The UB Interview: Bokeem Woodbine + Elegance Bratton Talk ‘The Inspection’

“The Inspection,” written, directed, and inspired by the life of Elegance Bratton is in theaters Tomorrow Friday November 18th via A24!

Starring Jeremy Pope, Raúl Castillo, McCaul Lombardi, Aaron Dominguez, with Bokeem Woodbine and Gabrielle Union.

In Elegance Bratton‘s deeply moving film inspired by his own story, a young, gay Black man, rejected by his mother and with few options for his future, decides to join the Marines, doing whatever it takes to succeed in a system that would cast him aside.

But even as he battles deep-seated prejudice and the grueling routines of basic training, he finds unexpected camaraderie, strength, and support in this new community, giving him a hard-earned sense of belonging that will shape his identity and forever change his life.

The film is a gift to movie screens, as being the first one to really bring LGBTQ in the military history to light.

Gabrielle Union is absolutely dynamic as Inez French, the mother of Ellis, who the story is based around. Bokeem Woodbine, perfectly mashes into his role as a Marine Drill Sergeant, who is determined to break Ellis.

As the story unfolds, a love story (of sorts) develops and a purpose, becomes clear!

UB recommends everyone go and check out “The Inspection.”

UB spoke with veteran actor Bokeem Woodbine and director Elegance Bratton.

Bokeem Woodbine stars as a Marine Drill Sergeant, set on using his severe training regimen to weed out the recruits lacking what he believes is needed to move forward to becoming a Marine. His character plays a major in the creating additional struggles and challenges for a gay Black man, who is in search of his own identity and decides to join the Marines, doing whatever it takes to succeed in a system that would typically cast him aside.

Bokeem‘s films include, ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’, ‘Crooklyn’, ‘Panther’, ‘Jasons Lyric,’ ‘The Elevator’, ‘Caught Up’, ‘Almost Heroes’, ‘3000 Miles to Graceland’, ‘Ray’, ‘The Poker House’, ‘The Fifth Commandment’ and ‘The Host.’

Director Elegance Bratton was thrown out of his mother’s home at the age of 16 in New Jersey for being gay. After ten years spent homeless, he joined the U.S. Marine Corps where he became a combat documentarian. After finishing the Marines he earned an undergraduate degree from Columbia University and an MFA from NYU’s Tisch Graduate Film program.

Elegance’s award-winning short films have played in almost 150 film festivals worldwide including Sundance, Outfest and the American Black Film Festival. He is the executive producer and creator of Viceland’s GLAAD-nominated series, My House.

Bookem talks to Aries from UB about why he wanted to play this character and why this movie is important. Bokeem also shares the similarities in his blockbuster film “Dead Presidents.”

Bokeem also speaks on his delight of working with the cast and gets candid on as a black heterosexual man, how gay black men can receive more support within our community.

UrbanBridgez.com: There’s never really been a film like the inspection. What first drew you to it?
Bokeem Woodbine: The screenplay. Elegance Bratton is a dynamic and talented director that, you know, I can’t wait to see what he’s gonna do next. But he’s also a prolific writer. I mean, the screenplay is bananas. It just jumped off the page, and I was compelled to want to be a part of it just after reading it. I read it in one sitting in about an hour, and I called my agent and I said, look, we got to figure this one out because this is a special script. And so that’s what got me interested.

UrbanBridgez.com: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. You’d playing so many characters over your career playing a marine drill sergeant. What did you enjoy about that?
Bokeem Woodbine: The challenge of going against the grain, in a sense that this is an iconic character. We’ve seen this before, and what is the challenge for me is to not repeat what has been done before and still be honest about who these guys are. And so I decided that it was important for me to just think about who he was outside the uniform, and that’s what compelled me to go in the direction. I went like, who is this guy when he’s not on duty, per se? And because Elegance had gone through the experience, working with the person that laws is based on, I was just so blessed. I had the opportunity to ask him questions. He was very forthcoming and candid about who his laws was, if you understand what I’m saying.

