Ricky Director Rashad Frett Talks Spike Lee Advice

Filmmaker Rashad Frett is making movies with a mission.

“I’m here to make films that bring in humanity,” Frett tells Variety. “Everything I do, I want to not only entertain our audience but inform them on what’s going on. Give them food for thought. To bring the audience a visceral perspective from a situation they’ve never experienced before.”

Case in point is Frett’s debut feature “Ricky,” about a 30-year-old navigating the challenges of life after being incarcerated for 15 years, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival on Friday to rave reviews, including Variety’s. Anchored by a captivating lead performance by Stephan James (“If Beale Street Could Talk”), the film aims to bring that humanity to the hot-button issue of recidivism and spotlights the support ex-offenders need to avoid being re-incarcerated.

“’Ricky’ came from seeing a lot of family members go through the criminal justice system and how they struggled to improve and find work, and some resorted to their old ways,” Frett says, explaining the backstory for the project, which he co-wrote, produced and directed. “We wanted to shed light on this topic with this different type of coming-of-age story, where a 30-year-old adult is outside in the free world for the first time.”

Frett developed the project as a short film while attending the NYU Tisch graduate film program, then he and co-writer Lin Que Ayoung got into the Sundance Institute’s writers lab to develop the feature version. Following that, Frett endured the “grueling” application process to get into the director’s lab, while producer Pierre M. Coleman took the project through the producers lab.

When it came time to shoot the feature, Frett and his crew returned to his hometown of Hartford, Connecticut. “I pooled my resources up there. I had the friends and family discount,” he says with a laugh. “Putting that film together about the community that I grew up in was a team effort on all fronts.”

Of course, key to that team were James and Sheryl Lee Ralph (“Abbott Elementary”), who bring their star power to the project. “I was sent the script and was really affected by what I read. It felt familiar and urgent,” James says of signing on to play Ricky and to executive produce the project.

James — who joined Frett for an interview at the Variety Studio presented by Audible at Sundance (watch the full video above) — also dove into Frett’s short. “It was important because it showed the care and attention to detail Rashad was taking with the subject matter,” he says. “It felt intimate, personal. After speaking about how the characters and world would evolve in a full-length feature, I was sure that together we have the chance to do something meaningful with the film.”

Ralph, who plays Ricky’s parole officer, was thrilled to get the opportunity to play against type, both as a person and the characters she’s often offered.

“The character gave me an opportunity to step into a world that is often misrepresented or simplified, and I wanted to be part of a project that sheds light on these experiences with honesty and integrity,” Ralph explained via email. “The storytelling was raw, and deeply human, offering a perspective that we don’t always see fully realized on screen. But what really sealed it for me was Rashad asking me to ‘take off the makeup and the extra hair in order to let the character breathe.’ Now that takes guts!”

Read on as Frett breaks down his process of making the film and his unlikely road to directing.

“Ricky” marks a full-circle moment – not only because you filmed the movie in your hometown in Connecticut, but you’re also returning to Sundance after debuting the short at the 2023 festival How did you find out that the feature got in too?

I was on the way to the university — I teach directing at Brooklyn College — and I got the call, like ‘Congratulations,’ and I literally had to pull over because I couldn’t believe it. As artists, we have doubts, you know what I mean? I had to pull over for a good amount of time to process the news that we’d gotten into the dramatic competition.

That’s a good point. Just because you debuted the short there and because you took the feature through the lab doesn’t automatically mean you get a bid.

I was honored and humbled and at a loss at how this road to Sundance occurred. This literally started from a short film in grad school at NYU Tisch and just snowballed into this thing. My co-writer Lin Que Ayoung doesn’t like to heart this praise, but I was just going to graduate with a feature script, and she was like “We spent all this money to go to grad school, we should do another short.”

How did the short become the feature? What were some of the first ideas you had about expanding the story?

I really wanted to go deeper into the community, into the world that Ricky comes from, so I added elements of the church that weren’t in the short. Or that his father was deported. Just diving into more of his backstory before he spent 15 years in prison.

How did Stephan James get on board?

One of Michelle Satter’s [founding director of the Sundance Institute’s Feature Film Program] sons is Stephan’s agent, and we connected. When we spoke, we immediately clicked. We share Caribbean roots, and we both know people who went through what Ricky went through. It was almost as if the universe brought us together; he was supposed to be Ricky. He did a remarkable job, and it was an incredible experience.

In the short, Ricky’s parole officer plays a very small part, but the feature presents a more complex relationship between P.O. and parolee. How did you cast Sheryl Lee Ralph in this role?

I consulted with a parole officer on the subject, and I’ve known people that dealt with parole officers — you have good ones and you have bad ones. I wanted to portray a parole officer that actually cared about their parolee. A lot of the parole offers that I’ve known, grew up in the same community as their clients, so sometimes they’ll have clients that might have been their classmate from high school.

