when be Mr. Morals and the Big StepsKendrick Lamar’s fifth studio album was released on May 13. One of the album’s standout tracks quickly became “We Cry Together,” both for its raw subject matter and slightly irregular shape. (The song sounds more like a radio play or rap battle than a traditional hip-hop offering.) Taylor Page (Zola, Ma Rainey’s black skirt) takes on the role of Lamar’s lover, challenger and hapless muse, and today the hyperreal music is brought to even more life with the world premiere of a six-minute short film of the same name.
Based on the album’s eighth track, the short film, in which the duo fight over everything and nothing, was shot by the creative collective pgLang de Lamar and filmed with live, uncut audio, an appropriate approach to a blues album. and Blackness, intertwined with elements of trap and free jazz.
“We Cry Together” (song) was shot in February 2020, and the accompanying short film was filmed a few weeks later in mid-March, just a day before quarantine was declared due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Directed by Jake Schreier, Dave Free and Kendrick Lamar, We Cry Together (the film) opened for a limited week (one performance per day, reservations over the phone) at the Laemmle Theater Royal in West Los Angeles. . in June. It has since qualified for Oscar consideration in the Best Live Action Short Film category.
Taylor Page spoke THR On the creative processes behind the duo’s music and short film, Los Angeles as a setting and how the artistic collaboration came about because, says Page, “on a spiritual level, our souls are from the same planet.”
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What is it about We Cry Together that makes you feel called to a short film rather than a music video in the more traditional sense? What’s cinematic about this song?
I think that besides the short, it’s an experience; You are like a voyeur in this couple’s life, but you are also a reflection of how the world sounds. Whether it’s arguing with your brother or people on the internet… I don’t think there’s a container for it, it just is.
How long did you end up taking it? Did you move quickly with each restart to conserve raw materials, or was the process more calculated and elaborate?
I think we like eight takes. I don’t think there’s any irritation when you’re with Kendrick, Jake, Dave. We were in the pocket. And we knew what we were doing.
Kendrick and I get along really well. I am loyal to the truth and so am I. I feel like there’s so much freedom in that. We had recorded the song before. [filming], in February 2020; There’s something really vulnerable and intimate and honest about being in the studio with the person who wrote it. So when we got together to shoot, there was a palpable level of comfort and energy. we are on something here. It was just knowing.
Music is frequency, and the way you change different moods in a song, especially a single one, feels like you’re turning anger and trauma into sex and passion and all that different stuff. That’s what really stood out to me about the album in general, but especially about this song and now this short film. As an actor and performer, what was it like for you to convey so many emotions in six minutes?
So liberating. Again, the people who are there for me are crazy people who are committed to telling the truth and being there and being honest. Honesty doesn’t always look pretty and it doesn’t always look perfect.
I think it was based on my personal experience of relationships, but also my experience of the world and how frustrating it is. Like, what’s going on here? What are we doing? What are we talking about? What do we prefer? We don’t communicate with each other, we can’t really hear each other. It’s just hysterical. this is how i feel today [of the shoot] I was like, “Please God, use me as a vessel for all of this to come out, because I feel like we’re all capable.” It was over two years ago when we were all struggling with the world we live in. And now, even two years later, I think we’re even more at a turning point.
Kendrick does a great job exploring his spirit and his personal experiences to be able to metabolize the calcification of his life, but also of his inner and outer world.
The impending pandemic lockdown makes it all the more poignant because this short film is shot in the architecture of a house. And here we were in quarantine with all these pressures and emotions bubbling up.
Everything comes out. I was excited about the top of the quarantine because I was like, “Great. The whole world must reflect at the same time. We cannot anticipate; We don’t even have the right. Maybe that will happen, maybe we can postpone it.
But the funny thing is that all this happened before the world closed. For someone like Kendrick, who is an alchemist, a psychic, a pothead, he doesn’t breathe, think or share in a linear fashion. [So these themes] They are then, now, in the future. It’s not really internalized by your brain, it seems. This is the spirit.
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When you were in the studio, did you think about the lyrics they gave you, did you feel like a script? What was it like taking on the role of “rapper”?
Our mutual friend who invited me to the project was very mysterious; I’ve just been told I have a rehearsal, so I think I’ll record a video. When I got there, we sat at the table and Kendrick said we were going to record a song tonight and then do a live video in one take. [soon after].
I look at the lyrics and we start going to bars. Everything that seemed a little strange from my mouth, we changed: adding improvisations, talking about human relationships, our existence, the ego, spiritual healing. I think I got there at 6pm and he and his engineer were in the studio until 4am banging on the walls because there was so much energy and it was very emotional.
Is there any particular moment you and Kendrick talked about that you really touched on and emphasized during rehearsals? Choose certain items to bookmark or display to send a message?
I don’t remember specifically, but it’s such a great feeling that it allowed us to find it. [those moments]. For what we practiced on the day of the session, it was more a matter of blocking, so we had the freedom to do whatever we wanted. I found myself very emotional – very angry and almost apathetic.
Do you think having live audio on set has helped you stay in the singing world? How did that change the experience for you?
Yes, because it’s real and it’s life and I live my life to see life as art. Since it was live, we had to remain flexible. I didn’t try to do what I did last time, I really had the freedom to see what happened.
Kendrick and you are very intuitive artists and performers. That said, did you share any tangible lessons about acting and rapping with each other?
It felt very natural just because I say it and it sounds really weird, but I think there’s a lot of freedom in being honest, so when you’re into your art, [it’s just real].
How does the release of this film drive the narrative of the entire album and its release?
This is performance art. Personally, I think you expect the art you publish to reflect the world we live in. Like, to me, a good healer is someone who helps you remember the tools you already have to heal, I hope. When you see it, you think about your relationships, how you appear, how you talk to someone.
It’s been two and a half years [since we filmed] Now. But even then I knew that it was special and that it would resonate with so many people. I know how I felt when I did that, it’s a confirmation. Because all I have to do is appear like me and be real.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
