Boaz Yakin and Mecca Verdell on 'Once Again (For the Very First Time)': A Deep Dive into Hip-Hop, Dance, and Storytelling
Download MP3And welcome to The Truth in His Art, your source for conversations at the intersection of arts, culture, and community. I am your host, Rob Lee. And today, I am thrilled to be joined by 2 guests. First, she is an internationally acclaimed spoken word poet, teaching artist, and actor of film and theater. And he is an award winning filmmaker known for works like Fresh, Remember the Titans, and The Harder They Fall.
Rob Lee:Together, they've collaborated on, once again for the very first time, a breakdance hip hop supernatural romance that blends dance, rap, and poetry to tell a unique love story. Please welcome, Mecca Verdell and Boaz Yakin. Welcome to the podcast.
Mecca Verdell:Yeah. I, so hello. My name is Mecca Verdell or in the poetry streets. One of my earliest perform, like, creative memories, man, I don't know. I know I always talk about how I as soon as I turned 18, but it might have been a little bit, like, 17 between 17, 18, I was taking the bus by myself to New York to go perform consistently, like, once every 2 weeks, to kind of just build up my performance career there.
Mecca Verdell:And, yeah, I was really, like, I was really out here. I was out here as a teenager just doing a whole bunch, I mean, as a lot of people have. But for the last 10 years well, now it's kind of been, like, a little mix of 10 years, like, 10th, 11 years now, I've been as poets, book award artist, poetry teacher, competing doing poetry, and now for the last 3 years, consistently doing acting in theater.
Boaz Yakin:Well, you know, I'm kind of in the family business. My parents were pantomimes when I was a kid, and I was actually being taken on tour with them before I could walk, which are not memories I actually remember. But my my first actual real memories are from when I was about 3a half. My my father was brought in to direct an off Broadway show called Jacques Brel is alive and well and living in Paris in the sixties. And it turned out to be a a really big success, his biggest success.
Boaz Yakin:But I still remember being 3 and a half years old and watching him work with the the singers and actors on stage. And, and, he was a he was an expert in movement for actors because of his mom background. So for me, doing the kind of movies that I've done in the last couple of years, like, once again, which I did just did with Mecca, and the movie I did before this called Aviva, which is also a very heavily dance oriented film, it's like I've kinda come full circle from some of those early experiences I had with my parents as a kid.
Rob Lee:Thank you. I I now can remove that rapid fire question about mimes that I had left. So you got me. You're you're making my job easier already.
Mecca Verdell:Bo has actually reminded me of something. Just the fact that my mom would bring me bring home, like, all these random DVDs of just old theater, all old plays and stuff. So when I the first time I watched Funny Girl, Barbara Streisand, is when I knew I was I was like, Yeah. I want to be an artist, an actress. And then from then on, whenever we watch Martin, for some reason, I would reenact the whole episodes for them, like, just in front of them while it was playing on TV.
Mecca Verdell:So I was like, oh, that's a good early that's a better early memory.
Rob Lee:So so you you you've actually doubled up. You're giving me more. You're giving me say, this is the point of that question. You get those extra details. It jogs memory.
Rob Lee:So, I'd be I'd be remiss since it's a nice sort of segue point. Bo, as you mentioned, once again, so let's let's talk about us. Talk about sort of going right into it, sort of the you know, as the writer and and the filmmaker, just what was it about this story that resonated with you and made you want to, like, bring it to life? And I have a second part for Rebecca specifically, but, you know, I wanna at least start there.
Boaz Yakin:Well, I had I hadn't like I said, I had made this this film called Aviva before, which was the first film I I made that really dealt with dance, and it was also very experimental in terms of the way it was cast and everything. And it it was an experience I I really loved. And, I had a a very painful and challenging personal relationship in my life, that I knew I wanted to express in some kind of creative way. And I I wanted to use to continue this language of dance, but I added poetry to this one and and and the idea. But I I knew I wanted to represent art as a battle and life as a battle.
Boaz Yakin:So the idea of using battle dancing and battle rapping or or poetry, slam poetry, as the kind of artistic modes came to me. And it also was an opportunity to then work with great African American black artists that I've been wanting to work with. So that's sort of how that idea started to take shape and, and leading into Mecca. It's about a man and a woman and their painful relationship. And, I the woman was going to be this spoken word poet slash want to be and ultimately becoming rapper.
Boaz Yakin:And had to find someone that could do that believably and also act. And and, luckily, we were able to, to find Mecca, because she really combines all those elements really just beautifully.
Rob Lee:Thank you. And, yeah, I have to lobby it over to you, Mecca. Let's let's let's hear it. So you're playing Naima. Right?
Mecca Verdell:Yes.
Rob Lee:So tell us about that, and what was what was the draw? Obviously, I think Bo has kinda covered a piece of it, but what was
Mecca Verdell:his goal for the curve? Draw was that I was in the the draw was that that year, I literally dropped everything to just do theater and acting. And by the middle of me doing Romeo and Juliet, I get this email asking me to audition for a film that's paying. Okay. And I said, oh, I'm doing this for I don't care what it is.
