← Blacks Behind the Camera

Slide-7

By Sonja Mack | Published June 4, 2010 | Full size is 500 × 413 pixels

Daniels was also able to gain support from industry heavyweights such as Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry who served as the film's executive producers, and convince celebrities like Mariah Carey, Lenny Kravitz, and Mo’Nique, who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, to join the cast. “I think that safe is always better from a studio perspective and safe equals comedy, and safe equals action in regard to [black] people,” says Daniels. “It is always that fine line of trying to get the real with the commercial. It’s really up to the filmmaker to come up with a smart, innovative, fresh approach to a story that tells our truth the way we want it to be told, but in a commercial way."

Daniels was also able to gain support from industry heavyweights such as Oprah Winfrey and…