Fresh off of her Emmy nomination for Succession, Sanaa Lathan has made her directorial debut with On The Come Up, the film adaptation of The Hate U Give author Angie Thomas’s second novel.

Lathan, Thomas and cast members Jamila C. Gray, Michael Cooper Jr. and Miles Guitierrez-Riley spoke to Shadow and Act about the film shortly after its world premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival.

“It’s not ideal to act when you’re directing because it does take two different hats, and it takes two different parts of my brain,” Lathan told us about helming the film and also having a key supporting role in it. “But I’ve been acting for so long and I really connected to the character of Jay. She’s the mother of Bri, and as a director, I was also kind of, kind of like a mom on set, especially to the young kids. So I felt like there would be an easy parallel with that. All in all, it was definitely challenging, but definitely worth it.”

Jamila C. Gray

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