Exclusive Interview: Tressa Azarel Smallwood and Yvette Nicole Brown Chat BET Her Initiative, The Party, and Checking On Your People

Tressa Azarel Smallwood of MegaMind Media and Yvette Nicole Brown are teaming up with BET Her for a powerful initiative that brings awareness to vital topics including mental health, breast cancer, and domestic violence. Under BET Her’s “Her Stories” franchise, the project features twenty-minute dramatic short films that empower women filmmakers to tell authentic stories that celebrate, inspire, and support Black women narratives.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Tressa and Yvette about collaborating with BET Her, their short film The Party, and the importance of checking on your people.

PC: How did you both initially get involved with BET Her?
Tressa: BET Her was looking for a producer to jump in and do Season 2 of The Waiting Room. I gladly took the position because I knew that it was purposeful. It was about breast cancer awareness, and I have a lot of family members who have been battling breast cancer. Thankfully, all of them are in remission, but I know their stories. I watched the pain. I know the journey. For me, it was an absolute yes, very quickly. Then they shared that I would get the opportunity to work with some amazing directors and cast members. They mentioned that a lot of the directors had never had the opportunity to direct before. For me, that was another yes, yes, yes because people had given me a chance when I first started producing and I’d never done any of this before. Everything for me was a yes, yes, yes.

Yvette: For me, same thing. I found out about the initiative through Lorisa Bates at BET and BET Her, and I was terrified of the idea of directing for the first time. But then she introduced me to Tressa and I got to meet the MegaMind family. It was such a warm hug, and they carry you through the entire process. I learned that being a director is about celebrating people. On set, you spend the whole day just celebrating people’s artistry. When that is the goal, I’m like, “I can do that!” I also understand how it works from the perspective of an actor. The proof is in the pudding. But it was an easy yes for me and one of the scariest and best things I’ve ever done.

PC: That’s a perfect segue to this next question, BET Her is a platform to celebrate authentic stories and to support Black women narratives. For both of you, who are those creatives in your lives that shaped you into the storytellers that you are today?

Tressa: I would say my grandmother. She was the person who made everything visual and over the top for me. I don’t care what it was. She would take a story and make it more than what it was. I actually started out writing books before I transitioned into being a producer. I came from a content background. Yvette can tell me a story right now and I’ll say, “Yvette, let’s go shoot this film. This is what we’re going to do and how we’re going to do it.” That’s my strength. I love nurturing people. I feel like I can tell somebody, “Listen, even if you feel like you can’t do it, you can make the impossible possible.” I love watching Yvette on set. She loved up on all of us—every cast member, every crew member. She has that nurturing spirit, which makes her a great director. So we’re the perfect team.

Yvette: I agree. She’s also a nurturer, and she really pushes you to greatness. She will push you if she has to. She’ll get you there. For me, of course, it was my mother. I lost her this year, and everything good about me came through her and from her. Also, I love Kim Fields. She’s a great friend of mine. I learned a lot from her. Acting-wise, the great Marla Gibbs is at the top when it comes to finding the smartest person in the room that you still love. Those are my three.

PC: What has that meant to both of you to pave the way for the next generation of upcoming storytellers? What advice would you give them?
Tressa: Oh my goodness. That’s super important for me. I have a background in education. I used to be a school teacher. Everything that I do is all about paving the way for the next person. For me, it’s a couple of things. For creatives—people who want to write—I’m the perfect person. I’m a screenwriter. I’ve written two features that have done very well. Obviously, now I’m in a position where I’m able to highlight and greenlight people who want to write. I do it all the time on all platforms—teaching, hugging, loving, and doing what I do to make sure people are feeling comfortable and to make sure that they understand it can happen to them. The other thing about me is the knowledge base. I put a lot of my focus on teaching people about the industry because that’s important. You can’t go do something great if you don’t really know all aspects of the business.

Yvette: I want to make sure I put a point on this. A lot of people say or think that they are giving and caring and a supporter of other people. Tressa actually is. She’s everything that she says she is. My movie is called The Party. Tressa is the party. If you’re ever blessed to be around her or around MegaMind, you’re going to have a good time for a good cause doing good things. This initiative that we have with BET Her spotlights mental health awareness and domestic violence awareness, and our films (those by Ta’Rhonda Jones and myself) are about breast cancer awareness. Though they were heavy topics, the filming of them was joyous, uplifting, wonderful, and edifying. That’s because of the trust and because of MegaMind. I must say that.

It’s important for everybody to use their voice and their platform in the best way that they can to shine a light on the things that matter. What we both hope is that these films that are airing Saturday on BET at 10 p.m. ET will make women get mammograms and call their friends and say, “Did you get your mammogram?” Because though this is entertainment and we’re happy to be presenting, this is really about our health and well-being and about advocating for ourselves. We hope our films make you do that. Get your mammogram!

