Two-time Academy Award winning Hilary Swank may be the most famous name attached to the new noir feature, Fatale, but, said director Deon Taylor in a Q&A after a virtual special screening, for black audiences Michael Ealy is a bigger star. Debate this point all you want. These actors are sublime in Fatale, acting out a pas de deux between a police detective and a crime suspect, so nuanced and sexy—Taylor conceived the idea—where race is key to the convolutions of the plot. “There are two Hollywoods,” said Taylor, “white Hollywood and black Hollywood. Hilary Swank did not know who Michael Ealy was.”
Made on a shoe-string $6 million, the look of
Fatale is sleek luxury. Ealy’s Derrick is a self-made success, co-owner of a business in L.A. that reps athletes, living in a stupendous house with spectacular views and a long sinewy driveway. Swank’s Val’s loft is urban chic, with brick walls and an industrial elevator. Access to these spaces is significant. Val and Derrick—though he says he’s ‘Darren from Seattle’ as some married men do-- meet in Las Vegas, and let’s just say, Vegas does not stay in Vegas. You know Val’s character from the moment she’s locked Derrick’s cellphone in her hotel room safe: she’s not finished with him yet. As it turns out, you have no idea the uses she has for this man.
Deon Taylor also talked about award winning Dante Spinotti’s cinematography for this film—his career includes L.A. Confidential--and his debt to Adrian Lyne’s Fatal Attraction. Cue the knife scene. This is one cool movie.
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