Hi, I'm Elvis Mitchell, and thanks for listening to The Treatment.

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From KCRW Santa Monica and KCRW.com, it's The Treatment.

Welcome to The Treatment. I'm Elvis Mitchell.

It's been four years since my guest, writer-director, D. Reese, was here with her.

Award-winning first feature film, Pariah, which we saw at Sundance, which was the winner of the John Cassavetti's Award.

From the Independent Spirit Awards, her newest film for HBO films is the biopic Bessie on the life of Bessie Smith.

And I have to say, when I heard that Queen Latifah was doing this, I thought it was perfect casting.

Yeah, no, she was great for it and tell the truth.

She was already attached when I came bored two years ago as a writer.

So I knew she was attached.

So I was like writing with her in mind.

And, you know, I'm from Tennessee.

Bessie's from Tennessee.

So there's no way.

I wasn't going to tell this story.

You know, I wanted to tell the story, this woman from a place no one's ever heard of, like Blue Goose Hollow, some little, you know, no place, you know.

And, like, we're still talking about her today.

So it was great. Because the thing about her, too, and I think this must be the one of the things that attract you to, is she's somebody who had several careers.

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