Ali's most recent film, Home Again, follows three deportees as they return to Jamaica and acclimate themselves to a place they never got a chance to call home. I got a chance to sit down with the actress to talk about the film, how her role as Marva Johnson is different from anything else she's ever done, why shooting in Trinidad was special to her, and possibly releasing a new version of her famous Fresh Prince song Make Up Your Mind.
You can check out the interview below!
So how did you get involved with this project?
It actually came as an offer, I read the script. And it's so different from anything that I've ever played before. I actually wasn't sure if they'd written the right character down [laughs]. But I fell in love with the story and I fell in love with Marva's character. She kind of frightened me, which is always a good sign that you should probably do something.
And then after talking with Sudz [Sutherland], the director, then I knew there was a lot of real care going into telling the story.
In the movie you have a lot of emotionally intense scenes, with your uncle and the scenes about your kids. How did you prepare for that?
Well, I think the biggest challenge for me was that Marva was, above all, a mom, and her whole journey through the story is to try and get her children back. And I had to connect to that, and that was probably the hardest part. I'm not a mother. I mean I have an incredible mother and great maternal figures in my life, but that feeling of missing your child of missing your child and missing a part of your own body, that's a pain that I really had to... that was where most of my work went.
And the rape scenes, I worked with an incredible actor, Paul Campbell, who I just felt safe with him, if that makes sense [laughs], even though the scenes are terrifying in the actual film. The crew and the director, by the time we shot we'd been working for at least a few weeks, and so I knew everybody, I felt safe. Then I'd go there and just let the scene happen.
You shot the movie on location in Trinidad [Spain] instead of Jamaica. Was there a production reason for that? Well, they wanted to... the film takes place in Jamaica. I believe the filmmakers did try to shoot it in Jamaica for a very long time, but political reasons or whatever, it didn't work out. But Trinidad has really been trying to get the film industry there. And it's an independent film, so they gave great tax breaks. It was really special for me because my father's from Trinidad, and I'd been there before, but this was definitely the longest amount of time that I stayed and I really got a chance to have memories of it for myself. And I've been back since and I fell in love with it. It was really beautiful.
So you took away some great memories from there.
Oh yeah, for sure. It's beautiful. In the story, my character Marva, the big job to get over there [in Jamaica] is in a resort. And that's a big thing for a lot of the Caribbean nations. You have the gorgeous resort world, where tourists come in and then you have the places where people actually live, and the two never quite meet. And the story exposes that. What's kind of cool about Trinidad is that tourism isn't the main industry, petroleum is, so there's not that separation. There aren't these resorts cast away from the everyday people that live on the island. It's a different kind of place.
It's really crazy when you think about the fact that the worlds never coincide.
Yeah. And the interesting thing about this film, there are some people who are intimately familiar with the storyline and know people who've been deported, or people don't know much about the deportations that have been going on. And the filmmakers spend a few years researching and gathering stories. So all the characters in the film are a collection of the stories the filmmakers collected.
So by the end of the film, you're kind of rockin' the Jamaican accent and everything. And you can really see how far you're character has come. By that point, do you think your character is happy or just better adjusted?
I think by that point she's become less naive and I think that by that point, she's learning how to play the game and learning that she needs to play the game in order to win. The political game, the paperwork game, the social game. So, that's where she is at that point. I don't she's really satisfied until her kids get off the plane. That's when you find out that Marva does actually win. It kind of comes full circle for her. She learns a lot and then her kids come back to her, so she reaches this point where she's not really happy but she has her happiness with her.
Exactly. Exactly. She can start a life now. But what's really great about that scene too is that they show both realities. You see CCH Pounder's character [who plays Dulsay, the mother of one the deportees] get on the plane without her son, because he's passed away. And then you see Marva with her children, and it was one of the only scenes I got to work with CCH Pounder [laughs].
Yeah, because all your characters overlap but don't cross paths until the end.
Yeah. Marva and Dulsay, they never actually meet. But there is that moment where Dulsay looks back and she sees Marva with her children and she's basically walking home with a coffin.
Your career has included both acting and singing. You released your first album in the late nineties, and then you switched back and forth. Which one do you find yourself being more drawn to?
Both. [laughs] I like both. They both satisfy different parts of me. Acting, I can play characters and live lives that I've never would've dreamed I'd live and experiences that I know nothing about. With music, it's connecting to people in the way I think acting doesn't, it's just different. For me personally, I don't have an alter ego when I'm doing music, and it's really authentic. I can really be myself and share what I think and go through and feel.
I just recall when I used to watch you on The Fresh Prince [of Bel-Air] that song you sang on one episode. I sang that for a whole week afterward.
[laughs] Oh my god. Which one was that?
The song, Make Up Your Mind.Ohhhhh, Make Up Your Mind! People always bring up that song, that's so funny. [laughs] I'm putting an EP out in January and if I could get a hold of that song just to remake it, I can't tell you how many times people ask me about it.
I think a remake would be great. It would be nostalgic and at the same time, it's a great song.
Yeah, exactly. Even if it was a stripped down version of it or something like that. It is a good song.
So you're releasing an album in January. Are there also any more movies in the near future for you as well?
I have a film, it's a Christmas film, called Dear Secret Santa. It's coming out on Lifetime at the end of this month. Then, I'm not putting out a full album in January, but an EP of about four to six songs. I'm doing it independently, so I'm finishing that up.
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Home Again stars Tatyana Ali alongside Lyriq Bent, Stephan James, CCH Pounder, and Paul Campbell. It's on DVD and Video-on-Demand today.
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