With Mrs. Ralph, we have similar backgrounds — she’s a Connecticut initiative, and we also share Caribbean roots, so we connected on that. Just the amount of just wisdom and professionalism in her performance was incredible. I learned so much working with them. It was just a complete honor, like some nuances that she and Stefan wanted to bring to the characters was incredible.
Was Mrs. Ralph doing a little bit of an accent?

Yes, she was! It came out [naturally] and I was, “We were keeping it!” That’s the world we’re portraying, this Caribbean American community, so I loved it.

Stephan and Sheryl are new to the cast, but a few actors from the short reprise their roles, like Simbi Kali, who plays Ricky’s mother, and Maliq Johnson, who plays his brother. Plus, Parish Bradley, who played Ricky, takes on a new role in the feature.

I’m very loyal. I wanted to bring over some of the cast from the short to the feature, because they knew the story, so it was just enhancing the character that they had [before]. Like Maliq, we stayed in contact after the short; we’re like family. They just brought it up to the next level.

It’s a mix of top-tier actors and non-actors — that’s part of my process as a director. And my family is in there as well. My aunt is in the beginning, where the women from the church are blessing Ricky. In my community, and in a lot of communities, the church is a big influence, so I wanted to touch on that idea that Ricky’s mother and her church sisters needed to try to protect him now that he’s coming home after so many years. I also cast my nephew — he’s the kid Ricky gives a haircut to. I only had a week and a half to work with him because he’d never acted before, but I’m used to working with non-actors.

I also brought in another actor [Jadiah Bailey] from one of my previous shorts, “K.I.N.G.” I’m in the process of creating a universe of films within the same world. So, we’re gonna make a “K.I.N.G.” feature and like a few others, but it all ties into the same world. That’s the goal. That film was more about my personal life — my father not really being around and being a troubled teen. When I do get to make it, I want to do that in the Caribbean. I’m also ex-military so I want to do a spin-off from that as well. I’m inspired by the things that I’ve experienced and the people around me — that’s what I teach my students to do.

Tell me more about your military service — you were an Army medic, working in New York on September 11 and you’ve said that experience made you realize filmmaking was your path. How so?

I remember that day like was yesterday. I was a kid — I was 20. I’ve always had a passion for the arts, but I didn’t have any guidance in [entertainment], so I was just trying to figure it out where was my place in the world. So I joined the military. That day, 9/11 specifically, and seeing what I saw, I thought I’m not into politics like that, but I was just trying to figure out how I can I express myself or express what’s on my mind. I thought I’m going to turn to the arts.

The arts have been around me all of my life. It evolved from drawing to wanting to be an actor and that evolving my lofe of film. But at that moment, specifically, I just wanted to figure out how to be hear and how I can share how my community has been affected by this. That day is one of the pebbles that started the ripple effect of where I am today.

What were some of those early films that inspired you?

Professor Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing.” When I first saw it, I was in shock. I was like “Wow!” The artistry behind it was just so unique and really in for face. I also loved “The Warriors”; it was just something about seeing them trying to beat all the odds and get back home.

What was it like having Mr. Lee as a professor at NYU?

He was amazing. He dropped so many jewels, and he was extremely supportive. I remember going to his office to meet with him one-on-one to review our work and, internally, I’m freaking out, but I had to play it cool. But he was extremely honest, and it really helped my filmmaking get to the next level. I’m truly grateful for that, for the experience, and I’m sure he’s gonna see [the feature], and I can’t wait to see what he what he has to say about it.

What was the best note that he gave you?

Stick to your guns. If it’s your vision, and you full feel fully passionate about it, stick to your guns, and don’t even listen to the next person. If you truly believe in the story, that’s all that matters. I apply that to this day.

What was the most challenging part of making this feature?

When I direct, I really like to take my time to draw the performances out, and I just felt like we didn’t have enough time. We literally didn’t have enough time: it was a 20-days shoot; I wish it was a 25-day shoot. But, there’s beauty in limitations and we pulled it together and made it happen by the grace of God.

What do you hope to say with this movie?

I’m here to make incredible films that bring in humanity. Everything I do, I want to not only entertain our audience but inform them on what’s going on. Give them food for thought. To bring the audience a visceral perspective from a situation they’ve never experienced before.

I love the way you ended your director’s statement with this question: “How can we as a society make space for redemption?” What is your answer to that question? Or how does this movie serve as your answer to that question?

Hopefully, with this film, I can spark a conversation and remind people to give some empathy toward ex-offenders and give second chances to people that are really trying to do the right thing and reintegrate back into society. There’s a lot of programs out there, but after consulting with people that I know who went through the criminal justice system it seemed like there should be programs that start to reacclimate them earlier.

We interviewed ex-offenders during the process and one of them said that each prison is different — some have great programs and some of them have none, and he had better results reintegrating to society when he went to the program prior to being released. But there aren’t many out there.