Mecca Verdell:I'm doing it. But then over the initial attraction that it was an opportunity, it really was a thing where it's just like, wow, this is yet another project that feels like it's talking directly to my life. And then also the fact that, you know, I have yet to be in a play that didn't feel like it was speaking to a certain part of my my history and how I'm feeling about myself. And for this, for this script, it definitely helped me. I remember when we were talking about, where the script came from and Boaz kinda joked with me about how, like, I was too young to have gone through, you know, what they have really gone through in the film yet.
Mecca Verdell:But the thing is I had, a pretty bad, friendship breakup and, you know, that was enough to kind of really change and rock my world a little bit. Not just a little bit, but a lot of it. And, you know, provide me enough, to kind of, like, really think about that along with a lot of painful late relationships that were happening around that same time. And it kind of being, like, this great, way to kinda express myself through that emotionally and also the fact that I could literally play myself while also, challenge myself too as an actor and really push myself creatively.
Rob Lee:Thank you. And and I have, like, sort of a a follow-up to that. It's it's kinda gauche to ask because it's kinda funny. How did you prepare to how did you prepare in a way of you you kinda touched on it a second ago, it's like, kinda plan myself kinda drawing from, like, sort of real experiences, but how did you how did you prepare it for it?
Mecca Verdell:I mean, it was it it was perfect timing because I'm just coming off of a play. Right? About and it's Romeo and Juliet. It's about relationships, about heartbreak, love. It's about all those things.
Mecca Verdell:And, of course, Romeo on the on the audience side, it's just Romeo and Juliet. Everybody knows how it ends, but, you know, as an actor, there's so much things that you have to do to prepare and make sure that you are, you know, you believe and support and understand everything that your character is going through. So with that process, I was able to transfer all of that into, Naima as well, because even though it's not the same, you know, situation, it's also these 2 people who are struggling with communication, just like everybody in Romeo and Juliet. But also, it's just like these 2 people struggling with communication and can only speak through poetry and, you know, only can speak through soundness, only can talk to each other through art. So it was really a blessing that I was coming off of something else that I was I was, exercising that muscle
Boaz Yakin:Yeah.
Mecca Verdell:As an actor. It was just kind of really I was just really lucky to just have that already prepared so that way I can just jump into it because it that this was not easy. This wouldn't have been easy for anybody, like, you know, just for anybody just kinda just jump into, especially for their first film.
Rob Lee:Thank you. That's that's great. And I wanna go back to Boaz a sec for a second, to to talk about the sort of the, you know, the the the process for for this film and sort of moving in this direction. I see elements of, you know, supernatural elements, these fantasy elements. There's the choreography.
Rob Lee:There's there's dance. So in in preparation and in sort of the the the process of of writing and then the process of production and preproduction that process in bringing the film to life. Could you speak to maybe how this film is different from previous works? And obviously, in other ways, how it's maybe similar to previous works as you said that there's movement that's been a part of this sort of progress, but so to speak on, like, the most re this this recent work and sort of those the differences and maybe those similarities.
Boaz Yakin:Yeah. It's, like, it is a progression from the last one that I did where I dealt with dance. That one was also about how our personalities are fractured and about, like, a a the the the male female imbalance in the self and how that affects relationships. So I had 4 actors playing 2 people, like a man and a woman played the man, and a man and a woman played the woman. And that was the more abstract part of that movie, but the the story was a straightforward kind of a story.
Boaz Yakin:In this one, I knew I wanted to deal with movement and poetry to tell the story, but I also wanted to do something new, which was not to have any of the usual story elements to drive it forward. But to completely, in a kind of a surrealistic dream like manner, approach what these characters were feeling, what they were going through, and to see if I could create tension and drama and a sense of wanting to know what's going to happen, sheerly based on that feeling between the two characters and how they were experiencing their lives. So that was new, and that was a new approach for me. And I think it's a pretty unique film in that way. Not many films do what we did in this film.
Boaz Yakin:It's it's storytelling is completely dreamlike and and intuitive, and not your usual thing. So that that was definitely new for me. And, you know, I've done it in bits and pieces in other films. But to do an entire film, that's essentially a dream. That was interesting.
Rob Lee:Yeah. It definitely comes through in, watching a trailer multiple times. I was like, you're falling, dude. Like, this is it's like one of my fears in a dream, so that definitely comes through in that. And even this the the sort of the the urban dynamic, because it's it's filmed in or set in New York.
Rob Lee:Right?
Boaz Yakin:It's set in a kind of a timeless version of of of New York. Yeah. For sure.
Rob Lee:So, also, if if you would, could you speak on sort of the collaboration with the choreographer, Renny Renny Harris?
Boaz Yakin:Renny Harris. Yeah. Who is really, in his field, really quite legendary. That's the thing. It's a collaboration.
