Her approach with her actors, when shooting reaction shots was to do only one take “because it was about the immediate, organic, raw reaction,” she explains, and this was no different. “It’s kind of profound in the way that it translates,” she says.Īlthough Forbes worked with more than a dozen actors for “Between the World and Me” and admits she did originally consider having an actor voice the transcript from Coates and Palmer’s interview, “the matter-of-fact way that she talked about the accounts” proved to be why she wanted to use Palmer’s actual voice and not ask her to re-record anything with her direction. “It then became an echo of two mothers because we had Prince’s mom built into the story, and this became an echo of that in this really beautiful and heartbreaking way,” Forbes says.Īdditionally, Forbes shares that although there is a scene in “Between the World and Me” that cuts between her actors reacting with various levels of outrage and sadness as Palmer narrates her experience of learning about what happened to her daughter, what was actually playing in their earwigs behind the scenes was Reid’s monologue about Jones. Utilizing audio from an interview Taylor’s mother Tamika Palmer granted Coates, who also executive produces, Taylor’s story is told in her mother’s own honest and organic words. But “Between the World and Me” draws a deeper connection between the two.

Jones and Taylor’s stories end in similar fashion: by their untimely and unlawful deaths at the hands of police officers. It’s the whole reason why we’re needing to make this film.” And that says something about our country. And even within that time there were other lives that were lost that made the headlines that we wanted to make sure to include. When I think of that ‘In Memoriam’ scroll at the end, we were updating until final delivery, which was a couple of weeks ago. I do feel this is an ode to 2020 and reflective of this particular time.

“If we had made this film four years ago or even a year ago, I think about the protest montage and how our young people today have really stood up and are on the front lines fighting that moment had not necessarily happened the way it happened this past summer. “Breonna was important because we made the film out of a point of urgency,” Forbes tells Variety.

Prince jones between the world and me