Fast Company – May 2019

You’ve collaborated with a lot of powerful women

over the years, including Tiffany Haddish, Queen

Latifah, and Taraji P. Henson. Little showcases the

talent of 14-year-old Marsai Martin, both behind

and in front of the camera. She’s now the youngest

person ever to have produced a Hollywood movie.

What made you want to work with her? This next

generation of creatives is more comfortable with its

voice than previous generations. They are more aware

of their reach and their power. With the right leadership

and guiding hand, the sky’s the limit for them. Marsai

PRODUCER WILL PACKER’S FILMS, SUCH

as the NWA biopic Straight Outta Compton,

Tiffany Haddish’s breakout vehicle Girls

Tr i p, and the dance drama Stomp the Yard,

have generated more than $1 billion at the

box office by making blockbusters that

appeal to black audiences and beyond.

His latest film, Little, starring Issa Rae and

Black-ish’s Marsai Martin, was coproduced

by 14-year-old Martin, whom he worked

with to develop and pitch the idea for a

Big-in-reverse-style comedy.

NEXT

N Creative Conversation

PACKING

POWER

THE HIT-MAKING FILM AND TELEVISION

PRODUCER TALKS ABOUT BREAKING

INTO ENTERTAINMENT, THE CULTURAL

IMPORTANCE OF ATLANTA, AND

“THE NEW AMERICAN MAINSTREAM.”
BY KC IFEANYI

is a great example. She’s amazing in that she listens to me and al-

lows me to give her advice. But she has a very clear idea of what

she wants to do, and what her talents are. My job is to put her in a

position to win.

You broke into film in 1994 as an undergraduate at Florida A&M

University by producing Chocolate City, a drama about a young

man attending a historically black college. You spent $20,000

on the film, which became a local hit. What did you learn from

that experience? There is a benefit to naïveté—you try everything

and you’re fearless. As an industry veteran, I think you still have to be

fearless, even when you know that certain things may not work. You

have [to remember] that you wouldn’t be where you are if it wasn’t for

bucking trends and doing things in a nontraditional way. I still have

the philosophy that I have to attack this industry every day as if it’s

my first movie and I’ve got something to prove.

With Chocolate City, you tapped into an underserved audience

that was hungry for films that spoke to their own experiences.

Do you think the industry has changed its outlook on tailoring

content for specific audiences? Being somebody who started off

creating content for a niche audience, I was always feeling pressure

from financiers, studios, distributors to bring the budgets down. But

I understood how to get in under the hood and where to move the

chips around in order to make [my films] palatable for a financier.

This is before people realized how big and fruitful my niche could

be. I don’t think anybody would say the urban—or new American

mainstream—audience is some tiny niche now. Everybody knows

that audience is a force to be reckoned with.

Lately, your movies, like Girls Trip, and your shows on OWN—

which include the reality dating show Ready to Love and the

family drama Ambitions—have focused on black women.

You also acquired the popular black women’s lifestyle site

xoNecole. How do you identify content that appeals to this

segment of the population? In today’s environment of oversatu-

rated content, if you’re not making a movie for a specific somebody

then you damn sure better be making it for everybody. But that’s

really, really hard to do. So I think about [a specific] audience mem-

ber. I think about what she does, what she likes, what she wants to

see, what she hasn’t seen, and how she likes to see herself. I think

about how I can make something that feels really specific and or-

ganic to her. And the stories usually evolve

from that. Girls Trip was based on Essence

magazine’s annual music festival celebrat-

ing African-American culture and music.

That was a real festival with real people, so

it had a real texture to it.

You are based out of Los Angeles and At-

lanta, a major hub for black culture. Does

having roots in Atlanta help your career?

Living in Atlanta means I interact with my

consumers daily. It gives me a leg up over my

peers who don’t leave the Hollywood bubble

Will Packer

COMPANY Will Packer

Productions

POSITION Founder

and producer

YEARS AT COMPANY

Six

FIRST JOB Producer,

Chocolate City

PHOTOGRAPH BY BEN ROLLINS MAY 2019 FASTCOMPANY.COM 19