Boaz Yakin:Right? You start out with an idea, but it's a collaboration. And and as I said, this piece, I did my I I had to to kind of immerse myself in the idea of of street dancing culture, which is not my background, and portray that as accurately as I could on the page. But then it really needed someone who understood how to do that and how to push that to another level on screen. And we were lucky enough to find Renny Harris, who's an incredible, dance core I mean, he was an incredible dancer, back in the eighties dancing with Run DMs.
Boaz Yakin:He he toured with Run DMC, and he had a show in Philadelphia. And and he straddles the world of street dancing and contemporary and modern dance. He's ended up choreographing for Alvin Ailey, in later years. And he has his own dance company in Philly. So it's like he really at at this point in his career and his life, he has his fingers in every aspect of the dance culture.
Boaz Yakin:Right? And so he was just the perfect person to be able to help express this stuff, and he brings an authenticity to it. He worked with Mecca too who had never danced before and did an incredible job, in this. But, you know, he he was the the one who really brought the authenticity and the texture that makes this whole film balance between the sort of the street and the sky, so to speak. You know?
Rob Lee:I love the the balance between the street and the sky. And as a as a proud owner of 2 left feet, right, so dance movement, my partner would not like it. He loves she loves dance. She has a dance background. She's like, you're embarrassing yourself.
Rob Lee:I can already hear it. I don't preoccupy myself with dance. I appreciate it. I I love it, but I'm like, I I can't do this. I'm too big.
Rob Lee:I'm in a way. But what are the from both of your perspectives, what are the sort of the the challenges and and the rewards of, you know, having movement and and having folks that are are maybe learning sort of the these movements for the first time, this dance for the first time, and that being a part in storytelling. You know, Nneka, you're you're you're learning some of this stuff for your character. Speak a bit on sort of, you know, the rewards and the challenges of, like, learning some of these movements in this film.
Mecca Verdell:I think the first thing I noticed, I just love Renny's storytelling. Right? So the way he's told he had so many stories that went with the movements and why he picked them. Like, he was telling us stories about his mother and his own history, and I was able to use that into why we were doing certain movements as well and related that to myself, especially, like, the the history behind shaking the ground in some of the movements, shaking the ground and feeling its vibrations and feeling its life and letting it flow through you and and prop you up. The first dance I got to learn was Naeema's, white what I would call the white dress dance her or her ancestral realm dance.
Mecca Verdell:And at the by the end of it, I was always so emotional because I think, you know, a lot of times we walk out we walk through life and we're just using our bodies as utility utilitarian things. But when we're using it to communicate language and communicate feelings that we have or we're using it to try and reach something, I feel like I was it you know, it was come like, the film came at such a spiritual point in my life, I think, because I was I feel like I was closing out a lot of different things, but I also had to look at the things that I was closing out inside of me. And with that piece, it was just very emotional for me every time. At the end of every scene, you just see me snotting and, like, crying. And, I also have to say, like, you know, the some of the things that Renee would say about dance and, like, the with the female body, it mean it helped me mature in the way that I approach myself and my body as a woman and, you know, especially because I was, like, 23 at the time, and I was turning 24.
Mecca Verdell:Well, I was 20 I don't know. I'll probably 25. I don't know. Time is weird, as you could as you will see in the movie. But, I mean, it was still, like, a transitional time of me, like, still stepping into my womanhood.
Mecca Verdell:So even when he was, like, uh-uh, grown women, they don't twerk. He was like, grown women, they don't twerk. Women, we it's it's you got to dig it. You better get you some. He would always say that.
Mecca Verdell:He's like, go back. Whenever you do a new move right, that's what he call you go get you some. So it's like just moving in a way. There were certain movements that I had to really tap into that grown woman in me. Like, that grown woman who's really confident and really in love with herself and her body and knows what she's doing with it.
Mecca Verdell:Because most of the time I'm not. And like Mecca, Mecca is very much a square, but Naima is not. So I had to like understand what that language was. And I'm just always so happy to have had, Jorobeum and Rami as, like, you have you have Jorobeum as, my my partner, as as D Ray. And, you know, he was always supporting me, making sure.
Mecca Verdell:But you will see in the movie that there are certain scenes where I'm just like, Ugh, almost forgot what I was doing. But it's, I think it, luckily, everybody else felt like it added to her humanity, so I love that. A little piece of mecca being scared inside the scene.
Rob Lee:That's great. So, Boaz, did you did you have any movement that you had to engage in? Was it one of those, like, we gotta have the director dance and we gotta have you show on set? Oh, so none?
Boaz Yakin:No. No. As a director, no. I just get to watch from the side. You know?
Boaz Yakin:But I have you know, I've been dealing with dance now for a few films, and it's it's definitely an interesting I would do it in every movie from now on if I could. Like, I I just think it's such an interesting and dynamic way to express things that you can't express with words. You know? And also, I mean, you know, I in the last few films, I work with people who are that who's are mainly dancers and then actors as opposed to actors and then dancers because I wanna have a really high level of dancing in these movies. And unfortunately, we don't live in a world today anymore where, like, you know, big movie stars are also capable of really dancing their ass off.
