It may have a nearly all-black cast, but the new Screen Gems film — starring Sanaa Lathan, Morris Chestnut, and Michael Ealy — is not about race. “If it’s a good movie, it’s a good movie, regardless of our color,” Lathan told BuzzFeed News.
Sanaa Lathan in The Perfect Guy.
Sony Screen Gems
Sanaa Lathan just wants to make movies.
Not necessarily black movies, or worse — she gulps for dramatic effect while making air quotes — "urban" movies, as many tend to categorize films with predominantly black casts, regardless of the content or storyline.
"I was reading about Straight Outta Compton, and it's interesting how the journalists talk about it. The way that they talk about the success is very marginalized," Lathan said. "It's like, 'This is a specialty film.' No, it's not. This is an American film about American history. Hip-hop culture is world culture now. It is universal."
And that gripe is, in part, what inspired her to go behind the camera and begin to produce what audiences have been begging to see onscreen for decades — movies that star people who look like her, but are about more than being black.
Her first film as a producer is the highly anticipated thriller The Perfect Guy, in which Lathan, who emerged as a leading lady 15 years ago with her breakout role in the fan favorite Love & Basketball, stars alongside heartthrobs Morris Chestnut and Michael Ealy. Her character, lobbyist Leah Vaughn, has everything: a fantastic career on the upswing, a house that could be photographed for the cover of Architectural Digest, and a dreamboat boyfriend, Dave (Chestnut), who seems to be equally successful in life.
And they just happen to be black.
From left: Lathan, Chestnut, and Ealy in The Perfect Guy.
Dan Mcfadden/Sony Screen Gems
Even in 2015, seeing successful black characters at the center of a film can still be foreign. And though The Perfect Guy showcases educated black people working in executive offices, Lathan points out that some are still miscategorizing the movie.
"I have heard people talk about this film as an urban film because we're black," she said. "The truth is … all races love watching us if it's a good story. But it's almost like this Hollywood doesn't want to write about that. I've had middle-age white men come up to me, and be like, 'I love Love & Basketball!' 'I watched Something New!' It's universal, just like I watch When Harry Met Sally. I love that movie. I want to see a great story. I want to get lost in the journey. And if it's a good movie, it's a good movie, regardless of our color. We're brown, but we're just making movies. We don't have to comment on our race."
And The Perfect Guy does not. In the film, Leah's idyllic world comes to a crashing halt when, after a few years of dating, Dave reveals he's still not quite ready to jump the broom and start a family, a nightmare for Leah, who's looking for that traditional I Can Have It All fantasy. She leaves Dave and soon begins dating Ealy's Carter Duncan, who appears to be able to offer up what her ex couldn't. But the fairy tale doesn't last long: She quickly notices a violent streak in him after he beats up a stranger at a gas station, gets scared, and breaks up with him. Then, he snaps — he stalks her and his actions force her to change her phone number, get the police involved, and, ultimately, reach back out to — and resume a relationship with — her ex-boyfriend.
Yes, we've seen some version of The Perfect Guy many, many times before; we've just rarely — if ever — seen it done with brown faces.
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