AwardsWatch - Interview: Barry Jenkins and KiKi Layne on ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’ at the Mill Valley Film Festival

Interview: Barry Jenkins and KiKi Layne on ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’ at the Mill Valley Film Festival

KiKi Layne and Barry Jenkins hit the red carpet of the closing night of the 41st Mill Valley Film Festival with ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’

I caught up with Oscar-winning director Barry Jenkins (Moonlight) and his If Beale Street Could Talk star KiKi Layne at the closing night of the 41st Mill Valley Film Festival on October 14, 2018.

Jenkins discusses why he chose Beale Street to adapt of all of James Baldwin’s works, how newcomer Kiki Layne became the film’s Tish and his recommendations for new filmmakers.

Review: ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’ (★★★★)

Layne talks about how she got the part of Tish, acting in her first feature film with such an esteemed director and cast, what she took away from her character and working with Regina King and Barry Jenkins (who makes a special guest appearance at the end).

If Beale Street Could Talk will be released in NY and LA from Annapurna Pictures on November 30th with an expansion in December.

Check out the red carpet interviews below.

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.