Over drinks, longtime Columbia University buds Lia Johnson and Courtney Lilly caught up. Lilly had just come to see a theater production that Johnson both produced and starred in. Fired up about the project, Johnson effused, “I want to continue to work like this.” (Courtney) said, “How about you try my script?” Johnson recalls. “I’d been reading everything and hadn’t found anything that I liked. So, I read his script and just fell in love.” The inkling suggestion of this meeting between friends would culminate in the production of I’m Through With White Girls, or The Inevitable Undoing of Jay Books. With a solid script in hand, Johnson along with twin sister Phyllis began the search for cast, crew and mostly importantly funding.

Part of a band of actor friends, few of whom had disposable income at hand, Johnson knew she had to think outside the box in order to raise the start-up budget. With the help of Los Angeles skating rink World of Wheels, Trader Joe’s and the Hollywood Reporter among others, Johnson threw a party complete with a silent auction and a poetry slam. With this bit of money from the party raised, she set out on a limited budget to polish the romantic-comedy with its bend of social commentary.

SM: Now, the original title of the film [I’m Through With White Girls] is overtly about differences of race, but you’ve said in the past that it’s meant to be a film that talks about the diverse areas in Los Angeles as well…I was hoping that you could talk about that diversity and working with that in the film.

LJ: That was one of my major reasons for wanting to do the film in the first place. So, often I see films that don’t reflect the life that I lead, or the lives of my friends from all different races lead. Anywhere in America, it’s almost impossible to go and not see a mixture of people of some sort. This film was my very favorite of being incredibly diverse, and Los Angeles is an enormous city with an incredible bouquet of cultures and places. It was exciting to me to portray those people in that space. Silver Lake, Echo Park and Los Feliz are all culturally Euro-centric, which is why we found the smoking to be so apropos, but also wildly mixed and inclusive in terms of race and culture.

SM: You’d talked about—especially with regards to the smoking—the influence of the French New Wave, but I didn’t know what other influences you were working with from the production side.

LJ: There’s a movement of grunge going on right now, mostly in Europe, but it’s spilled over into the New Wave, pop, punk and indie rock scenes. Silver Lake, Echo Park and Los Feliz are areas of Los Angeles particularly ripe with those folks that love hanging out in cafes, drinking coffee, staying out late, smoking cigarettes, all those things which are counterculture, not exactly anti-mainstream but certainly counterculture.

SM: You guys have done something pretty bold for an independent film, which is just to make a happy romantic-comedy.

LJ: Actually, that was really on purpose…Our first goal was to make a film that would really touch on these heavy subjects of race and culture expressions going on in America today. It’s a conversation that’s been going on, but it’s very easy to pretend that it’s not going on and then run up against these explosive moments, for example, when Don Imus said [the Rutgers women's basketball team looked like "nappy-headed hos"]. The fact is, the discussion is going on, but there are inclusive ways to do it that make people feel that we’re getting through it and discovering things as opposed to feeling alienated and accused. One is constructive and the other is not. I definitely want to be on the side of what’s constructive, and I think that part of the bright, beautiful, warm nature of the film is to be the sugar that makes the medicine go down. It’s definitely a film that works on many levels. It could either be this bright, happy romantic-comedy about two misfits that find each other, or if you’re looking for it, there are the common threads of people getting in their own ways, race relations in America and within the African-American culture, the ways that we discriminate against each other regarding money and class. Those are all things strongly in there if you look for them, but it’s the type of thing that can inspire progression as opposed to retard it. With independent film, we knew that we could tow that line. Also, it’s a film that I wanted people to see, and so I was excited about bringing a more commercial approach to a subject that it would help to address.

SM: Yes, (as a viewer) you were thinking about the issues, but they weren’t heavy because essentially what you needed to care about was the ineptitude of the Jay character and the fact that you wanted him to get with Catherine.

LJ: Exactly, and I think that’s how all of us learn, even from our friends. We have friends who are going through things, and it’s only after we’ve worked with them or talked them through something, or we’ve been through something ourselves, it’s only later that we in perspective go, “Oh, it’s interesting because…” Then we’re able to extrapolate that and apply it to other things once the lesson has passed. So, the things we’re meant to think about, the lessons, are ones that we can deal with on our own time and not feel bombarded with them at the time they are happening. That’s one very effective way to get people talking.

LJ: As Phyllis and I were building the team, there was definitely a faction that thought it would be good to shot digitally because it would be a way to save money and because we could get more bang for our buck. Two things really mattered to me. One is that because we were doing a romantic-comedy, no explosives, no car chases, just people sitting and talking with one another, I knew that it had to be visually stimulating. Also, with the many different skin tones we would have in the exact same shot, I knew that it was important to have a medium that would capture and show off that color, beauty and range. It could be just that I’m old school, but film is unparalleled as far as doing that, and there’s a drama and presence that film allows to come through because it’s not as clean and specific as HD. So, that’s my first reason, that I couldn’t believe that beginning filmmakers couldn’t make film on film.