Boaz Yakin:Yeah. Instead, what you get is movies like La La Land where it's like, oh my god. Like, I cannot look at this dancing. Right? Like, if you taught any average person on the street those moves for 2 days, they would be able to do them.
Boaz Yakin:Right? That's not the case with what we're doing. We're making movies with, like, really top notch dancers like Jerome Baum, who's the lead dancer for for Alvin Ailey for 12 years. We have people like Classic Cruella and and and Xavier Days and Future and, King Havoc and all these really, like, legendary street dancers in their own right. And then they step up and do the acting too.
Boaz Yakin:The thing with Mecca is that her character was, you know, Mecca's real expertise is a verbal expertise. She's a poet and a spoken word poet, really. So, you know, that was the area that she had to, like, blow you away with. And the dancing, she essentially had to keep up with and and and be be emotional. You know, express herself emotionally through the dance.
Boaz Yakin:And, I mean, I do think that's what makes Mecca unique too, is that you can read all of her emotions, whether she's speaking or moving. And you can be a great dancer and not be able to express anything emotionally, and and it doesn't come through. Right? Like and you can be an untrained dancer to a degree like Mecca is, but every time she move, you wanna look at what she's doing because it's undergirded by an emotional content. And I think that that supersedes technical ability.
Boaz Yakin:Right? So Mecha was able to be a 1, 2 punch in the film. I mean, she's just verbally so powerful. And when she moves, she's magnetic and emotionally powerful. So she was definitely, like, the linchpin of of of what we were doing.
Boaz Yakin:And around her, we had these really incredible first rate, you know, dancers.
Rob Lee:Wow. So really getting the the movement down and as as you're touching on with, you know, sort of the the spoken word background, that Demeka has and that being included. And, finally, a lot of times when we're you you kinda touched on it when you referenced, like, La La Land or what have you. It's like, I'll watch a movie. I'll I'll I'll check out a film, and it's like, of a certain community, of a certain subject matter, and it's like, who did you consult?
Rob Lee:Who are the people involved here? But it sounds like bringing in sort of the top notch folks that have the background of the subject matter that you're covering, not kind of mailing it in for the sake of we gotta capture we gotta get this filled. So I really dig that. Mhmm. So talk talk a little bit about the the editing piece because having sort of a unique way of telling a story that's I'm reading that it's told from both Direy and Naima's perspectives.
Boaz Yakin:Yeah. It kind of weaves their true stories back. And sometimes they're together, but a lot of times you're going off and seeing them separately.
Rob Lee:So what were some of the challenges in, like, like, edit? I I did film forever ago, but not, like, doing film. Like, you're you're filming. I'm I'm a guy that has a microphone in front of him. So what was that editing process like with maybe like, in maybe shooting the film or film or some of those considerations in editing of bringing the story together with sort of that unique way of of blending a story?
Rob Lee:Well, I always shoot the editing in mind. Right?
Boaz Yakin:Like and and in this one in particular, I knew the transitions were gonna be so important. Like, how one because there is no traditional story to it, that the emotional transition from scene to scene, what you see at the end of one scene, what you see at the beginning of the next scene visually is so important that I really planned all that out beforehand. Right? So in terms of editing the story
Mecca Verdell:Yeah.
Boaz Yakin:It was it it it I I don't wanna say easy because, of course, the editor Jason Cacioppo and I, like, worked very hard on it. But it it knew what it wanted to be from the script. The challenges were in the more free flowing scenes like the dance scenes where, you know and there's quite a lot of moments like that in it where you have this very focused kind of one track minded story happening, and then suddenly it explodes into this kind of very anarchic moments. And those were definitely the most challenging and and kind of difficult, things to edit. Like Naima Ameca does a big rap battle scene.
Boaz Yakin:Last 9 minutes on screen. And there's a lot of improvisation in it. And and they they and the actors were really just feeling out what they were doing. And it's a it's a long rap battle. And, scenes like that really took the the most time to edit.
Rob Lee:Yeah. I was I was wondering about that because it's like when I when I think of dance, I think of street dance, and I think of, like like like rap battles spoken word. I think that there's a a sort of rawness and an energy that you wanna capture, but then also it's just like, alright. We're at 7 minutes. Can we get a cut?
Rob Lee:It's like, no. No. Keep it rolling. Keep it going. We can we can do it in post.
Boaz Yakin:Yeah. I mean, they Mecca, you can speak to how that was in the in the rap battle. But obviously, we you know, once it was all put together, we had to make our choices.
Mecca Verdell:Yeah. I mean, I it was it was definitely a lot of, like, back because I wrote so much for this scene because I really it's I was really in a mindset of, like, you could really see everybody else's art as dancers, but it was hard to be, like, you could see my art because that's I'm I'm a writer. I'm a I that's what I do. And, you know, I'm really happy that Boaz let me, you know, allow me to do, any writing at all. I Wow.
Boaz Yakin:I was asking. I needed that that was that was I was begging. Please help make this better.
