‘The Blackening’ Star Grace Byers Was Against Horror Films For 1 Good Reason

Grace Byers was never into doing horror. The actor, known for her roles as Boo Boo Kitty in “Empire” and Quinn in “Harlem,” initially had other ideas for roles in her future, preferably ones that didn’t involve her dying in the first 15 minutes.

But “The Blackening,” which premiered in theaters June 16, set a different precedent. The film, based on a viral sketch created by improv group 3Peat, follows a group of Black friends as their cabin trip in the woods is interrupted by a murderer who plays too much (literally). Byers was a fan of the original sketch when it first premiered on Comedy Central in 2018. But her team wasn’t sure if she’d take a chance on “The Blackening.”

“I got quite a few horror scripts over the years, and I’ve always told my team and I’ll be like, ‘No, I’m good.’ I’m not really the biggest horror buff. I can’t sleep at night if I watch too much stuff in that realm,” Byers said. She loved the script, written by 3Peat’s Dewayne Perkins and “Harlem” writer Tracy Oliver.

“It’s smart. It’s funny. It tackles the tropes in Black culture when it comes to horror films. It’s something that we haven’t really seen before,” she said. Since premiering over the holiday weekend, “The Blackening,” which cost Lionsgate $5 million to make, brought in $7 million. It premiered at Toronto International Film Festival in September, becoming a crowd favorite. Directed by Tim Story, it also stars Antoinette Robinson, Melvin Gregg, Jermaine Fowler, Sinqua Walls and X Mayo.

Byers, who plays Allison, said the film’s subversive approach to dealing with the generic, morbid fate of Black people in horror is what makes “The Blackening” special. She said though it’s a horror, the film is filled with moments of joy. She said those moments are what help her decide her roles.

“I think I’ve only gotten more specific in my desire,” she said. “It’s not just a rat race. It’s not like, how can I get the next project? It’s how can I change the world with the next project? How can I affect people in a positive way with the next project?”

For “I Run This,” Byers discusses her decision to audition for “The Blackening,” dismantling tropes in film and why she won’t teach anyone to play Spades.

What initially excited you about this movie?

I think we all remembered Dwayne Perkins and his 3Peat Improv group when they did that “Blackening” sketch. We watched it in this house and we were just hollering and I was like, “Wow, this is so funny. This should be a film or something like that, that would be really cool.”

So my team actually sent this script along and they said, “Hey, so we know that you’re not very much into the horror genre and we know you’re probably going to pass, but we wanted to send this to you anyway because Tim Story is directing and Tracy Oliver, who you worked with on ‘Harlem,’ is a co-writer on this piece.” I read it, and I was so delighted to see that this was a film version of the sketch that we had seen years ago.

I laughed throughout the entire script and I said, “I’ve got to do this.” It’s smart. It’s funny. It tackles the tropes in Black culture when it comes to horror films. It’s something that we haven’t really seen before as far as a group of Black friends in that horror comedy genre. All of that combined made me audition for it.

You said you had no desire to do a horror film. I’m wondering how much of that has to do with the trope that Black people die first. Or that Black people just are used as tools to move the story forward or tokenized?

I think that is a huge part of not wanting to do horror films. I think the other huge part is that I’m an empath. I got to be careful as to what I like to dabble in and keep my mind around. The whole death and the killing and all that stuff is not really my vibe. That’s why doing something like this; it had to be this type of horror film for me to be a part of it.

This is the horror film that I would want to watch because I talk to the screen. My husband and sister-in-law are tired of me when we watch horror because I’m like, “No girl, don’t be going in there. Oh, see that’s why I don’t like films like this. Because people just be just doing the most.” And they be like, “Grace, please stop.”

I got to talk it out. “The Blackening” is that type of film. Please don’t go alone, first and foremost, you need to go with a group. Otherwise, I don’t know if you’ll have the kind of experience that you are meant to have. This is a group experience. You go in and talk on screen, holler out, have a ball. This is that kind of film. Multiple answers to your question, but I was not really into the horror genre because I’m probably going to be the one that’s going to die and there’s that aspect of I can do scary, but not scary-scary.

This is a very fun film to watch. What was that energy on set like and how much were y’all able to play around artistically? Who was the class clown?

I promise you, we all were. We were all class clowns, which is really unique and very funny and quite rare. Most of us knew of each other’s work, but we were just really excited about the script. The producers were sick of us. We were laughing, we were clowning, we were carrying on, it was a whole situation.

