Exclusive: John Boyega and Nicole Beharie talk Breaking and working with Michael K. Williams
Coming out in theaters this week from Bleecker Street is the gripping drama Breaking, starring John Boyega, Michael Kenneth Williams, Nicole Beharie, Connie Britton, Olivia Washington, Selenis Leyva, and London Covington.
Directed by Abi Damaris Corbin from a script written by Corbin & Kwame Kwei-Armah, the film had its World Premiere at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, when it was previously titled ‘892’ and won a Special Jury Award.
Living in a cheap motel in Atlanta and separated from his wife and child, former U.S. Marine veteran Brian Easley (Boyega) is desperate. Driven to the brink by forces beyond his control, the soft-spoken, kind man decides to rob a bank and hold hostages with a bomb. As police, media, and family members descend on the bank and Brian, it becomes clear he’s not after money — he wants to tell his story and have what is rightfully his, even if it costs him his life.
Boyega was last seen as policeman Leroy Logan in the film Red, White and Blue, part of director Steve McQueen’s five-film anthology series Small Axe for BBC/Amazon. He earned GoldenGlobe and Critics’ Choice Awards for his performance, and before that was in the indie film Naked Singularity. He’s widely known for playing Finn in the Star Wars films. He will next be seen in Gina Prince-Bythewood’s female warriors film The Woman King, followed by the sci-fi comedy They Cloned Tyrone, opposite Jamie Foxx, and Teyonah Parris. He also signed on to reprise his role as Moses in the sequel to Attack the Block, the film that launched his career.
For Beharie, this marks the first of two films that she will have in theaters in the next two months. Up next is a role opposite Sterling K. Brown and Regina Hall in the Sundance breakout Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul, which is being released September 2. Before that, she starred in Channing Godfrey Peoples’ Miss Juneteenth. In TV, Beharie most recently appeared in Amazon’s anthology series Solos and the HBO limited series Scenes From a Marriage opposite Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain. She recently signed on for a series regular in the Apple TV+ series, The Morning Show. It would be her first series regular role since her leading role in Fox’s Sleepy Hollow.
Blackfilmandtv.com’s Wilson Morales caught up with Boyega and Beharie as they spoke about the film and working with the late Michael K. Williams, who passed away in 2021.