“I was like, ‘I need somebody who is gut-bustlingly funny, but you could really dig deep and find some of those dramatic moments because the film does run that tonal gambit, and Regina Hall has been huge in Black Hollywood for forever,” said Adamma. “I never thought I could get Regina Hall.”

“Sterling’s name had come up a couple of times and we were like, ‘Is Sterling funny?’ We’re used to him making us have all the feels and cry,” she said of Brown. “So we were scrolling through his credits on IMDb and we saw that he won an Emmy for guest-starring on Brooklyn 9-9, so we were like, ‘Okay, let’s check out this episode.’ We watched it, and he was so hilarious…He also has the range. We now know he has the complete range.”

She continued, “I think a lot of Lee-Curtis and Trinitie is on the page but they brought so much as executive producers, really digging into the characters, using their resources to help this tiny, independent short film happen. I am enthralled with them; it’s going to be so hard to work with other people. I love them so much. They were so nurturing…it felt so familial.”

The Focus Features film drops in theaters and on Peacock on Sept. 2.

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