‘A Lot Of Nothing’ Director, EP And Cast

A Lot of Nothing director Mo McRae joined executive producer David Oyelowo and stars Y’lan Noel, Cleopatra Coleman and Lex Scott Davis to discuss the film at Deadline’s SXSW Studio.

“I saw [McRae’s] short film of A Lot of Nothing,” says Oyelowo, “a 17-minute, one-take short film that crammed so many themes, such wonderful writing and direction into it. And that was the beginning of our conversation about A Lot of Nothing.”

“I saw the short film as well,” says Scott Davis, “and… well, [me and Mo] are married so I was very close to the process of the short film and was so inspired by the themes and the dialogue the the couple was happening, especially being that it was a Black couple and the elevated conversation we were able to have around this subject matter.”

The film follows James (Noel) and Vanessa (Coleman), a perfect married couple, when they watch the news and find out their neighbor committed a crime. Their lives spiral out of control into a comedy of errors when they decide to take matters into their own hands.

“Funny things can be really serious sometimes and sometimes really serious things can be funny,” says McRae. “For me, this film was an opportunity to touch on a lot of really sensitive topics in a way that could allow us to laugh and make it more palatable.”

“Mo, I remember asking you about the tone,” says Coleman, “and I said, ‘Where do we find the funny?’ and he said, ‘We laugh at you, the movie laughs at you, you take it seriously.”

“My hope is that we are able to create something that allows people to feel whatever they feel truthfully,” says McRae, “without societal pressures and influences on how we’re supposed to react to things. I wanted to create an opportunity that subverts all of those, and lets people experience how they experience it.”

Click the video above to watch the full discussion.