Since you're saying you're more into the movie side of the business than the music side...
I love music. I love great music. In every one of my movies I tried to put together a great collection of music. Three out of the five movies that I've done have had a lot of 70s music in them. That was an era of creative musical genius and pioneering spirit and the height of creativity.
In the end credits of Soul Men, you feature Isaac Hayes' cover of "Never Can Say Goodbye." When you hear that song, what kinds of emotions run through your mind—especially with the recent passing of both Isaac and Bernie?
For me, closing that movie with that song was the most appropriate thing that we could have done. We didn't have a whole lot of footage of Isaac, so what better way to pay homage to him by showing a couple of pictures of him and play one of his classic songs on the Stax label? He gave you a totally different version of "Never Can Say Goodbye" than the Jackson 5, which is an amazing song. We got to actually go to the original tracks and remake that song.
Oh, that's nice.
It was awesome, awesome. I got more emotional hearing that in the studio than actually seeing it on the screen, because I've seen the film a number of times. I know what's going to happen and how it's going to happen. I just hope other people appreciate it.
I definitely did. Looking back at the film and knowing the events surrounding its release, hearing that particular song at the end was very emotional for me. I definitely like the placement at the end. I thought it was very tasteful and fitting.
Thank you.
Although everyone knows you as "Spike Lee's cousin," you've been able to forge your own identity as a filmmaker, in spite of the obvious comparisons. How difficult was that process?
I think Spike and I are very different filmmakers. We grew up in different eras. I'm certainly influenced by his work, but the particular genre that I have chosen – which is, by and large, comedy – is something that he doesn't really do. He does do movies with humor, but they're usually social commentaries. That hasn't been what I've done thus far. Again, we're just different filmmakers, different people.
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