How does this speak to how the film industry and the women in the audience, specifically black women, can reimagine us and the multiplicity that we possess in all kinds of situations?

It's been incredibly helpful because I've been saying to people that a show or a movie like this needs to happen. A lot of people couldn't see it. A lot of them couldn't imagine it but that comes from not really having black friends in their circle. Sometimes when you're pitching you have a hard time imagining a group of black friends, getting wasted, and carrying on this way. You just don't see it. But, I see it because I know my friends and I know myself but it was hard for other people to see. The big question was, Would this kind of movie make money? Are people going to show up for this? Are black people and non-black people going to show up? We answered that with a resounding yes but it was hard to prove that because prior to Girls Trip there wasn't another model that proved that. Bridesmaids was a mostly white cast because you have [an] added layer when you're talking about race. We believed in it and we all thought this was a hit. Everyone needed to just sit back and watch but it was hard to convince people when you don't have the facts to back it up.

Before Girls Trip, what things took place or opened up the space for this film?

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Bridesmaids was the closest example to women behaving badly that worked out. The reason why I point to Bridesmaids is that movie was so successful and at the time that it was released, it was a big deal because it was the first of its kind. We had that a successful model and prior to that, the only one that had four black women and played in theaters was Waiting to Exhale and that was forever ago and that wasn't a comedy. Stella’s Got Her Groove back as well, but all of those examples were not in the last 10 years.

Why do you think Hollywood is so hesitant to embrace black woman comedians?

It's purely financial and ignorance. People think if you have black women in lead roles, men aren't going to come and non-black people aren't going to come. It's harder in general for women to get movies off the ground. So when you add black women to it, we're the hardest group to get a movie made for because we're fighting the race and gender battle. It's unfortunate because time and time again we prove them wrong — Hidden Figures and what Shonda Rhimes has been able to accomplish on television are examples of that. What she's done has largely been because of black women and our support of her content. We're a big audience group and we came out in droves for Girls Trip, and we watch Scandal, and How to Get Away With Murder and all of these other black shows in huge numbers. We're really a reliable audience group, but we're also very overlooked when it's time to make content.

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When they came in the room and said a prayer, I got emotional. There’s always that one friend who is about to lead prayer in any situation. It resonated in a real way.

For sure, those are the nuances of blackness that require a black woman on the team. I know we need our headscarves and we don't go to bed without wrapping our hair. I know that after a night of debauchery, somebody might be praying. There's the nuances of being a black woman that people don't see, but it was important to add that authenticity because you feel like you know these women. They're not just characters that someone knows nothing about writing.

In the past, you talked about how you felt like the mainstream films that you were writing early on felt flat and lacked nuance. It felt good to be in a theatre full of black women and have them connect with all the vibrancy that you put into the script. How did you want black women to see themselves or feel when they saw this?

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I sat in random showings in L.A. just to watch the audience and see their reactions. I cried twice and I've seen this movie but it was because people really got the humor. I saw a lot of groups of all kinds of women going to see it together. It was heartwarming because the film is a celebration of black women, black beauty. It was a tribute to black women, setting at Essence Fest, and the women and their differences. While writing, I wanted them all to be very different. I got so many messages from people that I haven't talked to in a long time saying things like, "That movie reminded me of us. We should get together."

Regardless of gender or race of the audience, the film is an empowering message, to bet on yourself and not to let anyone take your power. People of all colors can relate to it. I maintain that it ultimately works because of the ending and all of them come full circle in the end in some way.