Teyonah Parris ("Chi-Raq," "Mad Men") is dazzling in a new TVONE film based on the life of R&B singer Miki Howard called " Love Under New Management: The Miki Howard Story." In an interview, director/co-writer Christine Swanson spoke about making a film about a woman who went from being a homeless teenager to a top-selling performing artist, an addict, and a survivor of domestic abuse, and then came back to sing again.
Tell me about the "Unsung" series and how this first dramatic version of one of the stories came about. Will there be more?
The "Unsung" series is a popular TVONE show that highlights the lives of singers from the past. Miki Howard's "Unsung" was one of the most popular episodes to air in the history of the series. TVONE decided to create movies based on the "Unsung" series and because of the popularity of Miki Howard, hers was the first movie to go into production. There will be more indeed.
Miki's narration of the film is very powerful and I see that she was one of the producers. What was most important to her in telling this story?
The most important thing for Miki in telling her story was that we went all in and that we did not sugar-coat or shy away from some of the tougher areas of her life. At times, I would ask Miki, "Are you sure you want to go there?" and she said "Absolutely!" She was okay with the gritty and honest telling of the darker parts of her life. She wanted people to know that you can make it through anything. She made it through and wanted her story to encourage others as well.
You cover an extended time period in the film. What did you and Teyonah Parris do to keep the audience clear about where we were in the story?
What I did was try to be a conduit for Miki's story as a writer and a director. What Teyonah Parris did was channel Miki with a level of specificity and honesty to keep us riveted. Even Miki Howard says when she thinks of herself now, she sees Teyonah's face.
What are some of the special challenges and advantages in telling the story of someone whose face and voice and performances are well-known by many people in the audience?
Some of the challenges of telling a story about a living person, especially a well known and beloved singer like Miki Howard revolve around accuracy, relevance and getting song rights. One always wants to be accurate about someone's life but sometimes in movie making you have to take liberties to push the story forward. Also, there is so much life Miki lived, that we had to be specific about choosing the parts that worked delicately and creatively with the story arc of the movie. Lastly, getting all the rights to the songs can raise the budget!
Miki made some very poor choices -- how do you keep the audience on her side?
Miki is as human as the next person. We all make poor choices. Fortunately, Miki, unlike Whitney Houston and other singers who fell into drugs, lived to talk about it. The key in terms of keeping an audience on her side is to allow them to see that even though she made poor choices, she admits to them and takes action to turn her life around. Hard to be critical of someone who does that. And, honestly, her story is inspiring as a result of her "good" choices.
Miki was often unsure of her value in many ways but never wavered from her sense of who she was as an artist. Where did that come from?
She comes from artistry of the highest order. Her parents were well known singers in their own right. She grew up with and was surrounded by some of the best singers in the business. But she worked in a world where the vessel was seldom valued...
What's your favorite Miki Howard song?
My favorite Miki Howard song is "Love Will Find a Way." Not one of her hit songs per se, but that song speaks to me of the inherent love and resilience that is imbedded inside that fireball of a person. I must have listened to it like a 1,000 times since I met her. It always kept me in the true Miki Howard zone. Even Miki is astonished how much I love that song.
What did being a director teach you about writing a screenplay?
What being a director taught me about writing a screenplay is that one has to understand the emotional beats of the character's journey because the direction of the cinematography, lighting, costume design, production design, editing and score stems from that understanding. There were a lot of highs and lows for Miki Howard, so understanding the emotional and visual arc of the story in the writing is everything when it comes to directing.
The movie reminded me of classics like "I Could Go on Singing" and "Lady Sings the Blues." What films inspired you in creating this story?
Wow. You nailed it on the head. Some of the movies I used as inspiration for this movie were, "Lady Sings the Blues," "La Vie En Rose," and "Casino." All strong and complicated female leads.
What are you doing next?
I'm currently in Texas scouting for my next feature film called "Buffalo Soldier Girl." It's a movie inspired by the true story of Cathy Williams who, disguised as a man, rose from slavery to become the first woman to enlist in the peacetime Army and the only woman to ever serve out West with the legendary Buffalo Soldiers. We are in talks with Teyonah Parris for the lead and we are very excited. This will be a bad-ass epic western/war story with a super hero bent about a historic figure in American history. It should be fun!