'Pariah' actress Adepero Oduye

By far the most criminal snub of this year's Oscars was that of a $500,000-budget gem called Pariah. Maybe you've heard of it, maybe you haven't: the debut feature of director Dee Rees follows a 17-year-old Brooklynite named Alike as she attempts to navigate her adolescence, unsure of everything about herself except for one thing: her homosexuality. Pitch-perfect, Pariah's ability to bring its audience to exhilarating heights and devastating lows is truly a testament to Rees' skill. Yet the film would only be half as good without the sheer magnitude of its cast, from Kim Wayans' brilliant dramatic turn as Alike's homophobic mother Audrey to the marvelous discovery of one Adepero Oduye, the actress whose turn as Alike marks her feature film debut. I recently spoke to Oduye about the role, about the film's origins as a short, and about our beloved Brooklyn.

You’ve been involved with Pariah since the short, right?
Yeah. I got an email one day with a bunch of castings, and I saw Pariah and I said “I want to be part of this.” I was hoping to be an extra, so I emailed my picture, and Dee called me in for Alike. So we did the short and it was a great experience, but I remember saying to Dee “You know, I don’t want this experience to end,” and she was like, “It’s not gonna end ‘cause we’re gonna make a feature one day and we’re gonna have you!” And I was like—but this was so long ago, and I was like, “Don’t get ahead of myself.” And they held true to their word and kept me and the actress Parnell Walker on.

What part of the story did the short cover?
It was the first act, so maybe the first 30 pages, but tweaked so it could be a standalone short. You really got the friendship between me and Parnell Walker, who plays Alike’s friend Laura; that was pretty developed there. You got glimpses of the family dynamic, but it was primarily about the friendship.

How was working on the feature different from working on the short?
It was bigger. It was just bigger. Working on the short I hadn’t had any expectations, and then it did well in the festival circuit, so there was all this expectation and all this hype, for lack of a better word, so I don’t know, I felt really nervous about taking this character that I’d already played and who’d kind of been with me—I wanted to bring something fresh and new to it, but I was scared because I’d done the short already and I didn’t want to repeat anything. I just wanted to bring something fresh to it. So it was a process of me just trusting myself and letting go of any fear or anything like that and just digging deeper. You know, and I grew as an actor and felt more grounded as an adult too.

Did you bring anything from your own life to help inform who Alike was as a character?
Yeah, I mean, that feeling of feeling like you don’t belong, that you’re kind of an outsider—you know, you’re on the outside looking in, and everyone’s living their life and everyone’s kind of clear on who they are. They know who they are, but you don’t know, and you just want to know. Just beginning that process of letting go of what people expect of you and figuring out what it is that you wanna do, that’s kind of how—and that feeling of not feeling free. That’s what I came to the table with.

That’s definitely a big struggle Alike goes through, although by the end she seems to have a better picture of it.
Mmhmm. She’s, like, at the beginning of something, but it’s the beginning of something on her own terms. She might not know what it is or what it’s gonna look like, she’s just going to get on the bus and take it hour by hour.

And she says twice at the end of the film, “I’m not running; I’m choosing.”
Mmhmm, which is so poignant, because it’s like, “I’m not being forced out. I’m not running away from anything. I am making a choice.” It’s amazing what happens I think in anyone’s lives when we make a choice and say, you know what, I’m not doing this, I’m doing this. I’m going to go for that. It’s empowering.

What did you make of Alike’s relationship with her father? He’s very closed-down and at first doesn’t even acknowledge the possibility that his daughter is different, and he’s very detached from the family, but at the end he’s more accepting than most of the film’s other familial figures.
I think the relationship between Alike and her father is very interesting because it’s like they know each other’s secrets, but they’re in denial. They know, but no one’s saying anything. But there is this love. On his part, maybe he knows but doesn’t want to admit it, but he loves his daughter, and there is a bond and they actually talk. Maybe they’re talking around everything, but conversation is actually happening. She knows what he’s probably doing, but he’s still her father and he still loves her. He kind of knows, but at the end of the day she’s still his daughter. He’s definitely the more open parent.

Do you personally think Alike’s mother will ever come around?
Probably five, six years down the line, yeah. It’s amazing, once you kind of accept who you are, once you choose that route, people just kind of come around. You don’t hide yourself from anyone, and people just learn: “These are my loved ones and if I want them around I have to accept them.” I think maybe in five years, six years, it’ll be good.

What made that rift especially hard to watch is the fact that we know Laura’s relationship with her mother hasn’t mended, and we know things could easily go that way.
Yeah, it’s kind of like what Audrey will be if she doesn’t accept Alike. That’s where she’s kind of headed.

I thought Alike’s relationship with her sister was really interesting.
Yeah, it’s like the best thing about having siblings. Sometimes you just don’t have to explain stuff. She’s kind of the voice of reason; she’s the one that’s like, “Dad, go and find her, this is ridiculous.” That scene when they’re in the bed together and she just says, “It doesn’t matter to me,” that’s all that has to be said. It’s like, “I know, and I accept you and I love you.” Even though siblings can get on your nerves and be annoying, underneath they have each other’s back. She’s definitely the voice of reason in that family, yeah.

The film was shot on location in Fort Greene. Were you familiar with the area?
Oh, yeah, I grew up in Brooklyn. It’s like, downtown Brooklyn, Fort Greene, you know…

Yeah, I’m from Park Slope. [LAUGHS]
Oh! Awesome! Wow! You’re from Park Slope? Did you go to high school in Brooklyn?

Yeah, in Brooklyn Heights. I went to Packer.
Oh, Packer, cool! Yeah, yeah.

But I went to 321 for elementary school.
Yeah! Okay! My sister, we grew up in Brooklyn but she went to Trinity. But I went to, I went to Edward R. Murrow for high school.

Oh, yeah, I took all my standardized tests there!
Oh, wow! [LAUGHS] I love it. So, yeah, it was very much familiar to me, and it was nice because at the time I was living at home in Brooklyn, so it didn’t take me long to get to set. It was nice to just hop on a train and be on set in like 30 minutes tops.

And Fort Greene is super convenient because all the lines go there.
Oh, yeah, everything. So it’s like, “Sweet, I’m not gonna be on a train for an hour and a half!” Because the short we shot in the Bronx, so it was like…

Oooooh.
Yeah. So coming home from the set it was like… “Oh, gosh.”

I know, it’s so much of a pain to go anywhere that isn’t Manhattan or Brooklyn.
Yeah, Bronx people don’t go to Brooklyn and Brooklyn people don’t go to the Bronx.

Brooklyn people might go to Queens. If they live near the G line.
Yeah, “might”! [LAUGHS] Yeah, might, but it’s like… why am I going to the Bronx? For what, seriously?

What school did you use for the high school scenes?
Um, it’s on Smith and Baltic. I’m blanking now; it might be a middle school. Maybe Global Studies, I think it is? It’s the school on Baltic between Court and Smith, right by the movie theatre on Court Street.

Speaking of the setting, I know the film wasn’t a period piece but I got a bit of a period vibe. Between the vinyl records that the character Bina owns and the very 90s-ish clothing… I thought that was interesting.
It’s interesting that you’re saying that. Yeah, I mean, she was playing actual records. I don’t know, it’s supposed to be current, like now, but it definitely—now that I’m thinking about it, some of the clothes… I never thought of that before. But I figure Bina’s like that “cool” chick, you know, who listens to records and is just so hip.

It’s Brooklyn.
Yeah, it’s Brooklyn. She would be the one to play records.