Danielle Brooks says motherhood helped her find the quiet emotional center of the new movie IF I GO WILL THEY MISS ME.
“At the end of the day, I think as artists we’re supposed to be a reflection, you know, for the people to say, ‘Dang, I went through that too and maybe I can do something differently,’” Brooks told CBS MORNINGS.
The Oscar-nominated actress plays Lozita, a mother trying to hold her family together after her husband, Big Ant, returns home from prison. Brooks appeared on CBS MORNINGS with hosts Gayle King and Nate Burleson to discuss the movie, which opens in theaters Sept. 18.
Written and directed by Walter Thompson-Hernández, IF I GO WILL THEY MISS ME follows 12-year-old Lil Ant as he tries to reconnect with his father while making sense of the adults around him. Sundance’s official program says the story blends social and magical realism, with Lil Ant viewing his father through the language of Greek mythology.
That imaginative lens gives the family drama room to ask a tender question: What happens when a child sees more goodness in a parent than the parent can see in himself? Brooks said the movie’s director uses mirrors throughout the story to invite the characters — and the audience — to examine who they are and who they might become.
“I think sometimes it’s so hard for us to see the good in ourselves and we reject it, you know?” Brooks said in the interview. She added that parents often want their children to see them as good, even when they struggle to believe that about themselves.
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Brooks also said Lozita felt different from the bold, outwardly expressive characters she often plays. The actress said the role allowed her to explore the hidden interior life of a woman based on a real person who died of cancer several years ago.
When asked how her own life as a mother informed an improvised apology scene between Lozita and her son, Brooks said the work gave her a place to draw from the reality that life is not always easy or perfect. She said artists should use their experiences to help viewers recognize their own struggles and consider doing something differently.
The production embraced that same honesty. Brooks said the crew shot in Watts and Compton in roughly 22 days, sometimes working without the comforts of a larger production. The director also invited people from the surrounding community to appear in parts of the movie, and Brooks recalled one neighborhood resident refusing to turn down her music during a lunch break.
“It adds to the color of what this is and the truthfulness of what we’re telling here,” Brooks said. That grounded approach matches the movie’s larger interest in grace, family fracture and the possibility of repair without pretending that anyone has everything figured out.
Brooks also connected the movie’s images of flight and water to the difficult work of trusting life. “If you actually say I’m going to take a leap of faith and do life, it can be so beautiful,” she said.
IF I GO WILL THEY MISS ME premiered at Sundance in January. Distributor Rich Spirit plans a special Los Angeles engagement Sept. 11 before the movie expands to more than 30 markets nationwide on Sept. 18, according to TheWrap.
Brooks closed the interview by calling the movie a birthday wish, since her birthday falls on Sept. 17. For families willing to sit with a story about imperfect parents, wounded children and the grace people can extend to one another, IF I GO WILL THEY MISS ME may offer plenty to discuss.
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