Tim Story said, “Hey, here’s the script. We know what it is, but go have fun, play, improv.” So much of the things that we improv in our foolishness and our fun foolishness, it made it in. I’m really pleased with the fact that the execs trust us enough to be able to play and trust our instincts in that fun realm. And Tim did that. The more he allowed us to play and the more he allowed us to tap into our artistic instincts, the more creative we all got and the more free we all felt and we just continued to play off of each other.

One of the biggest moments of improv were when things started to get really heated in the room between the characters as to who was the Blackest. Sentence answers became paragraphs in that room. When Sinqua Walls’ character Nnamdi says, “‘Fruitvale Station,’ off top,” all of that, that was all improv. Even with Clifton, who’s played by Jermaine Fowler, when he talks about all the reasons why he is not the Blackest, every single time we shot that, he said something different every time. We were like, “What is he going to say this time?” We were hollering. It was so much fun.

“The Blackening” reminded me of “Scary Movie,” but at the same time, “Scary Movie” was more of a parody and this is more subversive. Why is a movie like this that challenges those tropes that we just talked about, while not also taking itself too seriously is necessary?

First of all, especially when it comes to Black joy, we need more of it. We need to be able to be given the permission to have more of it and permission from ourselves to be able to have more Black joy. I feel like a big part of why this movie is so enjoyable is because it includes all of the nuances and the intricacies of Black culture in a way that we understand and that we can relate to. And that looks like our friend groups and sounds like our conversations that we have with our family members.

There’s so much about Black culture that is so enjoyable and wonderful and delightful, and there’s so much about Black history that is just heartbreaking and traumatizing. I think that if we don’t make room for the balance of our experiences, that it can really be overwhelming. A piece like this is necessary. It’s necessary to remind us of the fun and the joy that we have with one another. And to be able to share that with the world in a universal way. I think that’s what makes Black culture so special, is that we have our own idiosyncrasies and our own inside jokes, but at the same point in time, they can relate in a very universal way. That’s why anybody can go and see this film and laugh your tail off even if you don’t know every little thing we talking about.

Is there a particular moment of joy that sticks out when working on this film for you?

It’s so much fun being Black working with Black folks.

There is no desire to present yourself other than yourself and to know that you will be accepted and loved and embraced just as you are. I don’t know if, I feel like as a global community, we are still learning how to embrace people as they are. I feel like having that space within your own culture to just be you.

And when the script reflects that as well too. The script gives you that freedom to live in the world that you normally live in. Not the whole world, but that cultural world. That feels, it felt like home. I think that that’s the beautiful thing. It felt like a safe zone where we could all just be as we are and not feel like we had to censor any parts of our identity, culture, jokes, inside understandings. It just was a beautiful free, safe, amazing zone.

You had a fight scene in there. Did that or anything else present a challenge for you while filming?

For sure. I was exhausted. I had never done a horror film before. There’s a lot of adrenaline and cortisol and all that kind of stuff running through your body because your body doesn’t know the difference between whether or not you’re really running from danger. That was something that was very hard for me. And, of course, in between takes, your adrenaline comes down. The adrenaline dies and then you got to work double time to put it back up to where you just were. So that rollercoaster of emotions and also constantly having to live in a fear space for these characters was very exhausting, definitely took a toll. I was beat, for sure.

I kind of walked around like a zombie for a hot minute because it was literally go shoot, come home, drop your bag, go take a shower, go to bed, wake up, grab your bag, go shoot. It was exhausting, but never have I been so depleted and so filled at the same time.

Jermaine Fowler’s character not knowing how to play Spades is a big deal in this movie. Do you know how to play?

Girl, don’t even play me. You know I do. Are you kidding?

I know that’s right. Look, I just had to check. I thought that storyline was so funny because there are those folks who are like, “Oh, teach me how to play. I’ve never learned how to play,” and it’s like, nobody teaches you. You just learn.

You just learn. I’m telling you. And see, I didn’t grow up in America, so I did not grow up knowing how to play Spades. I learned how to play Spades about 10 years ago.

And when I learned how to play, I saw everybody sitting down playing. I’m very much a gamer. So I was like, “OK, I can do this. What’s up?” Learn how to play Spades and then after I watched a few hands, I was like, “Oh, I got this.” Girl, I sat down and whooped butt the whole day.

