The Process of Storytelling w/ Malcolm D. Lee
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
The Black Effect Podcast Network and iHeartPodcasts
4.9 • 2.3K Ratings
🗓️ 17 August 2025
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this powerful conversation with acclaimed filmmaker Malcolm D. Lee—the visionary behind The Best Man, Girls Trip, Night School and more. Malcolm opens up about his journey from writing scripts in his parents’ basement to building one of the most respected careers in Hollywood.
He shares how Spike Lee’s influence inspired him to pursue film, the process of writing The Best Man as a timeless classic, and why every great script starts with a “crappy draft.” Malcolm also dives into the lessons of perseverance during slow seasons, the pressure of rewrites, and the importance of always putting character first.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Calling all my sweeties to the forefront. |
| 0:02.9 | I'm your host, Chris Renee Hazel, and this is the Keep It Posit Sweetie Show. |
| 0:10.1 | Hey, sweeties, you already know what time it is. |
| 0:13.2 | It's your weekly dose of joy, real talk, and a little soul work on the side. |
| 0:18.3 | I have been so excited about every single guest that we've had this season. |
| 0:22.5 | We've had nothing but gems dropped every single episode, and today will be no different. |
| 0:28.5 | He is a writer, director, producer of work that has spanned over different generations. |
| 0:34.4 | We all love his characters. We root for them. We've cried with them and we've grown with them. |
| 0:40.6 | You may know him from films like Best Man, Girls Trip, Night School. Kipps family, please give a very |
| 0:47.0 | warm welcome to Malcolm D. Lee. Malcolm, how are you feeling? I'm well. Good. You're fresh off a flight. |
| 0:54.5 | Fresh off the flight. |
| 0:55.5 | Straight to Atlanta. |
| 0:56.0 | Very glad to be here, yes. Good. So this is the second stop on your book tour. Yeah. The first one was amazing. So I guess I got some big shoes to feel for tonight. Oh, you'll be fine. It's going to be good. No pressure. No pressure. You know, let's just have a conversation. |
| 1:09.5 | I love it. |
| 1:10.6 | So let's, everyone knows you from your best man film and the television series. Girls Trip, which was one of my favorite. Oh, my gosh. And then I heard that maybe doing another one. As soon as I heard, I was like, I need that. We're working on it. Working on it. Yeah. And Space Jam, the Legacy. |
| 1:30.4 | People know you from that, but I want to know who Malcolm is. |
| 1:31.5 | Where are you from? |
| 1:37.7 | Tell us your journey to get to the best man that has a movie that we've all grown up to and watched for years. |
| 1:38.3 | Yeah. |
| 1:41.2 | I was born in Queens, New York. |
| 1:42.6 | I was raised in Brooklyn. |
| 1:48.6 | I grew up with both my parents and my brother. |
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