Nia DaCosta

And freedom should really be divorced of those things.

So that was a really intentional sort of dichotomy I was trying to set up between those two characters.

Oh, man.

I think that movie came out when I was quite young, but when I

It was in middle school.

It was very much a part of our, you know, bathroom shenanigans.

It was Bloody Mary and it was Candyman.

And because it happened in the projects, I grew up in Harlem and the projects, you know, I lived across the street from the projects.

The high rises were over on 148th Street.

Like, that's where I imagined these things happening.

So it didn't feel like it was in a movie or far away.

Right.

And so it was just such a part of my childhood, a part of my lore that horrified me when I was younger.

But I loved what Jordan wanted to do.

He really wanted to expand it, to turn it on its head.

And that exploration of how to do that was really exciting.

And I thought I had a point of view on it as someone who lives in America and remembers America.

Not just, you know, the Candyman legend, but also, you know, I remember when Amadou Diallo was shot 50 times by the cops in New York.

That was my first time understanding what it was to be black in America.

That was when I was like, oh, okay.