Netflix released the western flick, “The Harder They Fall,” where all the lead roles were Black.
In the movie, Regina King portrays “Treacherous Trudy” alongside Idris Elba’s “Rufus Buck.” In a recent interview with Ebony‘s Ronda Racha Penrice, King shared why she jumped at the chance of taking on the role.
“It was just a space that we don’t get to see ourselves in, one; and two, how often do we get the opportunity to have that big film with all of those people?” she told the publication. “You don’t hear that. Usually for us if it’s something like that—and it’s been a long, long, long time—it’s usually a romantic comedy, but it’s never a genre like western, or action or any of that nature.”
The movie was directed by Jeymes Samuel. He did not have to work too hard to convince her to sign on the dotted line.
“When I met Jeymes and he broke down his vision, I just was so excited,” she noted. “It felt fresh. I played some of the music that he had already written to some of the scenes, and I just was like, ‘You know what? I’m going to take a ride with you.'”
In the trigger-happy revenge movie, Jonathan Majors and Elba are the focus of the plot. Buck kills Nat’s parents when he is 10-years-old (and mark’s him) Nat embarks on a journey to avenge his mother and father. However, the plot twist at the end will leave viewers slack-jawed.
Jeymes also spoke to the outlet, where he says he refused to write the n-word into the script.
“Just because it’s a period piece, stop calling us n—gas,” he says, “It doesn’t give you license to call us n—gas 100 times. Just because the story takes place in the 1800s shouldn’t give you license to make women subservient. When Nat Love says to Trudy Smith, ‘Where’s your boss?’ She goes, ‘Boss?”… Ain’t no subservience in this movie. We’re kings and queens on horseback.”
The film also stars Zazie Beetz, Delroy Lindo, LaKeith Stanfield, Danielle Deadwyler, Edi Gathegi, RJ Cyler, Damon Wayans Jr. and Deon Cole.