Mecca Verdell:I mean, I but you didn't need that's the thing, like somebody had, I remember somebody has said something when I was telling them what they could do, they could snap if they hear something good and somebody was like, do you snap when you hear Boaz's work? And I said, absolutely. Because I, I'm like, you didn't need and especially so there's 2 there's 2 sections. In the poetry section, my poetry monologue, there was only 2 things that I wanted to to tweak because I knew it would be more impactful to me as a woman and a woman hearing this from myself. There was a that was that was the only thing that I would that I had to think about the poem itself though.
Mecca Verdell:It's really profound and I feel like it was it is a great work. And then when it got to the rap battle part, I went crazy because because I'm just it just because I'm from Baltimore. And it's just I am and I'm I'm in Atlantic City, Baltimore hybrid, raised off rap child. I could not I just had, I couldn't have people coming up to me and that's that I know in the hip hop scene and the and the poetry scene, they're like, yeah. So you all showing stuff, didn't you?
Mecca Verdell:I'm like, yes, I did. Yes. I can I can say it because it's just like it's just so funny? It's just so funny, but I'm really proud that I was it's crazy. It was like a I feel like a lot of what was happening was so intuitive and spiritually led.
Mecca Verdell:We talk y'all y'all always talk about, like, how, you know, finding the right places to shoot and film, how lucky we all were. But I feel like it was just so we were just such an we were all just so intuitive to with each other and really allowed each other the space to discover something new. And mind you, I had this fantasy of myself as a battle rapper for, like, years. And there's a scene that they actually have in a trailer where I say, why am I even talking to this nigga? And I'm like, because I've had that fantasy of my head that as a battle rapper, I would just ignore my opponent and just start rapping to the crowd.
Mecca Verdell:And then also there's something in there where I clap like this. And it's like, I I consider that like a really petty clap, like, okay. And the fact that people got it, like, understood where I was coming from with that, like, it's just, like, the ability to be raw and tap into something that I'm not like at all, it was very freeing. And I never I feel like that this whole film process, I learned to trust myself so much because people trusted me, and I, you know, I I only heard maybe 1 or 2 lines, like, that I edited, because I probably added too much in the bar for it to make sense. Like, I have this whole pitbull line that was in there, and I was just like, I'm glad y'all took that out.
Mecca Verdell:It was I'm glad y'all took that out.
Boaz Yakin:That was that was going on a little bit at that point. You know?
Mecca Verdell:It was just so fun. You were look. You know what exactly what time he left you? I was like
Boaz Yakin:Oh, no. Jason, the editor, loves rap. He loves rap, and he would obsess over some of those lines. And that was the hardest because he never wanted to cut anything out of the rap stuff.
Mecca Verdell:Oh, that's so cool.
Boaz Yakin:Yeah. But we had to because otherwise it would have been so long. So Oh, I gotta talk to
Mecca Verdell:him about that. That's so cool. Because I'm like, I'm glad that somebody they they saw it though. Like, somebody like, I like, that's I love editors because this is, like, the the right editor in the program, they can see it, and they know what's what's supposed to happen. They know what you're trying to do, and they just finesse it.
Rob Lee:That's that's great. And I feel like I also say that same thing. Like, why have you been talking to this guy? I almost say the same thing. Just pedally clapping to the back of my hand.
Rob Lee:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. City College Bad Matters back in the day. So I have one real question left, and then I have a few rapid fire questions if you'll both indulge me.
Rob Lee:So this sort of last question is for both of you. And you know, as we close, you know, what were any of the impactful or or memorable ones that kinda, like, stick out, like, just top of mind, you know, within the production or the sort of, like, the full process of even maybe even from audition to production to like sort of, you know, the film being out out there? And sort of what conversations are, are you hoping to maybe spark or maybe contribute to, whether it is in, black love, artistic expression, art in general, dance? What are what are the conversations that perhaps you're you're hoping that this film becomes a part
Boaz Yakin:of? I won't evade the question, but I will say that, you know, once you finish something, it it's not yours anymore. I mean, of course, I, of course, I feel a sense of investment in it, and I want it to reach people and all that. But you have to let go of an idea almost even of what you want people to take away. Like, it's just gonna be what people bring to it and and and but I do feel, like, if I have any hope for it, it's on a creative level that people are always saying they want something different, and then they're lying because they don't really want something different.
Boaz Yakin:They want the same shit that maybe looks a little different. I agree. I would love I would I I would love to have people engage with this and go, wow. It's possible to really experience and see and do something different. And it can still connect emotionally and be entertaining and interesting, and you can sit through it for an hour 45 minutes.
Boaz Yakin:You know what I mean? So so that's something I I really wanna take from it. And, look, I'm not a black filmmaker. Right? I'm I'm a Jewish guy from New York City, although I've made a number of films that heavily involve black characters and themes and so on.
Boaz Yakin:But I do, if I might, and hopefully don't don't get yelled at for this. If there's one thing that I do hope from this, it's that it opens up what people are willing to see from black films or for films that have black characters in them. The way it's presented, the poetry, the universality of our experience.
Rob Lee:Yeah.
