladies or the fellas. The ladies will surely love it as much as I did, but what do you think that it is in “About Last Night” that will be attractive to your male audience? Why will guys want to go out and see this film?

Will Packer: I think they will because it’s honest. It’s real and it’s kind of unflinching. It’s not a Hollywood sanitized Rom Com. It takes risk, and it’s edgy. And that makes it different. It’s not your typical Valentine’s Day chick flick if you will. If we’re going to use that label, it’s not really that, I think that the dynamic between Michael and Kevin and the dynamic between Joy and Regina is just as interesting as the couples’ dynamics. I think that what makes this film work is the honesty in the way that they speak to one another when the opposite sex is not around and I think that a lot of guys will come in and they’ll be able to relate to it. These are people who are passionate, people that make smart decisions and dumb decisions. These are people that do the right things and then horribly wrong things and we all know people like that and if you don’t, you’re that person. It’s just very relatable and that’s why I think it will play and be appealing across the genders.

Steve Pink: I agree. What’s really interesting about the buddy comedy aspect is that they’re navigating these relationships, but of course dudes never really want to admit what they’re feeling. So it’s really great to watch these guys give each other terrible advice. And then later in the film when they’ve both been transformed by meeting these woman starting these relationships with them and they have to confront one another and say ok, now that we’ve now had these experiences and can no longer hide behind our bravado or whatever, now we’re really going to talk to each other about it and that really advances their relationship. So there’s a really cool story that’s being told with those guys that’s real as well as the fact that they’re really, really funny together.

The film is very unpredictable I remember seeing a particular scene in the movie and saying ok, I can totally map out the rest of the movie and then the story goes in a completely different direction that was so unpredictable.

Will Packer: That’s probably the biggest compliments that you can pay to a filmmaker that a film was unpredictable, so thank you.

“Ride Along” was such a huge hit and it’s looks like this will be good business as well, how happy are you? Talk about what this year has been like for you and for Kevin?

Will Packer: Ecstatic! Look we all work so very hard in this business and try to put the best products out and we work really hard to promote them, but when it all comes together that’s amazing, because you can work really hard on a film and it not be received critically or commercially. When you have a film that comes together and works like a “Ride Along” you have to just embrace the moment. Because Kevin, he works so hard and as a producer I ask a lot of my talent. In pre-production, production, post-production, and then a lot in promotion. I always do that and Kevin is always right there ready to go, he has a tireless work ethic and the dynamic of him and the other people involved in “Ride Along” it really worked. And so what I’d like to see, well obviously Kevin’s star is rising, he’s officially a movie star. I think when you open a movie up the way that movie opened, new people found him that didn’t know him before and so I’m hopeful that those same people will then now find “About Last Night”, because it’s a very different film, but I’m so proud of this project. I think that if audiences really go in a find this film, it will pay them back and they’ll enjoy it.

Every great film has it’s challenges. What were the challenges in producing and directing this film?

Steve Pink: As a director I always say time. Time, time, time, and money you know we went into downtown L.A. and we had to shoot and get a lot of complex stuff done, and tell a really funny sophisticated story quickly. As a director, you always want more time, and you always want more days, but I think that we were able to kind of focus on the right things to make the movie and to make the movie great but, it’s just the default challenge of any director once you get the actors together you want to shoot and you want to shoot forever because it’s such a joy and a pleasure when you get to call action and turn the camera’s on; you don’t want to turn them off, you want to keep shooting and you want to get the most out of everything and tell the best story. So that’s always the root challenge for me.

Will Packer: I would echo that. With any film like Steve said working with the resources that are available to you. Additionally. from a producer’s perspective, it was also casting. Working with Steve and working with the studio to get the cast right. It could be one of the greatest ideas to remake “About Last Night” or one of the worst ideas ever. And I think al lot of that hinged on the voices you brought in to give life to that script, and the chemistry that those characters would have. I think the film works the way that it does because of the chemistry between the foursome and the various couplings. That is something that I’m very proud of, the way that we cast this film. I think that it’s a perfect cast for the tone and pitch for this film, and that was something that was really important going in; we knew that we had to get that right.

I got a chance to interview you on the red carpet in New York City for The Source for “Think Like A Man” one thing that you spoke about was working with predominantly black cast yet not being pigeon held by the term “black film”, I think you’ve come into your own with that because I don’t feel like this is a quote on quote “black film” this is a film that anybody can go out and see, enjoy and relate to. How are you keeping that up and staying true to yourself with telling our stories and making them universal across the board? Also with so many gems and one liners I feel like this film has the potential to be a new cult classic and potentially have a sequel, do you see a sequel happening for this film?

Will Packer: Hollywood and people in general are just comfortable with labels. We like to label everything because it sanitizes things for us, and it makes us comfortable. The black film label is something that has been used for quite a while, but as I’ve stated many times I want to make good films. I want to make films that have universal themes, that can appeal to a diversity of people. I’m very proud of the fact that this film happens to have four African American leads. But I’m even prouder of the fact that’s this film is not specifically about four African American leads and that the film works and it comes together and that there’s nothing culturally or ethnically specific that feels exclusionary to any demo.

To answer the sequel question, we’ll see. Hollywood is the great reactor, so they will react to what happens in a couple of weeks. If audiences come out and respond, and enjoy the chemistry and say that they want to see this group of actors again, I bet there will be a way to figure out how to do it. That will be my job!

-Chasity Saunders (@itsmechasity)