Danai Guira Extended Interview

Check out the extended interview with Danai Guira.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Comedy Central, Welcome back the hell of
a Week. My next guest is currently starring in the
biggest movie in the galaxy. You also know her from
her days Killing Zombie as m Sewn on The Walking Day.
Give it up for General O Korey from Black Panther
or Condor Forever Tonight, Guerra, he how are you guys?

(00:26):
How are you? Great? Crowd? I was gonna start off
with you know, but I feel like you get that
ship all the time. I did never get old it
because okay, okay, now, I don't know if you'll see
what kind of yet I'm sure you have, right, Okay,
there's a there's a lot of swimming in the movie.
And Ryan Coogler, who directed the film, he said he
learned to swim just to direct the film. Were you

(00:48):
a part of that whole process as well? I got
really excited when I found out about the swimming because
I was a competitive swimmer as a kid. Yeah, and uh,
it was something that I gave up in terms of competing,
but I always have loved it as my favorite sport.
I go back to it every now and then. So
to actually get to do it on screen I'd never
ever had that opportunity, and I also thought it was

(01:08):
a really cool thing, um just to see black folks women.
I don't think we did to see that enough. So um,
you know, it was just I went all in. You know,
I got it on my own. I got like an
Olympics trainer and and went all in and try to
learn as well as I could. I mean, if you
was a competitive swimming did you have to like refresh
some things like what you have to learn again? Well,
you know, here's the thing. I was competitive swhmere when
I was like up to the age of like thirteen.

(01:30):
So let's just like really keep it really so like
I kept swimming, and I had I loved swimming with speed,
but like learning how to swim from on that level
where you're actually really learning what Olympic swimmers due to
gain speed and momentum and endurance was like a whole
new thing to learn. And I got really like kind
of passionate about it just learning about it with the
black community, how we don't get exposed to it that much,

(01:52):
and it can affect even children because like I found out,
like black kids are five times more likely to drown
than white kids which really got me and about it. Now,
that's simply from a lack of not knowing it's from
I think it's from the lack of it's so many factors,
but I think it's really it's I think it's so
so economic. I think it's about like what's in the
communities that gives them that that exposure, And so it's

(02:13):
I think it's really, um, it's an importance to life
skill that I'm not really passionate about. So I'm so
happy that it's in the movie the way it is.
Ryan did learn um, and I was, and so many
cast members also learned for the job, which is an
amazing thing. Ryan really in the water. Yes, that man
was in the water. Okay. It was so funny because like,
you know, he's such a committed man. He's so committed,

(02:35):
he's so passionate about what he does. He does, he
gives it everything he's got, and um, you know, we
were one of the costume designer, the amazing Ruthie Carter
was saying she was just looking at a monitor and
it was it was underwater, and she could see a
few people just treading water normally, and then there were
these one pair of legs. I would just tread and treading.
It was Ryan. Ryan gave it his all. He really

(02:56):
learned a lot. Your character has such an interesting story
all in the film. I mean, everybody's dealing with with
grief from the film, but you're also dealing with isolation.
You know, I would call it by people you love.
How did those two emotions collide for you in this film? Yeah,
it was, it was. It was. We were dealing with
the law. It was a very intense process. We we
had lost Chadwick and you know, that's our brother. It
was the soul of what we were doing. He was

(03:17):
our anchor as a leader, and he was a very
very anchoring, stabilizing presence just in life um South Carolina's own,
and uh, it was it was devastating to lose him,
and coming back was all about honoring him. So you know,
the focus of everything we did was about that and
the journey and the joy of it was that we

(03:38):
got to actually explore the experiences of these characters. The
grief actually was honoring him as well. But they got
they were going through it. We were going through it.
We hadn't gone through it together yet. Because it's sadly,
he passed in two thousand twenty. We were very isolated
at that time from seeing each other even personally, so
it was very much a time for us to come
together and to mourn him together, but also to have

(04:01):
the characters go through their grieving process. And that was
very different for for any sort of film. Honestly, quite
the scale, but also the journey of my character was, um,
it was. It was very It was important to me
that she doesn't just come across as like strong or whatever,
you know what I mean, Like she's a full person.
So I was thankful that we got to see her

