You People, the Netflix feature film debut of director Kenya Barris (Black-ish, Grown-ish) that he co-wrote with star Jonah Hill, hits the streaming service this Friday, and it’s likely to not only spur a lot of laughter, but a lot of needed and uncomfortable conversations too.
In the film, Ezra Cohen (Hill) and Amira Mohammed (Lauren London) have an awkward ride-share meet cute and discover that, despite their differences in backgrounds, they have a profound connection. The only problem is, well, everyone around them, particularly their families. It’s a topic that’s rife for both humor and learning, and the film offers both in spades.
While their respective parents, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, David Duchovny, Eddie Murphy, and Nia Long, struggle to bridge the gap, both Ezra and Amira do find some allies who support their relationship — although they aren’t afraid to speak the hard truths as well.
Out comic Sam Jay plays Mo, Ezra’s best friend, podcast partner, and voice of reason when Ezra starts wading into dating someone outside his culture. Travis Bennett is Omar, brother to Amira, who serves as a confidant and occasional (gentle) troll to his sister.
PRIDE sat down with Jay and Bennett to talk about what they hope audiences will take away from You People aside from many, many laughs; how it reflects our real world; and the one joke that still has us giggling and gay gasping over it.
PRIDE: What I really love about this film and films like it is the way that it uses the humor of discomfort to create learning opportunities. What do you hope audiences take away from You People?
TRAVIS BENNETT: I just want people to take away some sort of perspective on how to have conversations that are uncomfortable and awkward to have, and just ways to make them wider. I deal with everything [with] humor... anything can be funny. And so I just tried to take out the good things in life and look at the glass half full, not half empty.
SAM JAY: I hope [they] take away whatever they take away. Whatever you leave with is probably what was meant for you to leave with. But I hope whatever it is, that they leave this a little changed or just [with] a little more perspective than they had before. Just thinking about something from the other side, you know?
Courtesy of Netflix
Sam, you kick off the film with a really funny bit about President Obama ‘doing gay stuff.’ And I was like, ‘Yes, gay stuff right out the gate. I love this movie!’ How much of that was improv and you inserting queerness into the narrative and how much of it was on the page?
SAM: I will not blame that on Kenya or Jonah, that was a complete riff, it was all me. [Laughs] I don’t know that I was inserting queerness. That’s really how I feel about Obama. I feel like you can be whatever you want to be. I think he’s gotten to that level. And a gay Obama that does cocaine sometimes. It’s just very funny to me!
Courtesy of Netflix
In You People, there are some really important conversations about race and connection, and what I think is also interesting is the way that it impacts generationally. The younger generation is much more comfortable with Ezra and Amira’s relationship than the parents. Do you feel like that’s a reflection of real life?
TRAVIS: I was raised in L.A. and you’re just around so many different religions, faiths, genders, sexual orientations. You just grow up with all these things and not judging them, not putting them in a box, and just realizing that people are people no matter what they do. I have some gay friends that love to do things that you wouldn’t expect them to, I have some straight friends that do things that you would expect them to. Jewish friends who do the same and Muslim friends who are the same. I think, for me, it’s just my generation.
I think we're a little more open-minded than most. I'm thankful for that, because then my friends can watch movies like this. And the conversations after the fact aren’t awkward. It's just like things that we've already talked about at dinner and dealt with in our own lives.
