Pursuing their own dreams and destiny isn’t always as easy and illustrious as many young adults initially believe it will be, as they embark on establishing their careers. That’s certainly the case for the protagonist, Elijah, in the new drama, ‘Uncorked.’ The movie tells an equally hilarious and touching story about the main character and his father, whose hopes and expectations for the young man’s career drastically differ.
The film, which shows how the father and son have to finally learn to listen to one another and respect each other’s opinions, was written and directed by Prentice Penny. ‘Uncorked’ is now playing on Netflix.
Fueled by his love for wine, ‘Uncorked’ follows Elijah (Mamoudou Athie) as he enrolls in a course to become a master sommelier, an elite designation given only to a handful of people who are able to pass its notoriously difficult exam. It’s a dream that upends the expectations of his father, Louis (Courtney B. Vance), who insists Elijah take over the popular Memphis barbecue joint that’s been passed down from father to son since its inception. Elijah struggles with the demands of school and a new relationship, while Louis wrestles with the feelings of his son rejecting the family business, until a tragedy forces both of them to slow things down.
Penny generously took the time recently to talk about writing and directing ‘Uncorked’ during an exclusive interview over the phone. Among other things, the filmmaker discussed how the drama’s story, particularly the relationship between Elijah and Louis, was inspired by his real life, particularly his relationship with his own father, and the process of pursuing his own chosen career. The scribe-helmer also praised his experience of working with Netflix to release ‘Uncorked,’ and described the streaming service as being supportive of the type of movie that he wanted to make.
The conversation with Penny began with the scribe discussing what inspired him to pen the script for ‘Uncorked,’ and what the writing process was like on the screenplay. “A lot of the inspiration came from my real life, and my relationship with my father growing up. I grew up in a family business, as well, which is similar to the one in the movie,” he shared.
“A lot of the setup for the movie is very similar to my life. My family had a furniture store that my grandfather started in Compton in the ’50s. When he had a stroke, my dad took it over, no questions asked. I was then the next boy in line to run it, but I didn’t want to do it for various reasons. That obviously came a huge jumping off point for the movie,” Penny further disclosed.
“Around the time that I wanted to write this, I knew that I wanted to write a movie that was small in scope to direct. I also wanted to write something that was very personal,” the filmmaker also noted. “I also feel that you never really get to see African American men be vulnerable on screen, and there’s rarely a conflict between a father and son that has nothing to do with the father’s absence. They can instead have two issues as men.”
Penny also shared that around the time he was scribing the script, “I became a father. That made me think about my relationship with my father differently. So that was the huge jumping off point for the movie.”
The writer then delved into what his research process was like into the food industry, particularly in terms of running a family-run restaurant. “I don’t have any connections to the food industry. I have friends of mine who grew up in family-run restaurants, so that was always interesting to me. Obviously, so much of this family’s survival is having everyone pitch in to this restaurant. So if someone isn’t pitching in to the restaurant, it’s a problem,” he pointed out.
“I knew that I wanted the movie to have a job that was more blue collar, similar to what my family’s furniture store was. I also knew that I wanted the son to do something that was a little bit more elevated,” Penny shared.
“I then researched family-run restaurants. When we got to Memphis, I talked to restaurants like The Bar-B-Q Shop and Cozy Corner, which are black family-run restaurants. Even in their journeys as restaurants now, they have been passed on to the next generation. That provided an in-line with what the movie was also dealing with,” the filmmaker added.
Like the scribe mentioned, ‘Uncorked’ was shot on location in Memphis. He then described what the process of filming the drama on location in the city was like. “What was great about working in Memphis was that when I wrote the script, the story was always going to be set in the summer,” he shared.
“But we ultimately set it in the winter, which I think made it much more visually interesting, because I think you always expect to see the South in the summer. But the South in the winter is harsh and rough, and I think that added a lot of layers to how the movie looks,” the filmmaker added. “The people were also so nice and kind, and they helped us make the best film possible.”
Penny then delved into how working on the screenplay influence the way he approached directing the drama. “When I started writing the movie, I knew I wanted to direct it. But I wasn’t thinking super visually in the earlier drafts. But I think as I continued to direct” shows like HBO’s comedy-drama, ‘Insecure,’ “I started looking at this script differently, and thinking, how do I pull this off, visually?
“So a lot of times, I would go in and change stuff, because I didn’t know how I would visually execute things…So I think as I kept directing the show, it made me push things more visually, and think how I could make things in a much more cinematic way,” the director noted.
The casting process was also an important part of the helming process for Penny. “I had worked with Niecy Nash before on another television show years ago. We were the only African Americans on the show. So we were connected over that,” the fimmaker shared. “She would tell me stories about how she got her start. I may be butchering the story, but either her mother or grandmother were in the hospital, and she started doing standup to make them feel better. That was an interesting story point about someone who’s willing to do whatever they can do to keep the family together, and put themselves last.”
So when he started to think about casting the mother in ‘Uncorked,’ the helmer realized that Nash’s character of Sylvia “is different from my mom. My parents were also divorced…but I knew I needed a different kind of mother for the film from my mom, so I started thinking about Niecy, and writing for her voice. I thought, I’m going to write this part for her, because she’s someone I know, and may do this,” he also revealed.
“I then told Niecy that I wrote her this part, and she said, ‘Yes, I’ll do it,’ and she hadn’t even read it yet. I described the movie to her, and to her credit, she said she’ll do this. She eventually read it, and said, ‘I love this even more,'” Penny added.
The filmmaker then explained how Vance became attached to star in ‘Uncorked.’ “His casting was more traditional. We talked about various different actors, and his name kept coming up. I thought the story has a lot of comedy through Elijah and Louis, and the father has a lot of gravity in the family. Courtney embodies all of those elements,” he pointed out.
“Coming off roles like Johnnie Cochran (in ‘American Crime Story: The People v. O. J. Simpson’), Courtney proves that he can do many different things. He can be funny and charming one minute, and then be super serious and intimidating the next minute. I knew that I needed that kind of energy for the role of the father,” Penny also emphasized. “He then read it and said he loved it and wanted to do it.”
Then with Athie, “I knew I wanted to find someone who was new. I had seen him in movies like ‘Patti Cake$’ and ‘The Front Runner’ with Hugh Jackman. I also saw him on the show ‘The Get Down’ on Netflix, on which he played Grandmaster Flash. I always thought that his work was really interesting,” the director admitted.
“So we had a two-hour conversation over Skype, and we connected over the type of movie we wanted to make, and the type of character Elijah needed to be,” Penny also divulged. “Even when we didn’t agree, we were always trying to find the truth. That was always so helpful.
“At a certain point, I think the actor eventually embodies the character more than the writer and director. The’s only living with the one character, while the director is thinking about all different elements, and how they relate to each other,” the filmmaker also pointed out.
Penny concluded the interview by describing his experience of working with Netflix to release ‘Uncorked’ as “amazing. They were super supportive of the type of movie that it should be and that I wanted to make, as well as in the marketing. You definitely want to be creatively aligned with the people you’re making a movie with. They let me shoot however I wanted, and I don’t think I ever got a no over how I wanted the movie to be shot. They also had great ideas on how to market the movie. So it’s been a really great experience working with them.”
On a solemn note, Penny added that he and his fellow filmmakers didn’t know that there was going to be the COVID-19 pandemic when the movie was originally scheduled to be released. “But there is a benefit to having everyone be home to watch a movie in a world where there’s so many channels and platforms, as well as other distractions, now. People can easily stop and watch this movie now, where in other circumstances, they may not have watched it so immediately.”