Coincidence is a fickle bedfellow, and it has come to rear its ugly head as soon as once more. In actual fact, this is likely to be the worst case of dangerous timing since Dua Lipa launched an album filled with floor-filling pop songs two weeks after a world pandemic lockdown.
On Wednesday, Selection broke the information that three girls had accused Uncut Gems producer and Emily Ratajkowski’s estranged ex-husband, Sebastian Bear-McClard, of sexual misconduct throughout his tenure working at co-directors Josh and Benny Safdie’s manufacturing firm, Elara Footage. The next morning, Deadline reported that rapper/singer/huge ole freak, Megan Thee Stallion, was in talks to star alongside Adam Sandler within the Safdie brothers’ subsequent movie.
Had this potential casting information dropped on Tuesday, it might’ve been a trigger for celebration. Megan Thee Stallion starring in a film, directed by the pair who introduced the world a bleach-blonde Robert Pattinson? A movie helmed by the duo that launched the mainstream to its first dose of Julia Fox? Regardless of your emotions on Fox’s journey from artist to film star to socialite couturier, it might be powerful to not anticipate Megan making her movie debut in a similar way.
The Safdies have grow to be identified for reworking actors totally, serving audiences a dose of extremely surprising, uber-stylish pandemonium. Their strategy to filmmaking completely aligns with that of A24, the fashionable distribution and manufacturing firm that launched the brothers’ final two movies, Good Time and Uncut Gems. A24 has been heralded by movie fanatics and informal watchers alike for its championing of distinctive scripts and daring inventive imaginative and prescient. Past its humble beginnings, the corporate reached a brand new echelon this month when All the things In every single place All at As soon as took house Finest Image on the Oscars—the corporate’s second trophy, following 2017’s Moonlight.
However the information surrounding Bear-McClard’s alleged misconduct paints the Safdie brothers and A24 in a crucial mild.Selection reported that A24 signed a first-look take care of the Safdies after the allegations grew to become identified amongst insiders, together with the administrators themselves.
Merely put, Megan Thee Stallion deserves so significantly better than any affiliation with this mess.
Now, I’ll fortunately admit that I’d’ve been one of many scores of people that would’ve been hooting and hollering about this information had it dropped earlier. Regardless of not being an Uncut Gems fanatic like so many appear to be, I’m a Good Time advocate. That movie is a wild, color-strewn trip by way of the dregs of New York’s underworld, accompanied by a scorching synth rating.
Each of the Safdies’ huge movies have been scored by digital musician Oneohtrix Level By no means, so it’s secure to say OPN could be behind the rating of their subsequent film, too. The concept of Megan Thee Stallion leaping on the soundtrack—Whitney Houston for The Bodyguard (or Lindsay Lohan for Herbie: Totally Loaded, in case you’re younger and beautiful like myself)-style—for a tune or two is a dream in itself. Megan isn’t any stranger to an icy, robotic synth, and a collaboration with the Safdies and their beloved composer might place her in a number of fanbases she hasn’t crossed into but. Megan Thee Stallion, musician and indie scene queen? I’ve all the time mentioned it: She’s our subsequent Björk.
Nevertheless, given Megan’s tough previous couple of years—throughout which she was embroiled in a courtroom battle with Tory Lanez, after Lanez shot Megan within the foot in 2020—the very last thing she wants is to be tangentially caught up within the Safdie brothers’ and Bear-McClard’s mess. Megan has spent practically three years preventing to ensure that girls should not simply heard, however believed. And although the Safdies have severed their ties with Bear-McClard, the allegations in opposition to the producer famous that the brothers had been on set when Bear-McClard introduced in a then-17-year-old for a intercourse scene, which was finally faraway from Good Time’s closing minimize for “inventive causes.”
Megan has been preventing in opposition to systematic injustice within the music business because the begin of her profession. In early 2020, she sued her document label, 1501 Leisure, asking to be launched from a contract that the rapper known as “grasping.” On the time, Megan alleged that 1501 was withholding the discharge of her EP Suga, and severely underpaying her primarily based on the quantity of income she introduced in for the label. Shortly after the swimsuit, Suga was launched as deliberate, crammed with defiant songs that appeared semi-pointed at her label. For example, “B.I.T.C.H.” opened with Megan asserting, “It ain’t all the time about what you want, typically it’s about what’s proper.”
Although starring in a Safdie film could be an thrilling new enterprise for Megan, its implications following the allegations introduced in opposition to Bear-McClardy are too bitter to disregard. Positive, there could also be a couple of Hotties amped in regards to the prospect of their favourite musician starring in one other A24 film—Megan is because of seem within the firm’s musical-comedy F***ing Equivalent Twins later this 12 months. Others could not even notice the Safdies’ identify is at the moment intrinsically linked to allegations in opposition to Bear-McClardy.
However, in contrast to what most of stan Twitter would possibly assume, being a fan of a musician doesn’t imply blindly supporting their each transfer. The concept of seeing Megan on this film is a bit like seeing Taylor Swift’s glorified cameo in David O. Russell’s newest movie: disappointing and short-sighted. Although, I’d enterprise to guess by Megan’s look in She-Hulk that she will be able to, not less than, truly act. However that doesn’t imply we need to see her like this!
Nothing is confirmed but, so there may be nonetheless loads of likelihood that Megan received’t find yourself entangled in any murky morals—or on the very least, a clumsy press tour. However given how a lot she’s been by way of, and all the things she stands for, Megan wants an arthouse debut deserving of her abilities and prowess. It’s actually not too late to forged Megan Thee Stallion in Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu! Now, greater than ever, we want Nosfer-thot-tu.