“Here Today” is the new Sony Pictures film starring Tiffany Haddish and Billy Crystal (who was also the director). The flick introduces us to veteran comedy writer Charlie Burnz (Crystal), who meets New York street singer Emma Payge (Haddish) after bidding on a lunch with him at a charity fundraiser.
EURweb correspondent Jill Munroe spoke with the duo about how she was cast in the role and finding vulnerability while filming.
For Haddish, the role was super fun but challenging. The aspect she found most difficult was crying on screen.
I’m going to be honest with you; I’ve spent 40 years of my life trying not to cry. Suppressing the tears until I get in the shower, and then you let it all out on the weekends. That’s just the journey of my people and me. And when I say my people, I’m talking about the people that live in here (points to her head) so when Billy was like, ‘you gotta cry,’ I was like ‘what? Billy, not in front of the crew. Can’t I just make the crying face? I can do the face.’ And he said ‘no, you have to let it out.’ So now, I’m able to cry at the drop of a dime. I learned so much from Billy.
Crystal said the casting of Haddish in the role of Emma felt like destiny.
“Alan Zweibel (“Saturday Night Live”) and I wrote the screenplay, and we thought, if we could get it made, who could we get to play Emma? We wrote something eccentric, funny and charming – she has to sing four songs, whose going to do that? And then I turn to SNL, and she’s hosting. Tiffany was so great – she sang, did sketches, was bold and fearless. The audience loved her. If they could have gotten up on stage with her, they would have. So we got her the script; she was out of the country. I got a message that she wanted to meet. We meet, and then I made a better discovery – theirs a beautiful person inside that incredible talent. And that’s when I said, ‘if she says yes, then we’ve found her.’”
The film also stars Penn Badgley, Laura Benanti, Louisa Krause, Anna Deavere Smith, and Nyambi Nyambi – and is in theaters now.
