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by Rebecca Ford
At Reunited, Awards Insider features a verbal exchange between two Oscar nominees who collaborated on a previous project. Today we spoke with Inspection star Gabrielle Union and The Woman King director Gina Prince-Bythewood. In the past they worked together on Love
When Gabrielle Union first auditioned for Love
But Union has teamed up with director Gina Prince-Bythewood, and for any of them, the romantic drama of 2000 remains a milestone in their careers. So when we gather them on Zoom to remember, they temporarily write stories about Union’s audition, as well as some of the tension on set.
They also realize that the paintings they released this year, Union’s harsh functionality as a mother who can’t settle for her gay son in The Inspection, and Prince Bythewood’s epic and historic action film, The Woman King*, have taken them to new heights. Union, this is the kind of dramatic, grainy paintings that she herself didn’t even know she was capable of; for Prince-Bythewood, it’s the large-scale action film about black women she dreamed of making. Together, they talk about their adventure up to this point and the industry hurdles they had to overcome to get there.
Vanity Fair: What do you think of your first meeting?
Gabrielle Union: It was one of my first auditions for a movie, period. At that time, she had done 10 things and she is all that. But it wasn’t like I had a bunch of auditions in between. I think I auditioned for each one once and that was it, I understood. And I walked in and I had my North Carolina basketball shorts on, and I said, “Oh, athlete to athlete, she’s going to get it, she’s going to get me, she’s going to feel really fast. You said, “I don’t think you’re cut out for this, however, there’s another role that I think you’re better at. The sides are in the lobby, take the time you need. In my basketball shorts, in my little beach bar and I’m like, “Oh, she’s a whore. The character you see for me is a hoe!
Gina Prince-Bythewood: It’s so appealing because although I think we talked about it briefly, I didn’t realize you were an “athlete athlete” until a few years later. And it’s not even like, “Oh, I see a hoe. ” It was like, “I see skill and I need you in it, what’s another way to get into the movie?”I think because I knew it would be Sanaa at the time because I had read Sundance but hadn’t played ball, so I still kept it a little open.
Union: It’s also the first time I’ve read for a black woman. And I don’t think that will happen in a long time. Other black people who choose, but not a director.
Prince-Bythewood: I don’t know why I seem surprised because yes, at that time it’s been a desert for a long time.
Union: And you felt young, you felt contemporary. I liked you to be but you were my age.
Trade Union in Inspection
The King Woman
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