Boaz Yakin:And the fact that it can be specific to a culture that way, like, Rennie and Mecca and Jerome, like, would bring the reality of it and and and the grounding of it. But it can be poetic and surrealistic, and it doesn't have to be a certain thing. Like, a film with black actors or a black film, if you wanna call it that, can be anything. Just the way a European film can be. Just the way a Russian film can be or a a Japanese film can be.
Boaz Yakin:Right? Like and and so for me, in terms of that, that's something that I hope people take away from this movie. It's it's not like it's my mission, but I really do hope that people can take that away from this.
Rob Lee:Thank thank you so much. And then to echo, before I move to to me, I could echo her her chime in there as well. I I'm on the same page. I agree so much that and I was working on questions earlier around this topic of folks talking about we want something so different. And so I was like, no, you just want something that feels slightly packaged different.
Rob Lee:And it's part of it is the Maya concept, you know, most advanced yet acceptable. But it's really just a pastiche of the old stuff that we we already have. And yeah. I mean yeah. And I I will say that this is a wild reference before I moved to Mecca.
Rob Lee:On occasions, I like to bust the stupid dope moves. I always reference Fresh, so, you know, follow your work for for for a while.
Boaz Yakin:Those lines are gonna haunt me forever.
Rob Lee:It's a great line. It's in multiple rap songs.
Mecca Verdell:Oh, I love it.
Boaz Yakin:I'm trying
Mecca Verdell:to figure it out. I'm more of an uptown girl myself. So, you know, it's just so funny. Yeah. I love that.
Mecca Verdell:No. I love that. And that's why I'm so happy that Boas is coming to Baltimore. I just think that and I'm so happy to be a part of, like, a legacy of films like this. I was gonna one of my, my what's it called my marketing tactics, if you will, was going to be how I am 6 degrees from Denzel Washington now or 6 degrees from Wicked and all these other great things.
Mecca Verdell:It's just, I mean, I, you know, it doesn't matter if I actually meet these people, which I'm excited. Hey, the app is app is, you know what I mean? But the fact that I am a part of this legacy of films
Rob Lee:Yeah.
Mecca Verdell:It's, it's it's a win for me. And I think for me, this whole process has been more personal. I just feel like somebody saw me. Somebody knew that I had whatever connection that I have to acting that I've had my whole life and you know I you know it's just it's just personal for me I think what I hope people can get from this is that I am I have arrived. I have arrived with my full self, and I put my entire I feel like I put my entire being into this process, into this film, and I and I saw myself.
Mecca Verdell:I saw myself very clearly, and I'm just really proud of it. And I think, you know, I don't want people to come in, you know, thinking about how to dissect me in a different way. I just want people to come and see. It's like it's like I I it's like I've had this feeling of bringing it home because it feels like I'm putting something on the fridge, you know? I'm putting a picture, a drawing on the fridge, just to be like, hi, look.
Mecca Verdell:I did it. So, yeah, I think this process is just a lot more personal for me, especially as my first one. Once I get in a couple movies in, I'll become more, like, I know what people should get from this movie. But it is, is a poet it is poetry. The film is poetry.
Mecca Verdell:So it's not like you have to try and make it something. Just just approach it and just see what it makes inside of you as you're watching it, as you're seeing it. It's a poetry film. It's a poetry film. It's a dance film.
Mecca Verdell:It's an art film.
Rob Lee:Thank you. And, yeah, it's, it's it's one of those things when you you mentioned the the the poetry piece. You mentioned sort of the, you know, just that just feeling like you've arrived. It's, you a thing that I talk about on occasion and diving into films that have this they have a lot of, like, African American have a lot of Black folk in it. It almost has this sort of throwback quality of the subject matter while being something that has the supernatural elements, this innovative storytelling, the dance, and so on.
Rob Lee:And it just makes me think, Why are there more of these? So hopefully, that's another thing that happens because I like to dive into films. And, yeah, and, the last thing I'll say before I move to these rapid fire questions, this is another part of that thing I was touching on before we got started of looking at folks' backgrounds. I can say that I'm few, you know, 6 steps removed from Dolph Lundgren. That's another another reference.
Rob Lee:Yeah. One of my favorite movies as a kid. So, shout out to the punisher back in the day. Yeah. So I got 3 rapid fire questions that, I must ask.
Rob Lee:I'm just, you know, burning, burning to ask these. So the first one I've got to ask. So, you know, NYC, right? I got the New York, you know, sort of vibe that's there. I'm always curious about sort of minutiae and people's, like, favorites.
Rob Lee:Right? So what is, like, a New York staple food? Some people throw out their bagels. Some people throw out there as a nice slice. What's what's your take?
Rob Lee:I I wanna hear it. I wanna hear, like, you know, it's gotta be this. And I like when someone says it's gotta be this from a specific place. So if you will, Boaz, please, what is your New York staple?
