UB Speaks with Darrin Dewitt Hensen, Christian Keyes & Erica Hubbard – “Black Coffee” In Theaters Now

Love is brewing as One Village Entertainment serves up a strong cast in the official theatrical release of Black Coffee. The film, which opens today in AMC theaters in Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago and Washington D.C., stars Lamman Rucker (Why Did I Get Married?), Erica Hubbard (Let’s Stay Together), Darrin Dewitt Henson (Stomp The Yard), Gabrielle Dennis (The Game) and Christian Keyes (Let’s Stay Together).

Robert (Henson) picked the wrong time to meet his soul mate! After being fired from his own father’s company, he feels like his luck has run out – until Morgan (Dennis) enters into his life. Just as things start to heat up between them, trouble brews as Morgan’s ex-husband (Rucker) vows to get her back and Robert’s gold-digging ex-girlfriend (Hubbard) returns with an agenda of her own. With the help of his cousin (Keyes), Robert’s about to find out how much good can come out of a bad situation in this charming romantic comedy that’s good to the last drop.

Aries from UrbanBridgez.com spoke with cast members Darrin Dewitt Henson, Christian Keyes and Erica Hubbard about the release. Check out what they had to say and make sure you go out and support the film!

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UrbanBridgez.com: Tell us about the film Black Coffee?
Darrin Dewitt Hensen: Black Coffee is a film that I think speaks in the diversification of ones individuals desires in life. Diversification meaning what do we want to do, when do we want to do it and why do we want to do it. Through a chain of events in this film we see that with all of the characters which are well written and have great spark. That their lives are literally changing in front of us as we watch this film for the better. Sometimes things don’t happen to us, they happen for us. But it’s up to us to realize when that is actually happening. I think that’s the metaphor for life which is what we have in Black Coffee.

UrbanBridgez.com: Tell us about your role in Black Coffee?
Erica Hubbard: In Black Coffee I play Mita and Mita is a young girl looking for love. A lot of people think Mita is a gold digger because she’s looking for love with financial security. I don’t want to say she’s a gold digger, I want to say she just wants to be secured financially that’s it (laughs).

Christian Keyes: In Black Coffee I play Julian, I am the voice of reason. At least, in my mind to Robert played by Darrin Dewitt Hensen a very good actor. Who’s life is pretty much turned upside down at the top of the film. He looses his job, his girlfriend, she leaves because of him loosing his job. Then he finds out his girlfriend is dating his ex boss. It’s crazy, so I kind of have to guide him through this, talk him down. Because he’s frustrated and upset. My character is a little bit of the comic relief. There’s also empowerment because I’m an entrepreneur & I sell coffee. I hustle, it’s a legal hustle but it’s a six-figure hustle for me. I’m literally making about a $100,000 a year slanging coffee. What we don’t know is there is literally several billion dollars sold in coffee yearly, in just the United States. It’s the #1 commodity in the world. So I’m on my hustle and eventually I kind of talk him into branching out and starting his own business. He’s really good at what he does as far as the construction and stuff. So it ends up being the type of family relationship that you want from a cousin. You want people to push you to be better and push you to be your best. it’s really cool, we had a ball filming it.

UrbanBridgez.com: What do you want people to get out of the film once they see it?
Darrin Dewitt Hensen: To be honest, what the hope and desire is for when you do something for the greater good that it allows for an individual to be mentally elevated and to see opportunities or the advantage of opportunities in their life where they may not have recognized before they even walked into the theater. So it’s allowing people to take a president in their life in saying again this didn’t happen to me, it happened for me.

Christian Keyes: I would say, don’t be afraid to step out and do your own thing. If you want to start a business, start a business. You don’t have to be rich by next year but who knows five years from now, maybe your company gets big or somebody comes along and buys it from you for a couple million. Or maybe you love what you do and you’re rich figuratively because of that & you make more than enough to get by. So what if you’re not a millionaire, you’re doing your own thing, you make your own hours, you can spend time with your family whenever you want. It’s a lot of perks doing your own thing, running your own business and chasing your own dreams. So I would say if they get anything, it should be that. It’s a forgiveness message in there, it’s also a chase your dreams and go for it, why not message in there.

UrbanBridgez.com: How did you get involved with the project?
Darrin Dewitt Hensen: This was very powerful character from the human perspective because Robert reminds us of our responsibilities. Responding to our ability, responsibilities. What that simply means to me is this man was put in a particular situation, he’s actually a painter to a company owned by his father. But he didn’t step up to the plate because he doesn’t like to deal with business & that cost him his own job. For not growing and there are a lot of times in our society that we’re put in positions where we’re like man I don’t want to do that, that’s going to take too much work. So I thought this character would have been great to play because the average person can identify.

Christian Keyes: They reached out to me about it and I was honored they would think of me to do it. I read the script, loved it and thought it would be a lot of fun.

UrbanBridgez.com: What was your experience like working with the cast, crew and director?
Darrin Dewitt Hensen: Whenever you have to do something that’s an ensemble it’s very important to discuss it with the director and writers. To try to build as much as a 360 degree around your characters to develop them in a way that everybody can see themselves in the characters and I think Mark Harris as a director does a great job doing that. And putting together the right cast with the right energy that was going to bring the characters to life.

Christian Keyes: It was great actually, Mark Harris wrote and directed the piece. Tri Destined Studios as well as 1555 Filmworks which is Mark Harris’ production company and Image Entertainment and One Village. They all came together to make this happen and it was defiantly a team effort and couldn’t of been done if any of the four pieces was missing. It wouldn’t of been able to come out as good as it did. On the cast side to work with Gabrielle Dennis, I’ve been a fan of her work, I’ve worked with Erica Hubbard and it was more fun because on Let’s Stay Together she plays my love interest. In this one, we’re kind of at each others throats a little bit which was fun because I don’t get to give her any grief on the show. In this, I get to kick her out the house and all kinds of fun stuff. So it was a blast man and to work with Lamman, he’s great at what he does. Working with Darrin Dewitt Hensen was cool, I’ve been a fan of his work forever. Just to work with all these talented people was amazing. It was defiantly a blessing, again I was so honored that they would track me down and say hey do you want to do this? That’s a blessing man.

“Black Coffee” is In AMC Theaters Now! For Tickets & Times: Visit AMC Theaters!