Comedian Sampson McCormick Continues to Break Ground
metroweekly.comLove the One You’re With, which he wrote and produced, and this summer’s B-Boy Blues, the long-awaited film adaptation of James Earl Hardy’s seminal 1994 Black gay romance novel.McCormick, part of the original cast of the B-Boy Blues stage play, executive produced the film, along with Hardy, who co-wrote the script with the film’s director, Jussie Smollett.
The storm of controversy surrounding Smollett, of course, has cast a long shadow over the film, which premiered on BET+ in June. (McCormick jokingly pretended to end our interview when the subject was broached.)Sexy, sweet, and stylish, the movie lives up to the book’s undeniable impact, but McCormick believes the film’s impact has been blunted. “I think there are so many music artists in this film, so many people who were really relying on it to be a vehicle for exposure,” he points out.“And, for whatever reasons, I don’t think that it has gotten the exposure it deserves.
I think that it should be in theaters. I think that the movie is just as important as Moonlight.”While he hopes the film’s audience will find it, he’s also glad that the production, and his follow-up film — his feature directorial debut Roux’s Blues — provided more industry opportunities for Black queer artists and storytellers.
Written by and starring Love the One You’re With actor Donnie Hue Frazier, Roux’s Blues premiered in June to a packed house at the Miracle Theater in Inglewood.“I just want more success, and to see people around me succeed,” says McCormick. “Without sounding full of myself — because there’s this battle that I have with knowing that I’m extremely talented, more talented than I give myself credit for, and that I take credit for, because I was raised in the church in very.
Read more on metroweekly.com