Boaz Yakin:I'm gonna be so unoriginal. But a slice of pizza, not so hot that you can't carry it with you, and you can eating a slice of pizza while you're walking through the city. That has to be the most New York, my favoritest thing ever. Of course, I can't do it that much now because it'd make me fat as fuck. But, like, but that is my favorite favorite thing to do, definitely.
Boaz Yakin:Slice while wonky.
Rob Lee:I love it.
Mecca Verdell:And so, yeah, as you know, I've I've traveled. I've been traveling New York since I was a teenager, but I go to whenever I go to the drama book shop, there is a pizza shop that's all around that corner. I don't know the names of anything, but I I am a I am an avid, I am always I'm always at the drama bookshop picking up a new book, trying to find a new mom blog, and then I go to that pizza shop right there. That and yeah. But when I would travel, I would always get a, bacon, egg, and cheese and a milk tea a milk tea at, down Downtown Chinatown Chinatown Chinatown.
Mecca Verdell:So but because the Chinatown bus takes you to Chinatown. I don't know what I forgot what street that is at this point, but I would get milk tea because it would always be cold as hell and a bacon, egg, and cheese.
Rob Lee:See, I was I I like that you said bacon, egg, and cheese. I I like a nice bacon, egg, and cheese, and I do walk with my pizza in hand, regularly. My my girl's from Brooklyn. She was just like, look. This is the way you're supposed to do these things.
Rob Lee:Like, don't
Boaz Yakin:Traditional way.
Rob Lee:100%. So I wanna talk about time a little bit. So, you know, is there a specific era that really sticks out, you know, for you that just felt like creativity was just it was a really great time for creativity. Like, some people talk about, you know, I like the eighties because of the excess or, you know, for me, I like Miami Vice. I don't know.
Rob Lee:Is there a specific, like, time that you wish you could create or work during that time because of the creative, like, output during that era if you could time travel back?
Boaz Yakin:Well, don't get me started on this because that's a whole other podcast.
Mecca Verdell:That's the
Boaz Yakin:that that the whole 2, 3 hour podcast. But because I mean, it's it's almost before my time as a creative person a little bit, but I was a kid during the late sixties, early seventies. And to me, being a filmmaker, American film between, like, 1966, 67, and 1981 is the height of a combination of freedom and discipline and focus and just the best kind of explosion of American cinema. You know? And, very, very much do I, like, suffer from not being able to be making films during that era.
Boaz Yakin:We are in the worst I mean, the eighties was excess and all that and kinda started to dip. The nineties had some independent film that was pretty cool, but still it was a drop from the seventies. And, man, right now is the worst film has ever been ever in the history of American cinema. It's so bad. So I'll I I won't be I won't be negative, though.
Boaz Yakin:We'll keep fighting. We'll keep fighting the good fight and trying to make interesting things.
Rob Lee:Well, thank you for that.
Mecca Verdell:I, I personally would wanna be I I think I love the twenties. I think, around that time is when, especially around the I think maybe it might be the 30s, I don't know, I remember I was doing a, a work a workshop, like it was like a couple weeks series workshop, learning about Black the history of Black theater. And there was a time where the it was these 2 musicals these 2 Black musicals that were virtually the exact same. 1 came from Chicago, one was premiering in New York, and then there's one show from Chicago came New York, and they were, like, right down the street from each other. The exact same type of show, the same show, and they were just going they were just going at it.
Mecca Verdell:And there's something so hilarious, but also tragic because at the time during those, productions, you know, they had all these these Broadway was racist. So, you know, it was they were facing those challenges while also beefing with each other and there's something so funny about that story. I have to go back into my notes and figure out exactly what those are but that and also I've always wanted to play I think I wanna play historical figures. I think I wanna play, like, you know, you know a young Black woman during her first debutante ball or like you know during those times where like Black women are they were they were organizing those types of things or you know, an underground, like, sometimes I have fantasies of an underground, filmmaking group, like, when Black people were making films and making their first films and things like that. I have imaginations like that, but they're always historical.
Mecca Verdell:Yeah. So that's something I really would love to do. Other than that, I secretly wanna play, Sister Souljah in a biopic. I think I I think I could.
Rob Lee:Absolutely. So this this is the this is the last one, the last one I got for you too. And I I'm a big fan of sort of poly polymaths, like, especially, like, creative polymaths. It's like you do all of these different things. And if I'm looking for a creative boost, I'm looking at interviews.
Rob Lee:I'm looking to try to just get sort of this creative thinking, this creative and design thinking. So for for the 2 of you, is there a book, a song, movie, or something, a a piece of creative output that you return to for that that kind of boost, that creative boost? It's like, I'm gonna get something from this, you know, and maybe it shows up in your work or maybe it just kinda gets you out of a creative rut. Is there something that you return to for a creative boost?
Boaz Yakin:Yeah. I would say that even beyond creative, just in my in in my life, my creative life, that the the writer that I most go back to every wow. That was so wild how you have that weird background going and, like, it looked like your water appeared out of the blue. Like like, it magically appeared in your hand. That that that was a trip.
