Every now and then the table hog resurfaces. It seems this time it’s taken the shape of a female reporter that just rambles on about every little bit of garble that hits her head and cuts short other reporters, often to the irritation of the interviewed cast or crew members. Clearly from a small publication, she would forcefully, at the end of each interview, lay down her annoying routine of making the stars mouth some line involving her show or online experience.
In this case Blair Underwood and Rochelle Aytes take a seat and are pounced on by the table hog with some nonsensical attempt at a question that takes five minutes to get out. Confused as we are at exactly what the question was, Mr. Underwood says to Ms. Aytes “You want to take this one?” she replies “Sure…what was the question again?” The laughter fills the room, not invoked by comedy but by the shear frustration of having your valuable time with celebrities wasted by a painful addition to the roundtable interviews.
Rochelle Aytes is a figure of true class and beauty yet exhibiting a certain fragility which shows why she was cast for her role as Lisa. She states “Tyler Perry did a great job I think. He made the decision to show more of our relationship, show more of the relationship between my mom and myself. I guess to just try send that message out to women who are dealing with men who are abusive. I think he wanted to get that message out saying “You can do it. You can have the power in your hands.” Despite playing Carlos, the abusive fiancé of Aytes character Lisa, Blair Underwood is a vibrant and fun-filled person filled with good spirit and appears, in general, to be an overall happy person. Quite a pleasant surprise since the talented actor submerges himself into character with such ease. He adds to Rochelle’s answer with “One more thing about Tyler is that he’s always creating. He created the play then when he went to the movie he fused about three to four plays into this one. And even once he had the script we had rehearsal at his house the week before we started shooting. When I read it I said “I can give you everything you have over here” and I think in the plays it’s “Ok, this is the guy that beats women, this is the good guy, this is the singer.” I said “If we bring this to film, in order for me to give you my best job I have to have more colors, I need to understand why he’s like this.” I didn’t just want to have this guy beating her. He wrote a number of scenes for people, he took a whole new level to it. The one scene when he starts to throw her off the balcony, before he does that you see this whole introspective side of him, which is real because in men who beat women there’s always that side that’s apologetic afterwards. What you call a ‘honeymoon phase’ and I wanted to see just a glimpse of that. I think afterwards it’s even more interesting to see him flip.”
There goes the hog again, almost interrupting Blair Underwood with another bizarre addition from her list of questions. Ms. Aytes catches on a question of being the first onscreen couple showing the abusive relationship this year and states “I think a lot of women in that situation should leave but they don’t. Why don’t they leave? They showed his vulnerable side, they showed why she would stay. She would stay because she loves him, she thinks he loves her, she makes excuses for him. There’s a fear of what he would do if she leaves. So hopefully all of those things will be taken into consideration by viewers. Then you have her mom, the person you love and want advice from and she’s manipulative and telling her she should stay.”
A question on the preparation for their roles as a couple comes up Rochelle answers with “Well we didn’t prepare too much. The hitting…we did practice that. We had a stuntman on the set who would show us how and we had to learn how to fall and so on.” Underwood adds “Yeah because it wasn’t like a knockdown, drag out fight. It was really one slap and it was two scenes.” Lisa concludes with a cheerful “It was fun!” much to the amusement of Blair.
Playing a similar role in 2002’s “G” Underwood talked a little about his preparation then for that film – “For G and other roles I kind of did the homework on it and I have friend who have been through this before. I had kind of seen it from close. In this one, also in terms of our relationship, you never really see that at a good point in their relationship so we didn’t have to do a lot of back story. We were trying to get back to Something New.” Oops, Underwood also has a role in that recent release with Sanaa Lathan and Simon Baker. He laughs at his statement. Lisa adds, I drew from my life as well…I haven’t been abused but I used my personal experiences with those I know.”
She’s asked about her evolution from “White Chicks” starring Shawn and Marlon Wayans to being on the cover of Essence magazine. “I know it’s amazing. My role started a long time ago, before “White Chicks” but I think I’ve been blessed. I’ve worked hard to be where I am. I did all the things necessary, I studied, I don’t go out, I just focus on what I want and people are giving me great opportunities. Now in this role, Tyler Perry took a chance on someone new and it was through these people who saw a vision and that’s why I’m here and I’m excited.” Blair adds “I have to say that I’m excited for her because when Tyler cast this I read with four people on that day. Tyler said to me “I want to find the new Halle Berry. I want to find someone that’s drop dead gorgeous but also has a vulnerability. Somebody that has the dramatic intensity to make an audience feel something.” And he found that, and what was great about Rochelle was that she came in she has such an inner life and you can just feel it through her eyes.”
He’s asked about another project he’s producing and starring in – “My Soul to keep,” a supernatural thriller – “Well “My Soul to Keep” is going through another re-write but that’s still coming. That’s a Fox Searchlight, they say they still want to make the film hopefull this year. I have t find out who that female lead is going to be.”
Blair talks a little about Atlanta: “I have some friends here so it’s becoming like a second home to me in a sense.”
I ask Rochelle about IMDB’s listing in having her in the upcoming film named “Swap Meet.” She replies “That darn IMDB. You know you talk to some people about a project. You meet, you have lunch, you read the script and say “Ok, let’s see.” That’s all it was. I don’t know…I’m not doing that.”
“So what is next?” “Well I’ve been working on Tyler Perry’s new television show called “House of Payne” starring Alan Payne. I’m not sure when that will be on.
