Superfly's Director X Breaks Down the Movie's Gambling Scene

Hey Vanity Fair!

I'm Director X, the director of Superfly

and these are Notes on a Scene.

(funky music)

Give you a chance to win back my money

perv face man mother...

(punch hitting face)

Watch your mouth.

Don't mind if I do!

Ima look away.

For good luck.

[Man] Mother.

God damn man!

The scene I chose was the gambling scene.

This is essentially a beat for beat remake

of a scene from the original film.

It's actually one of my favorite scenes in the movie.

Priest goes to talk to his best friend Eddie,

while he's gambling, and he has little altercation

while he's doing it.

Eddie's winning the game.

Priest walks in, tells him he wants to talk.

All in the pot like gumbo.

Wait a minute.

Eddie, look we need to talk.

There's a moment in the original film,

where Eddie can tell that something's up.

Hey, Priest.

Wait a minute.

Hey, I got to go talk to my man.

You actually get an understanding of their friendship.

So, that little moment when he walks off, I just felt

was an important thing to do.

Alright y'all, look.

This right here now, is my favorite piece

of art department in the entire movie. (laughs)

In the original movie they were playing dice,

so I wanted them to play dice here.

I knew I needed some kind of box for them

to roll the dice into and we decided to make something

that fit the theme.

So, even from our art director,

he was saying the same thing,

this was the most fun he had making

this one little prop.

It's really weird that this is our favorite thing.

We have things blowing up, fantasy strip clubs,

but this right here...I don't know.

I just love the dice box that we created.

Don't mind if I do!

Ima look away.

For good luck.

[Man] Mother.

God damn man!

My man Kia Shine right here, really brought some real

southern drawl.

Just the right guy in the right vibe for this.

Yeah, you so pretty, think you taking him.

Ain't none of you're damn business who I'm taking.

The hell it ain't my business, bruh!

Now this gets into a little more technical.

We're very specific about framing like this.

You see the dragon is the whole way.

He doesn't cut off here,

or cut off there, or even cut off there.

It's the whole dragon.

And that was a big thing.

It's not just what's happening in the foreground,

it's also the background 'cause this dragon is Priest.

He's the dragon of the story.

I wanted that imagery to stack up.

The hell it ain't my business, bruh!

You would just walk your man out of here like that

and not give me a chance to win back my money.

Perv face man, mother...

(punch hitting face)

Watch your mouth.

(crowd gasps)

(laughs) The audience loves this moment right here.

They love the hair.

The hair moment is a great moment.

If you go back and watch the original, Eddie pulls a gun,

but he just kind of lifts his shirt up.

And you've got to figure out what's happening.

Take it easy, take it easy.

We decided to make it clear.

Take it easy, (gun cocks) take it easy.

Just keep it cool.

But, what happens here now, is this gun is

I can't even remember, this is a suppressor or its a

silencer on this gun.

The script I wrote allowed Alex to say,

he was also in this mode, that everything's really

kind of over the top, so he doesn't just have a gun,

this looks like a fucking laser gun.

The philosophy for the whole movie was Superfly.

(gun cocks)

The game ain't the only thing that got to end tonight,

you see what I'm saying?

Be cool, you got what you came for.

Yeah, I know I got it.

Let's go.

And again, very, very specific:

dragon, person, person.

I wanted this to be a real element.

We really made sure that it was always a Superfly picture,

beyond just the content in the scene,

that the visual itself was something impressive.

Let's go.

(funky music)

Hey, cash my chips out too.