(04:22):
go through some stuff she would never have expected because
she was trying to shoulder everything, which we do sometimes
as black women or women, we tend to try to
shoulder a lot, but we're not letting ourselves go through it,
and um, she has to start going through it. Did
this film change how you view deaf? And the reason
I asked that because whenebody think about like the ancestral plane,
I'm like, well, if you get to see your people

(04:44):
afterwards in that way, maybe it ain't so bad. Uh. Yeah,
I think I've I've there's there's a lot of hope
in there, and I think that there's the beauty of
the journey and the story and and of what we
what that belief is is that that's the hope. And
I think that's what the story is, not just totally

(05:04):
just sadom arose, it has a hope in it, that
that that's that thread that we don't we move to
another plane. And someone once said about Chadwick that he
always felt like he was so deeply connected to the ancestors.
And I felt that around him big time. I mean,
he even had the drum on set and we were
he would drum his his boy Jabari would drum. We
got Jabari back, thank God for this one. So we

(05:25):
really felt that culture he brought to places that really
connected you to yourself, to your people, to your ancestors.
So there's something about that, um that that is very
rich and and it's kind of more resonant now in
me than it was before. Um. How much how much
is the script change from there an original script? How
much like after his passing? I'm within the script change?

(05:46):
Oh you know, I I hadn't seen m the script
before he passed. Oh yeah, and and and what but
I know that there were of course there were there
were changes, of course, Um, but you know what I didn't.
I hadn't even been thinking beyond the fact that the
devastation having lost him. And then Ryan said we're doing
it and I'm writing it, and I was surprised. But

(06:06):
then when he said, I know this is what this
is what he would have wanted. He wanted us, he
would want us to carry on and carry the story on.
And I knew immediately that was accurate, that that's who
he was. Did you think it was even possible to
do it, do a second one without him? Um? Yeah,
I think there. There's an extent to which it was
an act of faith, and it was an act of
belief that, like what he went through and what he

(06:28):
did too, to give what he gave to the world. Um,
we had to give our all to give that to him.
And you can tell that y'all are like really a family.
But Too and Lapita go way back, right, yeah, me
and Lupie go way back. Me and Leticia go away back. Um. Uh,
they both I met. I met both of them. I

(06:49):
met like two thousand seven. I met Letitia two thousand fifteen.
They both had performed in plays that I have written,
and uh, the first time I met Letitia, she was
getting into character for a role in one of my
plays in London, and I'm just sitting there taking in
the cast and just hoping, you know, everybody is ready
to do this and give it their all because it's
a it's a pretty heavy play. And she was the

(07:10):
lead and um she said, she was like, I just
have to get into a moment. Sorry, sorry, And she
put on some Chindrick Lamar and she just went all out.
And I watched her and I said, she got it.
This is fire. She didn't care who was in the room.
She was gonna get where she had to go to
give the role her all. And I said, I love
this girl. So yeah, we go way back. How does

(07:31):
it feel now to be at this point with you know,
both of y'all having the success that y'all are having.
Y'all will look back and be like, damn, we did that.
Uh yeah. I mean the beauty of it is like, yeah,
we are like sisters and uh it is we really
support each other. We've been through a lot in uh
not that long a time, but like we really have
such love and support for each other. We really had

(07:52):
to lean on each other through the film. There were
times I was stronger, they were stronger. You know. There
was times they used to be like, girl, let's prayer.
I'd be like, let's pray. You know, you never know
who's gonna be there for who on what day. But
we were all there for each other and and and
so we kind of look at it all and and
you're just kind of thankful because every step is like
when when we were in the midst of making this film,
it was like the end of it was far off.

(08:13):
We were just trying to get there every day and
make sure we gave it everything we had. So just
to see it up there and see people experiencing it
and enjoying it, I mean that that feels amazing. I
won't lie. Well, y'all got there. You're not thank you
for joining us this evening. If you haven't yet check
out Denying Black Panther will cond of forever. And if

(08:34):
you have already checked it out, check it out again,
all right, the Niagararia everybody when we come back for
Hell of the Week, So be sure to listen to
Hell of a Week with Charlemagne and God whenever you
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