“Hi, my name is Barry Jenkins. I’m the writer/director of the film “If Beale Street Could Talk,” adapted from the novel by James Baldwin.” “Here we are.” “So in this scene, our main characters, Tish and Fonny, are doing a ritual that many New Yorkers do, looking for an apartment. And in the film, we’re jumping around in time a bit. And so despite the circumstances of what is happening in the present story, our main character, Tish, is having a memory of this day when she and her fiance, Fonny, found this wonderful apartment. And this scene is about this idea of the promise a lover makes to another. You know, we found this place location-scouting. And as you look at it, I don’t see how this is ever going to become an apartment.” “Look, I’ll put a couch right over here. Huh? Mama, daddy, maybe even Ernestine, right? And the bed I put all the way back there right against the wall, so I can see that pretty light on your face when the sun rises.” “But in the sequence, Fonny is describing what he will do to this place to make it a home for Tish. And I just love — it’s awesome when an actor has an objective. And Fonny is trying to convince her that he can do what he’s saying he’s going to do. And on the day, we kind of ad-libbed this lovely little bit here, where Stephan James, who plays Fonny, and Dave Franco, who’s playing the landlord, Levy, they kind of, like, take this idea of make-believe to, like, the nth degree.” “Come on, give me a hand with this fridge, man.” “Wha — oh, you — you want me to — “ “Yeah, come on, help me out. I need you to get the door. Get the door. Come on. All right. All right. Are you ready?” “O.K. Yeah, I’m ready. You ready?” “It was a really lovely sort of accident. As we were location-scouting, this scene actually wasn’t written into the film, this idea of them carrying the fridge and all these things. When we showed up at this place, I just started to look at Stephan and KiKi and see this idea that he could promise the impossible. And what is a greater testament to love than someone believing that you can make the impossible come true?” “Well, thank you for my fridge, boys, but don’t forget about my stove.” “Oh. Oh, yeah, of course not. Uh, you mind helping me out with the stove, Levy?” “Not at all, no.” “All right, we got to make sure we get that.”