Boaz Yakin:Sorry. So I interrupted myself. But, the writer that I go back to the most when I need to feel a sense of energy and excitement and, like, freedom and courage to explore anything and everything personal is, Henry Miller, who also wrote in the twenties, thirties, and forties. And and he's the writer that when I discovered him when I was, like, 23 years old, just opened my mind and made me not wanna make commercial stupid movies anymore. And that I was like, that's how I'd started out.
Boaz Yakin:And suddenly, I was like, what am I doing? And, you know, ruin my life because I could have been rich and successful right now. But, instead, you know, Henry Miller just opened this door onto a whole different way of looking at the world and looking at creativity and art, and at life. And, you know, every once every few years, 3, 4, 5 years, I might not have looked at it, then I'll just go, I gotta crack open one of these books. And I always find myself.
Boaz Yakin:Where and the great thing with his books is you can just jump in at any point and open up a book in the middle. It's like, they're not really stories, so you can kinda just go in and open them anywhere. And, I find myself refreshed and reinvigorated. So, yeah, I would say that that that writer.
Rob Lee:Thank you.
Mecca Verdell:I love studying people's lives. So I love documentaries. I think, they they just really inspired me to think about characters' lives and how those things could influence a person to do something different or try something new, and then a story kinda comes out of that. Because I watch a I watch a lot of interviews, but growing up, all I watched was comedy specials. And I think that's where, like, I was I should not have been, like, 10 watching Def Jam.
Mecca Verdell:But I was. And I always was the fan of storytelling in those ways. So people like so like, especially when I'm, like, feeling really comfortable and I'm just talking to people. I remember one time somebody was like, you talk like you're in a comedy special. And I was like, oh, I didn't I never noticed that before.
Mecca Verdell:And, you know, also, it's I'm very influenced by my own dreams. I have very, very vivid, very crazy cookie dreams, and I, I would write those down, try to make something out of those. And also horror. I love horror video games. I love video games.
Mecca Verdell:I love the storytelling in really good video games. I love finding storytelling in places where they probably weren't as prominent, you know, back in back, back, back in the day, but lore has somehow came out of it, things that allow you to imagine that there is something else behind this
Boaz Yakin:that
Mecca Verdell:is influencing this character to run-in circles, rather than the fact that they never said that there was a whole story to begin with. Why fan like, you know, fan fiction. So things that kind of let you imagine things that, you know, are that the whole another world, I love stuff like that. So I'll just, like, keep finding that, go watch video game here and see what where it takes me.
Rob Lee:Yeah. That's great. That's great. I I have a few things to share with you after this. If you're you're a sudden a horror, I got a few things to share with you.
Mecca Verdell:Okay. Let's do it.
Rob Lee:But, before we get there, I want to do this this sort of wrap up and, again, thanking you both for coming on and and spending some time with me. And in these final moments, there are 2 things I want to do. 1, again, thank you both. And and 2
Boaz Yakin:Thank you. I want to yeah.
Rob Lee:Thank you. And and 2, I wanna invite and encourage you to share any final thoughts, any website, social media, anything that you wanna share as we close out here. You know, the floor is yours. So, Boaz, if you will, if you have anything you wanna share in these final moments, the floor is yours.
Boaz Yakin:No. I I just appreciate you you having us on and and and spending some time and talking to us, means a lot. And, you know, we are going to have a a screening, in Baltimore of the film on, 21st. Mecca can can tell tell you where your your listeners where it is, but, I mean, we would love nothing more than for you to, be your listeners, a few of your listeners to come and join us and and see the film. We would we would be really grateful and appreciative.
Boaz Yakin:Absolutely.
Mecca Verdell:Absolutely. Yeah. I I mean, I pushed for this to happen because I really felt like, you know, I'm a programmer here. I'm a teacher. I'm an artist through and through.
Mecca Verdell:I'm a community member through and through. And you can ask Boaz. I talked about Baltimore nonstop. It's all the it be you know, it's a part of me. And I think, you know, it's important to really source my identity while I am in other places because it fuels why I do what I do.
Mecca Verdell:And bringing it home, bringing it to Baltimore, even though this isn't where I was born, it's where I became a real artist, like, a real, real artist, and, you know, pushed me to make it my career and pushed me to believe that it could be my career, I'm just really proud that it'll be here and people can see it. And, you know, if you miss it, you miss it. Sorry. I can try to make some other things move. But
Boaz Yakin:Where is it playing Mecca?
Mecca Verdell:Oh, I'm about to yeah, I was about to say. It's going to be at the Parkway Theater, November 21st. We're going to have a happy hour from 6 to 7. And then, there's gonna be, like, 10 to 15 minutes of trailers from local filmmakers. We'll play the film, and then we'll have a q and a with our producers, Boaz, and myself.
Rob Lee:And there you have it, folks. I wanna again thank Mecca Vordell and Boaz Joaquin for coming on to the podcast to share a bit of their stories and to tell us about once again for the very first time. It was truly a a fun conversation. And for Mecha and Boaz, I am Rob Lee saying that there's art, culture, and community in and around your neck of the woods. You've just gotta look for it.
