Radha Blank doesn’t need to explain herself or her art
Filmmaker is letting her breakthrough “FortyYear-Old Version” speak for itself.
Radha Blank was tired Wednesday, but she immediately perked up during an interview when we deviated from a list of by-now standard questions about her debut film, Netflix’s “The FortyYear-Old Version” (now streaming).
“We all know what it’s about,” she insists, and the audience it’s made for – Black people and New York creatives – will get it.
In the autobiographical film, Blank, 44, stars as Radha, a New York playwright and teacher about to turn 40 who decides to pursue rapping after failing to find commercial success in theater. “Version” follows Radha as she questions who she is and what she’s willing to compromise, while contemplating the “white gatekeepers as a Black creative and asking questions about who gets to tell an authentic Black story.”
“It feels like when I speak to somebody, they want me to convince them of something. They want me to convince them that I did actually bust my (expletive) in making the film, convince them that Lena (Waithe, who produced Blank’s film as well as “Queen and Slim”) wholeheartedly got behind the film without me having to beg or convince,” Blank says. “If you like the film, what else is there to say?”
So Blank and I talked instead about the Black artists who inspire her. Like Carrie Mae Weems, Kerry James Marshall, Amy Sherald and Titus Kaphar. Blank says she’s sometimes envious of them because they get to make art, put it on display and walk away from it.
“I actually feel like painters are smart to not talk too much about the work because then it changes what you’re seeing ... too much talking and too much explaining can get in the way of the actual work,” Blank says. “Sometimes I wish film was regarded more like a painting ... it says who it is once you look at it. I can explain things away, it doesn’t change
what the film is.”
Although Blank’s “Version” is catapulting her into the spotlight, she’s not worried about breaking into Hollywood. Rather, she wants to break away from it: Blank says she’s trying to remain an artist “in an industry that doesn’t know what to do with art.”
She understands that movies require resources to get off the ground, but her voice and her art don’t “belong to the person who financed the film.”
“I think they’re so busy with monetizing, capitalizing, commodifying art. It’s great when you don’t get something. It’s great when an artist says ‘This is what I want to do’ in spite of everyone saying ‘That’s too much or that’s too risky’... for who?!” (Blank says she’s been told her film needed more rap, or shouldn’t be in black and white.)
She is grateful her film is resonating with audiences, but whether people like it doesn’t change who she is and the art she made. And though “Version” has received rave reviews (a 98% rating on review site Rotten Tomatoes), Blank says she doesn’t take them personally, because “it has nothing to do with what I want to say and what I want to say next.”
And what happens if people don’t watch her movie due to bad reviews? That’s perfectly fine, too. She trusts those who appreciate the film will tell a friend about it, and that speaks louder than the critics, she says.
Blank says she just wants to tell more stories and “demystify” the process for filmmakers because it can be intimidating, and hopes her experience can push others to make their own movies. One important thing she wants to get out there is her advice to any 20-year-old Black female filmmaker.
“Brace yourself, because no matter how hard you work, people will still underestimate your ability to make something great. Don’t take that personally, and make sure to focus on the love that you have now. Don’t waste your breath trying to convince somebody to love you; go where the love is now,” Blank says, explaining that Waithe didn’t try to change her vision.
Other advice: Study the work of Andrea Arnold and Jean-Luc Godard, and from there, create your own syllabus.
“Do not wait for it to come from outside of you. It’s already there,” Blank says. “If I knew that sooner, maybe I’d be making a ‘30-Year-Old Version.’ I don’t regret anything. Everything has led me to this moment, but it does create some questions for me about how do I move forward in an industry that I think is used to cookie cutter.”
“Sometimes I wish film was regarded more like a painting ... it says who it is once you look at it.” Radha Blank