UrbanBridgez.com: Yeah.
Bokeem Woodbine: And that gave me the edge that I needed to feel confident about following my instincts.

UrbanBridgez.com: Yeah, I like that. And then your character is extremely harsh on Ellis. Where do you think that comes from? From his perspective as the drill sergeant?
Bokeem Woodbine: Lot of different things. He’s prejudiced against homosexual people. He doesn’t like the fact that French is a liar because I asked him straight up if he was homosexual. He said no..he screamed it, actually. He’s also a little conflicted because French has the warrior energy. He has the warrior spirit, and laws can sense that in any package, whether my character can sense if you have that in you. So he’s conflicted. I don’t understand this is a warrior, but at the same time, he’s gay. Like, it’s conflicted with that. And also, loss doesn’t like unknown variables, and that goes back to his combat experience. He does not like loose ends or like, any kind of loss of control of the format. It bothers him in a way that might not bother somebody who hasn’t been through what he’s been through.

UrbanBridgez.com: Talk a little bit about working with the cast because it’s such an amazing cast. I love how you guys have just a wide range of actors. What did you enjoy most about that?
Bokeem Woodbine: I really enjoyed seeing these young cats who I just felt like, man, you guys don’t even know. All you guys are going places. Every single one of you dudes. I don’t even know if you all know, but you guys are all the future. I really felt like that while I was working. It just tickled me to death, man. And I worked on a picture many moons ago when I was like 21, not quite 22. I did a picture called “Dead Presidents.” I bought a group of younger Marines. And even though it’s a completely different film, it reminded me of what it was like for me to make that film. Making that film was no joke. And then here I am almost 30 years later in a completely different capacity as, like, the older dude. And it has these younger dudes. And I’m like, you dude is about to be the dudes. And it was a lot of parallels like that. It was just crazy to me. And then getting a chance to work with Raúl and Jeremy is just such a treat because they’re very giving actors. And the same performance you see them give when the cameras on them is the same performance they give when they got to act for somebody else’s, when it’s your turn for your close up, they’re giving you the same quality of performance as if the camera is on them. You don’t always get that. So they’re very honorable at giving actors and just wonderful dudes. Everybody is just such a wonderful cat. And I worked with Gabrielle many, many moons ago, over 20 years ago, and she me up. I don’t know if people know. Yeah, she’s hilarious. And just a wonderful lady and super talented actress and just so much fun to work with. So it was just great. The cast was awesome. Cast was awesome!

UrbanBridgez.com: Yes. A lot of talent on that cast. Definitely. What’s the lesson you want people to get from this film once they see it?
Bokeem Woodbine: Something that I got from it after watching it. I didn’t get the sense of this while I was making the film. I was a little myopic. I just wasn’t thinking about anything else but my job. But after watching it, I came away with the sense that everybody is going through something in life, whether it’s a very small thing or whether it’s a very big thing, everybody’s going through something. And we can all benefit from being a little more kind to one another. And that kindness is not necessarily weakness. Kindness is its own special brand of strength. And that there’s nothing wrong with trying to just be a little bit more kind in our day to day life. And that’s what stood out to me when I saw the movie.

UrbanBridgez.com: Being heterosexual, do you feel that there can be more support for gay black men within our community?
Bokeem Woodbine: Absolutely! Somebody’s sexuality is their business and within our community there’s a very strong current, what I call a conservative mindset. Which is fine. There’s nothing wrong with having conservative views to an extent, but being conservative and having your perspective and acknowledging your truth should never make you disrespectful or mean spirited to your fellow person from the diaspora. Anything that divides us as a people is a negative. Whether it’s the African American versus the Caribbean, or whether it’s the straight African American versus gay African American, whether it’s the wealthy African American or the broke African. Anything that divides us is negative and unnecessary, antiquated and needs to be set aside. Because love is love and kindness is kindness. Look, I don’t care what you do with your private parts. That’s why they call a private party, right? And we need to just be as one. Right now more than ever. We need to really come together and respect and appreciate our differences because we’re wonderful and we add our best when we accept.