PC: Speaking of The Party, can you tell us about the short and what audiences can expect?
Yvette: The Party stars Michelle Mitchenor, Brittany Inge, Gizelle Bryant in her first acting role, and the great Debbi Morgan. It’s a film about dreams being dashed—what if you climb the mountain and then get pushed right back down to the bottom and have to start climbing it again? What does that do to you if you used up all the hope you had the first time? It happens to all of us at some point in our lives. Maybe it’s not as heavy as breast cancer. You need your people. You need your friends. You need your family. It’s important when it’s you to reach out and say, “Can you help me?” When you see your friends struggling, check on your sister! That’s a big part of my film—it’s about checking in on your people. It’s a beautiful film and I’m honored that I got to be part of this initiative that BET Her, MegaMind, and Tressa created.

Tressa: I love that. Check on your sister. It gives me chill bumps. Yvette, just want to piggyback on one thing additionally. When Yvette was here, the whole idea of “check on your sister”—whether it was casting, whether it was one of our actresses who had just delivered and came to us—that was important to us. Yvette was like, “Let’s make sure she’s good.” Everything about this film was “check on your sister,” whether it was the breast cancer-related part, your mental [health], or being in a new city. When I hear that, I always think of you, Yvette.

Yvette: That makes me very happy.

PC: Yvette, this is your first time sitting in the director’s chair. Did anything surprise you about the experience?
Yvette: I was surprised by how much I loved it. Directing had been such a huge dream of mine. So big that I never even told anybody about it. When this opportunity came and they said, “Do you want to direct?” My first thought was, “No. I don’t want to do this because I’m scared. Who’s reading my diary?” But what I realized when I got to set is that you’re really just a caretaker. Your job is to be the person that makes sure everybody else is okay. I’ve been doing that my entire life everywhere anyway. I’m like, “This is my skill set. I finally found the role on a Hollywood set that actually fits my skill set.” That part was amazing. That part surprised me. It was not scary. It was joyous. I had the best time. I can’t wait to do it again.

PC: For both of you, what would you say is the biggest lesson you learned working on this project that you’ll apply to future projects?
Tressa: We filmed this project during COVID, and right now my mindset is that I’m going to be filming like this for a long time—being able to maneuver and make sure that we have the appropriate testing in place. Now you have to have double backup plans. Instead of casting one person, you need to cast somebody and have two other people in line because you never know what might happen during COVID testing. You’ve got to be ready. We always say, “Stay ready so you don’t have to get ready,” but this pandemic takes it to another level. That was one takeaway that I’ve had to learn. We got a double cast.

Yvette: Mine was that life is short. If there’s something that you want to do or a dream that you have, chase it! Don’t wait. You’re here today, you’re gone tomorrow. The people you care about are here today and gone tomorrow. What are you doing with this wonderful life that you have? How are you going through these spaces every single day? It may not be on a Hollywood set. It might be on fries at McDonald’s. But how are you moving through this space and trying to find a way to grab a little bit of joy every day and be a bit of joy for someone else every day? That was my takeaway and I felt that every day on set in Maryland when we shot these films.

Tressa: That’s good stuff, Yvette. That’s speaking to me right now.

Yvette: You live that way. That’s how you live. You’re just a ball of joy everywhere you go.

Tressa: Thank you, Yvette.

PC: There are so many incredible themes across all of these short films that are part of this initiative. When you look at all of the themes, is there one that hit particularly home for each of you?
Tressa: I would say it’s collaboration. When you’re talking about mental health, it’s about being able to connect with a therapist, being okay with that, and knowing that it’s a safe space. For us in the mental health space, we want to make sure people say, “I’m not ashamed.” That’s the number one thing. We want to remove that shame. When it comes to breast cancer awareness, it’s still collaboration because it’s checking on your sister, right? When we get off today, we’re calling people to say, “When was your last mammogram? You need to go.” Every single initiative, collaboration is key.

Yvette: For me, it’s advocacy. Advocate for yourself, especially if it’s a mental health issue or a health issue. You have to speak up when you know something’s not right in your body or something’s not right in your mind. You have to speak up first to a doctor but also to your friends. Then it’s celebrating each other and walking with each other. That’s something again to check on your sister. If it’s mental health, breast cancer, or domestic violence, check on your people, right? You will be able to step in and help them when they’re too weak to help themselves. I like trust. Those words touch every single film in this initiative.

PC: Besides this initiative, what’s next for each of you?
Tressa: I’m gearing up to produce six films back to back, so y’all pray for me. Follow my social media @CeoAzarel and you can see everything. I’m also hiring a lot of new writers that are coming into the space. Definitely tapping back into more female directors because I’m sold now. I used to work with a lot of males, and now that I’ve had this opportunity to work with females I’m hooked.

Yvette: For me, I’m in Muppets Haunted Mansion. That’s coming out the day before The Waiting Room. Muppets Haunted Mansion is October 8th. Our films are on BET Her, 10:00 p.m., October 9th. And then also I’m going back to do another season of Big Shot on Disney+ with the fabulous John Stamos. It’s a lot of goodness. A lot of goodness coming.

Make sure to follow Tressa (Twitter/Instagram) and Yvette (Twitter/Instagram). Watch The Party on BET Her at 10/9c on October 9th.