‘One of Them Days’ Team Hopes the Film Opens Doors for More Black Stories in Hollywood

As “One of Them Days” finally hit theaters this weekend, its creative team, including writer Syreeta Singleton, director Lawrence Lamont and producers Issa Rae and Deniese Davis, hope the Black duo comedy encourages Hollywood studios to support more Black stories — especially given the long and challenging road it took to get their film made.

“There’s constantly things that we have to overcome to make a movie theatrical and to ensure that, by the studio standards, people will go to see it,” Rae told TheWrap, sharing the same sentiments as Davis, her producing and business partner, who urged film lovers to head to theaters for the film. “That’s why Deniese is saying it is so important for people to buy these tickets, because it’ll prove that there is a demand for these type of movies. And then the onus, of course, being Black filmmakers and also having Black female leads is that, if it doesn’t do well, they’ll be, like, ‘We tried X’ and so that’s the unfair part of it.”

The film earned $11.6 million over the three-day weekend box office, scoring the top spot for new releases and glowing reviews from critics and audiences.

“One of Them Days,” starring Emmy-winning actress and musician Keke Palmer and multiple Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter SZA, follows the comical tale of two besties, Dreux (Palmer) and Alyssa (SZA), roommates who embark on a hilarious journey to make up their rent money after Alyssa’s shifty boyfriend (Joshua Neal) misspends it on his own desires.

The project, which began as a pact between Hoorae Media’s ColorCreative and Sony Pictures to source and produce emerging diverse screenwriters to write and develop their first studio features based on original ideas, went through a six to seven-year development process. It was filmed in 20 days.

While the film continues to receive rave reviews and earned a 96% rating from Rotten Tomatoes, Davis said their team faced “all the challenges” trying to get “One of Them Days” to the big screen.”

“All of them,” Davis said. “It’s like validation because of the duration, and I mean, it’s also still surreal. This whole week has been mind-blowing. To kind of just recognize all the things about this movie that you feel like, ‘this movie should not exist, but it exists,’ and we worked so hard on it. To start to see the love and support, it’s almost like, we knew, but it obviously validates the larger experience. And I’m just hoping it shows people that you can take a chance, you can take a risk on good stories.”

And “One of Them Days” isn’t just another one of them movies, it’s the first Black female-led comedy movie since “Girls Trip” (2017), and the first Black female duo film since “B.A.P.S.” (1997).

Rae chimed in, sharing some of the specific hurdles.

“The development process and the natural things that come with personnel changes. We initially had a champion in Bryan Smiley, who left and went to, I think, Kevin Hart’s company right after,” Rae explained. “Luckily, the other champion on the Sony side, Sarah came to us to work at Hoorae, and she, along with Deniese, were helping to keep the project alive and well at Sony, just through her connections. And even then, once we got Keke attached, they were like, ‘But we need an even bigger star.’ Then once we got SZA attached, it was still like, ‘Well, we’re not going to give you that much money and you’re going to shoot it in 20 days,’ and we made that happen.”

Despite the Black community being the largest consumer group of media, Black audiences still aren’t being served in their call for more and better representation, per a Nielsen report. In addition, there are still racial disparities in the film industry as it relates to funding. Per a 2021 McKinsey study, Black filmmakers receive 40% less financial support compared to films by non-Black filmmakers. Even Cord Jefferson called out the issue during a conversation with TheWrap while promoting his now Oscar-winning film “American Fiction.”

“Ninety-eight percent of the people who saw this and sort of were telling me that it was the greatest thing they’ve ever seen, the second that I asked them — this goes back to what I was saying earlier about bring in marginalized voices, you have to take a risk — the minute that I asked them to take a risk, they were out,” Jefferson said at the time. “The one place that actually took a risk and gave me that money to make this film is run by Alano Mayo, a Black woman. I think that’s worth pointing out.”

“One of Them Days” is both Singleton and Lamont’s feature film directorial debut, and though they’re more than grateful that the film has finally come to fruition, they acknowledge the unique fight Black creatives are faced with.

“I think we go through these waves where… I read an article once where Hollywood loses out on $10 billion a year from unmade Black content, Black stories. And that’s a little weird to me, you know. I feel like we’ve always had these waves in cinema,” Lawrence said.

“In the 90s, we had the Black new wave, they were calling it, with Spike Lee, Robert Townsend and John Singleton. And then, kind of like the late 90s, early 2000s another wave, with ‘Brown Sugar’ and ‘Love & Basketball.’ I think the challenges are always there. I don’t know where it stems from. I’m not about to be like, ‘Everybody’s racist,’ but historically, it is harder for us to tell our stories for some reason. And it’s like, even reading ‘One of Them Days,’ when I first read the first draft of the script, I was just like, ‘How is it still rare that a story like this is original and I haven’t seen before?’ So yes, I think the challenges are there because of us being Black filmmakers. But hopefully this film can open the door and allow more stories like ours to be told.”

“One of Them Days” comes from the mind of Singleton and her personal experiences growing up as a Los Angeles native. Sharing the same sentiments as her team, she said potential buyers looked to find a successful film they could compare “One of Them Days” to in order to for them to feel more comfortable their financial support.

“Some of the conversations around this movie, like, they start looking for comps (comparable films),” Singleton explained. “What other movies were like it? How did they perform? And when they’re struggling to find a comp for our movie … and so it’s being compared to things that are way outside of what we’re trying to do. And it’s like, ‘Okay, well, there’s nothing like this. But could it be like this?’ And it’s just like, ‘No.’ You know what I mean? It’s kind of crazy. If anything, I hope that this is the beginning…the success of our movie, not just for Lawrence and I, but just for other filmmakers, so that these moments, these conversations with studios, are just a little bit easier going forward, and we can get more stuff made.”

“One of Them Days” is now in theaters.

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