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Elegance Bratton talks to Aries from UB about why he wanted to bring this film to screens and why it’s an important movie. Elegance tells us how the film came from a moment in his life in the Marine Corps as a out gay man.

Elegance also shares his joy of working with the cast, that was all his original choices in their roles and shares with us what he wants people to gain from the film once they watch.

UrbanBridgez.com: I love the movie! There’s never really been a film like The Inspection. What made you want to bring it to the big screen now?
Elegance Bratton: Oh, well, thank you for your compliments and making the time to speak with me about the film The Inspection comes from a moment in my life where I felt absolutely worthless. I was kicked out of my house when I was gay at the age of 16. I spent the next ten years homeless, and by the end of those ten years, I felt like nothing good would ever happen in my life, that I was certain to meet an untimely end. And I joined the Marine Corps. And my drill instructor, fortunately, told me that none of that was true. But I actually wasn’t sure because I had a responsibility to protect the Marine to my left and to my right. And that responsibility, that trust, was transformational for me. It really helped me to kind of repair the damage that had been done to me, and I thought it was a message that’s really relevant right now. We have a world that’s becoming more and more polarized by the second. And I wanted to make a movie that was kind of inspired by what I learned in the Marine Corps, which is how to talk to people who are different from me and how to find ground with people who are different from me.

And also I wanted to make something that was funny, too. I didn’t think how much of my life as an out gay man kind of, like, had similarities and overlaps with my life as a closeted fake straight guy in the Marine Corps.

UrbanBridgez.com: I understand. I like that. I’m sure there were many things, but what did you enjoy most about shooting the film?
Elegance Bratton: Oh, man, I think the thing I love the most was getting the chance to have that camaraderie of boot camp again. Like I always said at boot camp, it’s like summer camp, jail and a fraternity all at once. When you’re in it, you hate it so much, all you want to do is leave and get Chinese food, go to McDonald’s, what have you. And as soon as it’s over, you’re like, wow, I missed that. Because you get so close to those guys so fast, and there’s nothing else in life that does that. So one of my favorite parts about being on set was having a little bit of that back. Right. We shot the movie in MLEOTA Police Academy in Pearl, Mississippi, which was started by Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Tuggle, a retired Marine who went to Paris island in Paris island in 2005. So his police academy and my script are emotional memories of our time in Paris Island. So there’s this real spiritual alignment between the work and the place. And then I also put the actors into their own version of boot camp for two weeks prior to shooting. So by the time we actually got to make the movie, they started to talk to each other the way Marines talk to each other in real life. And it was nice to just have that in my life again and to have it in this way. So that’s probably my favorite part.

UrbanBridgez.com: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And then you just mentioned the actors talk a bit about the cast and how you guys selected them, which would be perfection and selection of the cast, by the way.
Elegance Bratton: Thank you. Well, I got to give credit to Kim Coleman casted the movie. She’s a cast and director and executive producing the film, and she’s an icon in her right. And she just really brought her skill set, her savvy to the process that it was really educational for me. When it comes down to the particular roles for French, first and foremost, I wanted a capital A actor. I needed someone that I could trust to win. And also, when you look at Jeremy’s accomplishments prior to being involved in this film, they’re pretty incredible. He’s been nominated twice for Tony in the same year, Emmy nomination, things like that. So I knew I had a performer that had the chops to be able to handle this. Secondly, I needed to be an outlaw queer actor. That was important to me. As a black gay man, you just don’t really get to see yourself as the hero of movies very often. I think there’s real world consequences to that. Black gay men, one in two of us are projected to be HIV positive in our lifetimes. Eight times are likely to commit suicide, eight times more likely to be homeless.

