To say that Boots Riley is an unlikely showrunner is an understatement. The Oakland-based filmmaker, hip-hop MC and political activist is probably the only one who identifies as a communist in the entertainment industry.
With his latest comedic provocation, the absurd seven-episode miniseries “I'm a Virgo,” Riley brought his brand of anti-capitalist urban surrealism to Prime Video, garnering widespread acclaim during a summer of labor unrest. “Virgo” follows the adventures of Cootie (Jharrel Jerome), a 13-foot-tall black teenager who grew up in seclusion, as he emerges in today's surreal, dystopian Oakland.
Speaking from his home in Oakland, Riley explained why he doesn't plan to compromise, no matter which megacorporation is funding his project.
You haven't left Oakland, and both “Virgo” and your previous “Sorry to bother you” They are fixed there. What makes this city so important to your artistic process?
I'm a better artist when I'm here. I grew up here. I know what each building means and I have a reason to choose locations other than what the lines and colors look like. The general way film and television are made is to turn every place into nowhere. And that way it can be easily molded and sold into anything. But I think the more specific you are, the more attached you become to someone. Think about the best lyrics by songwriters who are very specific. You don't know who they're talking about or know that situation, but you feel their passion for the detail they put there.
Tell me about your first time working in television: did you feel a new sense of freedom or new limitations?
There is always a new set of limitations. And with television, there's supposed to be a specific way of doing things. And my art is very specific, very strange, very strange. There was a group of experts who weren't involved in the program who could step in and say, “That's not the way to do it.” From the practical effects and the way we shot it, to the way we had to program it around those things, to the structure of the story itself. As if everything about this show was done. mistaken. And that's part of what I was glad to be able to do.
The show has a distinctive look, with a tactile and handmade feel. What can you tell me about the production design?
I am inspired by people like [painter] Jacob Lawrence and Parliament-Funkadelic, who take different textures and layer them. And you feel that in the editing style, the production design, because that's what Oakland is. There's a cultural and political mishmash that comes to light in the beautiful messiness of the production and costume design.
Jharrel Jerome plays the 13-foot-tall Cootie in Boots Riley's “I'm a Virgo.”
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It goes with the general theme of everything I do: a lot of people say about my art that I'm “doing too much.” It's like a good plaid or paisley. There's a way to do it where you start dissonantly and then go into harmony.
Your protagonist, Cootie, is 13 feet tall. What can you tell me about the challenges of fitting this character into the framework?
First of all, I really like wide, anamorphic frames. Because Cootie is so tall, everyone said, “We shouldn't make that wide aspect ratio.” But I wanted to start with what I like and then we can squeeze it all out. As a result, you see him bend over a lot and there are many scenes where we only show parts of him and feel the size of him. through that.
But yeah, we probably employ more puppeteers than any other show other than “Sesame Street.” We had a 13-foot puppet that required at least four puppeteers, plus a person in costume to make it happen each time. Then we had half-scale puppets for the rest of the cast. This way, we could move forward more quickly without a forced perspective. You could do it with CGI, sure, but your eye could really tell the difference.
“We probably employ more puppeteers than any other show outside of 'Sesame Street,'” Boots Riley says of creating a 13-foot-tall character.
(Carlos González / For The Times)
You are the only one communist in show business. Do you feel more political camaraderie since the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes?
Well if there were more [communists] I wouldn't have gotten into the movies anymore. So I'm here for a reason. I think a lot of people agree with a lot of what I say. You know, I'm a product. I'm not especial. I didn't just decide to be virtuous. When I joined radical organizations in the '80s, there were people in those organizations in their 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s. As a teenager, I connected to this vast history of people who had a lot of experience. Many of those people were very funny people who helped create my sense of humor.
I think there was a lot of unity [in Hollywood] around the attacks, and then, unfortunately, there were divisions… everything that happened in Gaza.
A couple of weeks before October 7th, I was texting with Amy Schumer all the time. I had a call with Michael Rapaport about the SAG strike. So there was unity, disunity, scared people, all those things. We are taught to be afraid, politically and creatively. Many people are afraid to tell the studio that they want something specific. They are afraid of appearing unreasonable or artistically difficult.
But no one can scare me with that. I never did what I'm doing because I thought it was a good way to make a living. In 2015, he was squatting in a house. Before that, I was somewhere else, 10 months behind on rent. I was getting food stamps while we were doing “Sorry to Bother You.”
But since I have a broader goal, I've been okay with being broke.
