Ma star Dante Brown talks working with Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer on the new Blumhouse Productions film, growing up on Lethal Weapon and learning from the greats.
Ma star Dante Brown is a true multi-hyphenate. At age 5 he was donned one of Oprah's Amazing Kids and his career took off from there. As an actor, he starred in his first film at just 10 years of age in America with Rosie O'Donnell. Soon after, he played the son of Oscar winner Viola Davis in Won't Back Down. He appeared in a string of roles on television before landing a lead on the Fox show Lethal Weapon. Today, he stars opposite Octavia Spencer in the new Universal Pictures & Blumhouse Productions film, Ma.
In the latest episode of Pop Culture Weekly, I asked Dante what it was like to work with the Oscar winning actress. "The lessons and advice that she gave us was priceless...Everyday before we got to do a scene, she would come in and basically have a little meeting with us to make sure everybody was up to par...It was like taking a masterclass from one of the greats. Her intensity. Her timing."
Brown continued, "Every little detail, she paid attention to everything. Her character slowly evolves and you can see it. That's what I saw. That was my masterclass. Her balance. To break us out of the scene she would do something really fun but then when it was time to work she was really deep in it. It was an amazing experience".
I asked Brown what genre he would place Ma in. "I can't wait for people to see it...A psychological thriller, that's what I would call it...With Get Out (& similar films), psychologically they're getting down into the skin of things and scare a lot of people to start a conversation on these things."
Hear the full interview with Dante Brown regarding his time on Lethal Weapon, his music career as Dante The Poet and working on Ma with Octavia Spencer on this very special episode of Pop Culture Weekly with Kyle McMahon.
Top photo: Courtesy of JC Olivera/ Getty Images North America
Ma photo: Courtesy of Universal Pictures / Blumhouse Productions