And I think that people go to the movies to see themselves, to be inspired to inspire great things. And if you never see yourself on screen, that can communicate a message that you’re not worth anything in real life. And Jeremy and I would talk about what it would have meant to us as teenagers to have a character like this and itGood jo would have been positive for our life. So we wanted to make sure that future generations don’t deal with that issue. As far as Gabby is concerned, I became a filmmaker the moment I decided to be a filmmaker and I committed to it occurred to my mom at one point, I was stationed in Hawaii, and I got a chance to be restated in New York. My mother found out I was in New York, and she’s like, well, you think you’re bad now? You think you’re a filmmaker? Why don’t you yeah, why don’t you come from your little sister’s graduation and show me what you got? I go, Got a camera, got a computer, and I go to her graduation. None of her classmates knew that my sister had a brother.

None of her teachers knew that my mother had an elder son. And that was very painful for me. And I resolved in that moment to become a filmmaker. Like, you are not going to erase me. You’re not going to ignore me. I will be in the multiplexes. I will be on TV. So a part of it is like, Y’all have to play my mom is because I know for a fact that if Gabrielle Union plays my mom, my mom’s going to hear it. She’s going to hear about it. And then, unfortunately, my mother passed about three days, was killed. Three days. Thank you. After the movie got green lit. And I’m just really grateful to Gabriel because she was able to bring her mother back to life for me in a way that allowed me to find closure that my mom just could not. She didn’t have the mental capacity to provide for me in her lifetime. So all the jewelry that Gab wears in the movie is our mother’s jewelry. The Bible’s. Bible. The styling of how she was on her mother looked when she was raising me. So, yeah, she has this beauty.

She’s so beautiful, but she’s so tough at the same time. And that’s how my mother is. My mother was the most beautiful girl in her block, and people were scared to death of her, too. So that’s how that came about. And then I actually bum rushed at a party in Tribeca Film Festival I wasn’t invited to because I knew I wanted him. Most of these people are first choices, so I pitched it in my movie, you got to do it. That was 2018. He gave me his number, I texted him. He never texted me back. Two years later, he submits a tape, and he’s as good as I knew he would be in a cart. So, yeah, he has that nurturing quality, but that Austere masculinity, too. But I really wanted to resolve to embody and then Bohemian. We were looking through dozens of actors, right? And some big names, too, but I’m a kid of the bouquet woodbine for me. Robert De Niro al Pacino harvey Keitesto. Bouquet woodbine. This is the type of actor bouquet to me. So when I heard Bokin had read the script, wanted to play Laws, I stopped to search. I was like, we’re done. We got bohemian. Let’s just go. That’s kind of how those players got involved in the show.

UrbanBridgez.com: I like that. But you touched on it a little bit just now. But what’s the lesson? You want people to get from the inspection once they watch the film?
Elegance Bratton: The Inspection is for first of all, this movie is about the unbreakable bond between mothers and sons who hasn’t tried to do everything in their power to get their parents validation and approval. And most of us never really get what we’re looking for, right? So, you know, this is an honor to that unbreakable bond. It’s a story about a young man willing to do anything to win back his mother’s love, even going to hostile territory, but ultimately learns how to respect and love himself. I hope that this is a movie. I hope people realize this movie is for anyone who’s ever felt disregarded, anyone who’s ever felt abandoned and alone, who has been told that they’re not enough. I hope that by the end of this viewing experience, you know that you’re enough and you’re empowered and you go out with that power, knowing that it comes from the reality that you have the responsibility to look out for the person to your left and your right, even if you disagree with them, even if they do horrible things. We’re all still human beings and all 8 billion of us, require all of us in order to live on this planet.

So I’m hopeful that people will take that message and go out and be of service to one another and to look out for homeless kids and not kick your kids out. But I think all that really starts with the notion that we’re all interconnected and we all are important because we couldn’t survive without each other.