It’s officially Mea Culpa release weekend on Netflix and we’ve got another great interview for you!
Source: Bob Mahoney / Perry Well Films 2 / Netflix
RonReaco Lee spoke with BOSSIP about his role in the new erotic thriller, working alongside Kelly Rowland and Trevante Rhodes and the private investigator skills he picked up while making the film.
“First of all they didn’t they didn’t tell me it was an erotic thriller,” RonReaco Lee told Global Grind about his thoughts when he was offered the role of Jimmy, a private investigator who works closely with Kelly Rowland’s character Mea, who is a criminal defense attorney. “I was sold on Kelly. I have been dying to work with with Mr. Perry again. It’s been some years, so when I read the script I was just excited to be back in the mix with TPS.”
By now, if you haven’t seen the film, you’ve definitely seen the steamy Mea Culpa trailer, but Lee says he’s relieved the role didn’t call for him to do any nude scenes.
“I’m gonna leave that all to Kelly and Trevante cause, yooooo!” Lee told Global Grind. “Yo! Definitely, yes, yes… It read like — when you read it, you read it, but when you see it, you SEE it and they killed it! They killed it!”
Without giving too much away, Jimmy is key to many of the discoveries that Mea makes and much of the plot’s movement depends on what he says and does.
“It’s funny, when I watched I realized it was pretty cool, like every time he kind of pops in, he’s got some new information and it kind of helps move things along, but it was great,” Lee said. “I had never got to do anything like that before so it was new for me, and you know Mr. P, kind of just let me find it and I enjoyed it. I really did. I had a great time doing this movie.”
Part of Jimmy’s job is to figure out whether Mea’s new client Zyair is telling the truth about being innocent of the murder charge he’s facing — and Lee says it’s a credit to Trevante Rhodes’ performance that audiences will be just as conflicted about his innocence.
“Zyair had him stumped for a moment, he couldn’t quite figure him out, but I thought that was a credit to Trevante’s take on the role,” Lee told Global Grind. “Like even in seeing him when he wasn’t filming, he was very immersed in the character and I certainly wanted to respect his process and so we kept it very brief. I didn’t try to get in there and mess with him at all. He was super focused.”
Tyler Perry has been both praised and criticized for his unorthodox approach to production, but RonReaco Lee says as an actor he’s greatly enjoyed the way Perry works.
“What he’s done with filmmaking, and for somebody like me, I’ve been in the game a minute, you know, he’s taken out a lot of the excess areas, so he’s able to move your shoot day along really quickly, and what I love about it is you don’t expend a tremendous amount of energy on things that a lot of times are unnecessary,” Lee told Global Grind. “I think in the film industry, we do things because that’s the way we’ve always done it, so he’s kind of looked at things like, ‘We don’t need to do that, we need to do that,’ and you know when we’re doing coverage, he’ll just kind of push and get his coverage in and out and he doesn’t wear you out. He knows when he’s got it, ‘I got it, I’m good, let’s move on.’ I love it. It makes for a great day, from the actor’s perspective it makes for an easy day.”
We love to hear it. And even more so we loved seeing Mea Culpa. Make sure you check it out and let us know what you think!
Mea Culpa is currently streaming on Netflix.
