Black as Night Craig Tate Interview

- Hi, I'm Alison Rose with FlickDirect. Nice to meet you. - Alison, how are you doing? - I'm good. So we're here to talk about "Black as Night," a horror film that's going on Amazon. It's part of the Blumhouse Productions. So tell me what it's like to be part of Blumhouse and Amazon. How supportive were they for you? - I can tell you one thing. When I got my first series regular role last year, I officially incorporated as a business.

So all for that first question, you know, I'm as a business owner, you have two corporations like Blumhouse and Amazon Studios wanting to align their banner with your banner. I don't think that takes much consideration at all. (Alison laughs) You know, just, you know, speaking economically about it. Also, Amazon has been quite the usher, I guess the word is, or the savant, as far as a production studio goes and just, you know, the overall care they've been taking of not just me, but all the cast included.

Their presence has been felt on a micro level. So, yeah, shout out to Amazon on that. And there was one more part of that question, I apologize. - That's okay. When you first read the script, what did you think about your character? In a sense, he's one of the older characters and it really revolves around a lot more the younger characters. So what kind of mentality did you get into to play the father figure, so to speak?

- I wouldn't even really call the frog a father figure. I would call the frog more so, you know, he's an immortal, obviously. When you read, when you're given the opportunity to play a vampire or any kind of mythological creature that obviously has human proclivities, but also has proclivities that are not so human as well, then that is where the magic, the fun, and the child is able to come out.

Obviously, I don't think I tried to do anything entirely too different from Craig, but there are certain, you know, tendencies, you know, character traits, you know, small things that we naturally do in the thinking when we're speaking, when we're, you know, looking that you want to add a bit of a flair or an eclectic nature to, right? Maybe drawing out the vowels more or the way you move the jaw when you speak or when you're cating the speech itself.

I'm also trying to figure out, okay, you know, how long has this person been alive? You know, what choice, what path of life, you know, does he and did he choose ultimately to stay on? You can say he's been alive for close to three centuries, maybe longer, but yet still here he is in New Orleans. For what reason? There's a draw, there's a gravity, there's something very magnanimous, or there's maybe, there is a necessity he finds in the city, so obviously, you know, me being from New Orleans, that just gave me comfort, not comfort, but a very identifiable space to move in.

And like I said before, you know, from that point on, we just kind of worked the creative muscles, you know, production being delayed by a few months because of the pandemic kind of did not, but it helped. I did a crap ton, pardon my language, crap ton of reading that year, watched a lot of TV shows. I was able to aggrandize the archives of my, you know, creative palette just from, you know, new artists I have heard of, I'm sorry, artists I have heard of and artists I haven't heard of before and being able to take their influences and throw that into my world, you know what I mean?

- So New Orleans vampires, not necessarily a new concept, but how did you all make it fresh in a sense? - I mean, I can only speak from, you know, a role player standpoint, right? I was only on set for one day, and I guess I would assume that the perspective or the conception of, you know, the collective that I had was the same conception that everyone else had had, and that was that there is no, you know, no one, two or no metric on how to make something fresh.

It's all about just, it's not reinventing the wheel, it's just making sure it's taken care of, you know what I mean? (laughing) Just doing the ridges on it, right? So from that point on, you know, I would not be the first guy to play a vampire in a film. So, you know, beating yourself upside the head, trying to figure out how can I make this different?

Well, it's not making it different, you know, you yourself are already different because you're unique to who you are. No one's experienced your presence, your persona, your gravity, your, you know, aptitude, and so on and so forth. So it's identifying who you are. And on the topic of, I guess, the cast has to also ask themselves who they are. Marty, the director, has to ask herself, who is she?

What is my vision? What is it I want from this collective portrait? And then from that point on, yeah, the word fresh and unique is very cliche, but I would just say that ultimately it's new. No, it's not new, it's just, it's individual. It's individual. - I like that. - You know what I mean? So understanding that role player, you know, progression.

- So talk to me a little bit about this cast, 'cause they are a little younger. I know you weren't on set the whole time, but what did you feel, what impressed you about them? The fact that they are younger, and how did that play into your scene? - So Chris played by Mason Buechamp. I've known Mason for, I'm going on, I don't want to say three or four years already.

We used to go to the same acting academy out in Metairie, Louisiana for a few years. So we're both, you know, from New Orleans. I've known Mason well before we shot this. So, you know, my scenes were more personally with Asia, or Sean, with Asia Cooper. And as far as, you know, me and Asia go, we just kind of immediately hit it off. You know, she was comfortable, obviously, on set, because, okay, cool, she's been there a time before I have.

I'm the new face on the block. So obviously there's like this, okay, there are the jitters and nervousness you get hit with, you know, are people going to like me? All those same elementary school, right? Even as an adult, they are still very much there. So when you walk on set around all these new faces, it's just human, right? You know, you kind of go into the fight or flight response.

Okay, cool, these are all, you know, alien stimuli. But ultimately it's like, you know, you find familiarity, you know, me and Asia, I think we're very similar in that regard. You know, even before we got on set, even before we got into character, we just were able to sit down, introduce ourselves, and, you know, other video goods, and just, we fell in the conversation, you know, about nothing, you know, not even about the script, not even about the location, not even about the character.

We just, you know, started talking. And then once you develop that comfort with someone, all right, as a scene partner, that translates. Because if you don't trust the person, your opposite, then there's a very low ceiling for what can be accomplished or for whatever will be accomplished. But that was the beauty of building on just the body in front of me and the body in front of her, opposed to the character in front of her and in front of me.

Right, so from that point on, you know, given the nature of the scene, it was intimate. So, you know, there has to be transparency. There has to be, you know, the desire to be flexible and the trust, most importantly, to, you know, I trust this person. So yeah, I mean, you know, Asia, she's a superstar, man. And I think that she's, you've seen all the dividends she's getting right now.

So that's not coincidence, you know, that's not happenings. That's definitely by design. - Yeah, absolutely. What one last thing do you want to tell us about "Black as Night," about Amazon Studios? It's coming October 1st? - Yeah, you got it. Yes, ma'am. - All right, so just give us a quick wrap up. Do you like vampires? Do you hate vampires? Do you think they exist at all?

- I love vampires as far as them existing. The child in me says yes. The adult in me says maybe. Yeah, and I hope that people take, you know, when people watch "Black as Night," I hope that they can take away from this some sort of in-breath to narrate your own life, some sort of insight to be able to take control and, you know, find the dragon to slay in your life.

You know, don't be afraid to have the magic and couple that with the reality because ultimately magic stems from reality, art imitates life. You know, it's a balance. (eerie music) (wind whooshing)