I know that’s right. I love that. What other tropes in Hollywood do you think need to be interrogated?

Oh, all of them. I don’t think there should be any tropes. If you and I were to sit down and make a whole list, we could be here from now until kingdom come. I just think that tropes are a way to label something in a way that we can either want to control or in a way that we’re trying to understand. I just think that we are so much more intelligent and so much more profound as human beings that we do not need tropes.

We do not need the stereotypes, that we can really hold the capacity in our brain and our spirit and our mind and our soul for the diversity and the individuality of every single person that we meet and that’s before us. We don’t even need the tropes in order to sell art, in order to understand art. We don’t need them. For me, I would want to battle any type of trope, any type of label, any type of attempt to want to control or define or understand in the way that we want to understand certain people or things.

Many of us were first introduced to you first on “Empire” as Boo Boo Kitty. You’ve since had more comedic roles. Do you have a preference between drama and comedy? What’s different about the two for you?

I actually really do like it all. My training was in theater, and so I think I’ll always have a heart for the stage. “Empire” was actually my first television role. That was my first time being introduced to that medium of TV-slash-film camera work, camera acting. Drama is where I spent a lot of my time. In my own friend group, they would always be like, “Girl, you’re so funny. Have you ever thought of comedy?” I didn’t know if the world would find me funny. It’s not something that I took seriously.

I got the script for “Harlem,” and that was my first comedy piece. I love these girls that I read and so I spoke to Tracy [Oliver]. I didn’t even think that she would take me seriously as somebody who would want to try her hand at comedy. And boy, was I wrong. Tracy sat down with me and said that that was a thrill for her to be able to cross-pollinate actors from one genre to another. I was just like, “What?” And so being given the opportunity to flex in the comedic world, I learned to very quickly love it as much as I love drama. So, do I have a favorite? I can’t say that I do because they both offer something to me artistically that feels so worthy.

I will say though, that it costs me a whole lot to live in those dramatic spaces. It really makes it worth it, but it does cost me in a different way than it costs me in the comedic realm. I just enjoy them both in two different ways.

In comparison to “Empire,” your first TV gig to now, what’s the same for you not only professionally, but personally, too? What’s different?

I think I’ll always be a person who wants to amplify voices that otherwise would not get the opportunity to be amplified through my work. I think that’s important to me. I’ve always been an advocate of women, and that is for real. Whether it is publicly or privately, I will always be an advocate for women and particularly Black women, women of color, that’s really important for me. If you were to look on the last decade of my career, there’s been a lot of shifting and changing and life events. I got married, I became a mom. I have a child now. I think that for me, it’s hard to not go through any of those life-changing experiences and to not want to dive deeper into what purpose means for you.

Spiritually, I feel like it’s much more important for me to not just be doing the art for the sake of the art, but to try to find and infuse purpose wherever I go. This is not just about me. This is not just about my life. This is not just about how I can get ahead. This is about: How can I change the world? How can I help other people? How can I make people feel seen or heard or represented in a way that speaks to them? And I’m not talking about every single person in the world. I couldn’t possibly do that. But if there’s anything that I can do or share, if there’s any character that I can play that can make you feel a little bit more seen, if there’s anything that I can do that speaks to a wider, greater narrative and amplifies voices in a way that makes them feel empowered and loved and not alone, that’s really, really important to me.

In a previous interview, you referred to pouring over yourself with words of affirmation as planting dream seeds, which I think was really profound. What dream seeds are you watering for yourself right now?

I think having a baby changes so much about your life. I think that it really causes you to look at yourself in deeper ways. For me, very simply, the dream seeds are to have more grace for myself and to get really, really good at forgiving myself. I’m that friend in the friend group that you can come to about anything and will have mounds of grace for you. That you can come to about anything and will never judge you, will always have your back, always support you, always pour into you. That is hard for me to do with and for myself.

In this season, I realized that intimately. Being someone who used to pride themselves on being able to do it all. Now I’m realizing I can’t do it all myself. When it comes time to ask for help or to lean on your village or to have grace for yourself because you’re still learning what it means to be a new mom, that hits different in this season for me. It really is about learning how to have — which is very pun intended — grace for grace. That knowing that I deserve just as much grace as I love to offer others and just as much forgiveness and just as much delicacy and softness, that I deserve those things for myself. I deserve to give those things to myself in this season.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.