Don't @ Me with Justin Simien
The Process with Lena Waithe (Live at LA Film Festival)
Lena Waithe is an actress and producer, but always a writer first. The Emmy-winner returns to talk about her projects in development (Queen and Slim, Twenties, Them), her creative process, and how she stays hungry.
By Justin Simien • • 59m ListenLena Waithe has a a fire in her belly. There’s a growing list of accomplishments and projects with her name on them: an Emmy for comedy writing, her Showtime drama The Chi, acting credits and a feature on the way starring Daniel Kaluuya (Queen and Slim). But her ambitions are much greater. “I want to be more than one episode of television. I want to be more than the black girl in that one Spielberg movie,” she tells Justin. “I want to keep people guessing.”
In the first-ever live edition of Don’t @ Me, recorded at the Los Angeles Film Festival, Lena and Justin trace their early days in Hollywood, the power of a strong community of Black artists working in concert instead of competition, and what success means beyond wealth or fame.
