Given her Jewish roots, filming the new Netflix rom-com You People was very “personal” for actress Lauren London.
In the Kenya Barris-directed film, London plays Amira Mohammed, a Los Angeles native who enters a relationship with Ezra Cohen, portrayed by Jonah Hill. When the couple decides to get married, they try to unite their families, played by Eddie Murphy, Nia Long, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and David Duchovny, which doesn’t turn out as they hope.
In a new interview with People Every Day podcast host Janine Rubenstein, London opened up about filming You People. In addition to sharing how fun it was working alongside Hollywood greats, the actress also revealed how filming the movie helped her get more in touch with her Jewish heritage.
“My dad is Jewish, my mom is Black,” London said of her upbringing. “I just grew up with my mother in my household. I didn’t grow up with my dad living with us. My parents divorced when I was really young. I was 3, so my experience is of my mother’s experience because I just grew up with a single Black mom.”
She continued, “What felt personal was shooting in LA and some of those areas that we shot in and some of the places that we shot in. I liked that they were Jewish ’cause it was also some stuff that I got to learn via being in the movie that I didn’t know.”
London added that the entire filming experience was “just fun” to shoot.
“It was really a masterclass watching Eddie and Julia and David and Nia and even Jonah,” she recalled. “Jonah’s an improv master, and so was Eddie. It was a lot of laughter, Eddie and Julia talking about their SNL days, and I’m asking Nia about Boyz n the Hood because I grew up watching that stuff. Those are my favorite days. It was cool.”
