The Source Magazine sat down with “Best Man Holiday” Director Malcolm D. Lee to discuss his latest film out today November 15.
Q: So tell me, when did you first realize that you wanted to do a sequel and what was the process like?
They’ve been talking about a sequel since the first movie came out, but I wasn’t interested in doing that, trying to tackle that story again. It was my first film and I wanted other stories to tell. But I thought I would revisit these characters maybe ten years later or so. And so what happened was, I think around late 2005, I started to think about what a sequel would look like, just writing down a couple of ideas and listening to some Christmas music and that kind of thing. But then I didn’t really commit pen to paper until 2011 when I had met with my cast and I said, “Here, I have an idea for a sequel. If we like it, great; if we don’t, then we will see each other again.” So they all liked the idea and I went to the studio and pitched them the idea. The rest is a longer history, but we got it done.
Q: Can you tell me about developing the plot? Where did you want these characters to go?
Well I knew that we couldn’t revisit the same…We’d revisit the same characters, but we weren’t going to revisit the same storyline. There had to be some things that would be intriguing, that were changed, and interesting characters and some new plot lines, but still maintain the integrity of the first one by having some of those lingering tensions between Lance and Harper and Jordan and Robyn and Candy and Shelby. And then also just keep the humor with Quentin and Shelby’s character and see where they naturally would evolve to. So it was a process, but one that developed over a number of years and by the time I sat down and committed to doing it, I knew the story I wanted to tell.
Q: And the original “Best Man” ended up being career defining for many of the actors involved. Can you speak about that?
We assembled a very good cast the first time around. I was fortunate that so many people responded to the script in a way that they did. So with Taye and Nia, and Morris who had some experience, and Terrence who was just kind of coming out and Taye was kind of coming out, Sanaa was undiscovered as well as Regina Hall, it was great to have a platform for them to display their talent and as well, with this movie, because they’ve grown as artists, I had to give them something that was going to be challenging to them and that was again more sophisticated and complex, so that they can have something to sink their teeth into and show their wares as performers.
Q: Tell me about the process of putting together the soundtrack and wrangling the talent. You even have a scene with Anthony Hamilton and Marsha Ambrosius in the film.
As I said, even back in 2006 I was listening to Christmas music and figuring out how that can be interwoven into the story, the fabric of the story. So I wrote a number of these songs into the script, where they would play and how they would play during the movie. And I knew I wanted to do a ballad version of “As,” Stevie Wonder’s song that was so popular back in the album “Key of Life,” but also in the first “Best Man,” I thought it would to be a great duet. So we got a great label partner in RCA and they had a great roster of artists with Mario and Fantasia and Marsha Ambrosius, Anthony Hamilton, Jordin Sparks, Charlie Wilson, R. Kelly, and they all participated in the record. It was great to have them come up with original songs as well remakes of Christmas music.
The Best Man Holiday arrives in theatres nationwide on November 15th.
The Best Man Holiday – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack track listing:
- Christmastime To Me | Jordin Sparks
- Someday at Christmas | Mario
- What Christmas Means To Me | Fantasia
- I Still Have You | Charlie Wilson
- Christmas, I’ll Be Steppin’ | R. Kelly
- This Christmas | Mary J. Blige
- Shelter | John Legend
- Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas | Monica
- Winter Wonderland | Emeli Sandé
- Can You Stand The Rain | New Edition
- I Want To Come Home for Christmas | Ne-Yo
- O Holy Night | Jayda Brown & Jasmine Watkins
- As | Marsha Ambrosius & Anthony Hamilton
Official film website: www.best-man.com
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