When I put that to the test, companies like Panavision and Kodak both agreed with me, and they were willing to help. Rick Halpern over at Panavision was amazing, and they actually have a New Filmmaker’s program where they will actually give new filmmakers cameras. So, they actually gave us a camera for an entire month for free. I don’t think financially we could have done (the film) without that kind of help. Because they were there to support, we were able to. Then once Panavision was on board, Kodak helped eliminate [the expense of] stock sales… With the endorsement of those companies, we got a lot of other companies to endorse us by giving us discounts, breaks, free equipment. There were a number of things that came our way because of the endorsements of those large companies that were willing to take a chance on young, independent filmmakers.

Secondly, it’s the reception within the industry. With not only having made a film on film, that makes a difference, but also the people I was looking to bring on—because essentially we had no money—we had to have a lot of crew working on deferred pay. In Los Angeles, there are so many digital projects going at any given time, that good people tend to want to get paid, as they should. For a film shot on film, folks are more willing to come work for free because they’ve had less of the opportunity, and it helps them to build their resumes.

With the budget, I thought it was six of a dozen one way, half a dozen the other. We could have gotten different shots, more complicated shots had we shot on a digital format, but we still got a really solid piece with quality technicians. The highend HD cameras that could compete with what we wanted to do on the film are so expensive and so in demand that I never would have been able to get those for free. I would have had to negotiate, and that would have driven my budget up or made it the same at the end of the day.

SM: The production itself was a month long…Do you have a favorite memory [during those days]?

LJ: There was a day that it struck me that I might just be crazy about what I was doing, but I didn’t care. We had a huge wedding at the end of the film, and that was on the wedding day. We had over 150 people on set. Because it was a big day the writer came down to set—he’s pretty reclusive, but he was willing to come down to set that day. So, he came and brought his fiancé, who’s also a good friend of mine. All the sudden, because I could see that they were so overwhelmed at how large everything had gotten, I saw what I was seeing as if through their eyes, and I was like, “Oh, God, this is huge! What am I doing? Am I crazy?” But, I just didn’t care. We were having so much fun. The whole cast was there for the final scene. The energy on set was electric, and everybody was having a great day, so a lot of really good work was happening. As an actor, that’s the most exciting thing for me, that there’s good work happening in front of the camera and as a producer, behind it too. But, definitely as an actor, the thing that gets me excited, is watching actors excited, doing their work and making everyone else feel confident in doing something bigger than all of us.  

SM: How did you make the transition [from producing to acting in the film's female lead as Catherine]?

LJ: It was actually really easy. My day job is acting. That’s my love and my passion, and that’s so easy to bit into whenever I get a chance. The harder part was actually putting on the producer’s cap and making sure that things were running smoothly. That was what was really amazing about working with my twin sister Phyllis. We are both very capable, so between the two of us—she was really active on set. Jennifer was really wonderful about letting her do the acting coaching. Luckily, I’d been with the role of Catherine for a while as I tried to get the script off the ground and working on revisions with Courtney. So, I really knew her very well. Once I was on set, it was easy to shed the producer cap and slide into the good part, the acting part.

Phyllis and I just make a great producing team, and I think that made the acting easy. I didn’t have to worry. I knew that the set was running. Also, I hired two producers in addition to Phyllis to help with the day-to-day running of the set.

SM: How did you go about crafting the character of Catherine?

LJ: She’s a bit of people that I know, both white and black, all races. There are a lot of these elements of people in her—just a very worldly woman who at the same time is afraid to loose her adulthood and take responsibility for what she wants out of her life and career. Those were things that I cared a lot about, and Catherine embodies a lot of those ideas. It was really easy once I began to put those ideas into character, or action so to speak.

SM: You were primarily working with Anthony Montgomery [who plays the title character Jay Brooks]. How was it playing off of him?

LJ: I love to rehearse, and I always feel that I’m boring my fellow actors by wanting to rehearse more. He was an animal. He wanted to rehearse more than I did, which is fantastic. He just worked so hard on this role because he knew that he was carrying the film…When the two of us got in front of the camera together, we had such a good time, and it made it so easy. I’d had this whole story in my head for such a long time, and to suddenly be living the part I was most excited about, which was playing Catherine, alongside the (person) that makes Catherine breath, which is Jay and hence Anthony, it was a gift.

SM: One last question for you. Is there anything that I’ve forgotten to ask you that you wanted to add?

LJ: One of the reasons that I wanted to do this film is that I was really interested in telling an American story that just happens to have a multicultural message. These characters are so important to me because they do that. I feel like in U.S. culture there’s been such a strong rise of hip-hop, which I love hip-hop, but I feel like it’s been such an incredible juggernaut throughout the world that it’s come to represent—at least the media representation of African-American culture. I just wanted so badly to broaden that spectrum. So many people that I know aren’t hip-hop kids. They love hip-hop, but they don’t necessarily drive Escalades and aspire to the consumerism that is so rampant in hip-hop. I feel almost like African-American culture is becoming homogenized by the media.

To me, (the film) is alternative programming for American culture.

For more information visit www.turnsoul.com.

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