SZA takes on a comedic role in new film One of Them Days
Grammy Award-winning pop sensation SZA has made her silver screen debut in the comedy One Of Them Days, where she stars alongside Keke Palmer. The film, which premiered in the USA this January, has been lauded for its fresh take on the buddy-film genre.
It tells the story of best friends Dreux (played by Palmer) and Alyssa (played by SZA), who scramble to replace their rent money after discovering that Alyssa’s boyfriend has spent it all. They’re joined by a star-studded cast including Maude Apatow from Euphoria, Lil Rel Howery from Get Out, Janelle James from Abbott Elementary and legendary comedian Katt Williams from Friday After Next.
While SZA, whose real name is Solána Rowe, is known for her chart-topping hits, she has dabbled in acting before. In 2020, the Kill Bill singer had a minor role in HBO’s Insecure, a detail that may have slipped past many viewers.
READ MORE: ‘Molly-Mae’s Amazon Prime series is just a break-up doc, but she won’t admit that’READ MORE: Britain’s Got Talent’s Ant McPartlin rushed to medics after nasty head injury
The Issa Rae drama is known for featuring a different show-within-a-show across its five-season run. From season two onwards, these shows played out in the background of the characters’ daily lives, adding an extra layer of humour to the drama.
In season four, audiences were introduced to the true crime series ‘Looking for Latoya’, which followed the disappearance of a 26-year-old woman named Latoya Thompson, last seen entering a local Red Lobster restaurant, reports the Mirror.
Issa Rae’s hit series featured the bogus TV show as a symbolic portrayal of the main characters Issa (Rae) and Molly’s (Yvonne Orji) fading friendship.
In a convo with Entertainment Tonight, Rae spilled the tea on why they included the fake series, saying: “In the writers room, we were obsessing about our own different true crime shows. Like, I was obsessed with To Live and Die in LA … and we also started talking about the metaphor of Molly and Issa’s friendship of asking the ‘whodunnit’ question like, ‘Who killed the friendship?'”
Then HBO really went for it by dropping a short episode titled Looking for Latoya: The Reunion on YouTube, where SZA’s character Latoya turns up alive – she wasn’t missing but chilling on a Disney cruise, emailing her folks who unfortunately didn’t know how to check their inbox.
The twist hits when the presenter addresses the viewers, revealing: “While Latoya was missing, the inner-city Los Angeles Police Department was able to find 22 missing white women.”
Issa Rae chimed in on their aims with this bit of drama, telling Entertainment Tonight back in the day: “One of the things a lot of these true crime podcasts and true crime shows in general have in common is that they’re always looking for missing white girls.
“[Looking for LaToya exposes] the idea that none of these are centred around black girls, and what it would look like if it were – and finding the dark humour in that.”
One of Them Days is out in cinemas now.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
