We Wouldn’t Have Beyond the Lights Without Alicia Keys

Some people get their best ideas in the shower, or on the treadmill, but those ideas are usually tweets. For a film as spectacular as Beyond the Lights, the muse visited its creator in a much more appropriately cinematic and romantic fashion. Director Gina Prince-Bythewood and stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Minnie Driver came together on the very first night of Vulture Festival to discuss the romantic drama. Prince-Bythewood walked us through the actual moment she got the idea for the movie, in a scene that should probably be in its own movie about a woman writing Beyond the Lights (which we would watch!). “I was sitting at an Alicia Keys concert at the Hollywood Bowl,” Prince-Bythewood said. “And she started to sing the song ‘Diary,’ which is such an epic love song and duet.” While most audience members were probably in the midst of pining for a crush, Prince-Bythewood was suddenly envisioning a woman dangling off a balcony. This would begin a journey that would end with Mbatha-Raw in a harness dangling off an actual hotel balcony, in real life, at 4 o’clock in the morning. So, add this to the list of things we need to remember to thank Alicia Keys for the next time we see her.

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