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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