How ‘The Perfect Find’ Director Numa Perrier Honored and Updated Tia Williams’ Book At the Same Time
Netflix’s “The Perfect Find” director Numa Perrier collected generational references in her film adaptation of Tia Williams’ novel.
The story follows Jenna Jones (Gabrielle Union) and Eric Combs (Keith Powers) who gravitate toward each other despite a substantial age gap and the fact that Eric is the son of Jenna’s boss Darcy (Gina Torres).
The two pair up for a creative project for Darzine, Darcy’s fashion magazine. The project, which eventually becomes “The Perfect Find” highlights fashions inspired by Black starlets of Hollywood’s past. Jenna and Eric also bond over their love for old Hollywood — like Nina Mae McKinney, who pops up throughout the film with clips from “Hallelujah!,” a Greta Garbo clip from “The Flesh and Devil” and Spike Lee’s “School Daze,” featured at a drive-in movie date.
Perrier explained the process behind making references to classic Black Hollywood, first during Jenna’s swap meet browsing, where images of Diana Ross, Josephine Baker, Pearl Bailey, The Supremes, Diahann Carroll, Cicely Tyson, Eartha Kitt and Aretha Franklin flash across the screen. Later, Jenna and Eric roll out the “The Perfect Find,” and include video of author Tia Williams dressed to honor the film “Mahogany,” screenwriter Leigh Davenport honoring Aretha Franklin’s song “Chain of Fools,” poet Yrsa Daley Ward honoring Cleopatra Jones and the Blaxploitation era, Remy Ma honoring Dorothy Danbridge as Carmen Jones and Perrier herself honoring “Porgy & Bess” as Pearl Bailey.
Perrier also dissected the ending and how it differs from the book. Read below for the full conversation:
How did you update the story and modernize the book’s 2012 setting?
Perrier: Jenna is an analog girl in a digital world. It was really important for me to not have any texting in the film. You don’t see any graphics pop up on the screen. Jenna still has her old answering machine. You see cell phones, but I never had anything pop up on the screen on purpose to give us that same feeling of watching movies in the ’90s where that didn’t exist at all. So I wanted to honor it and update it at the same time.
Even with the music choices, I wanted to have music from the ’40s and ’50s and ’60s, and then also the ’90s and 2000s music that Jenna would love and more current music that Eric might be more into so we could really just have a crowd pleaser that also highlighted those generational things in the story.
Who is shown in the montage when Jenna gets her fashion inspiration for “The Perfect Find”?
Thinking through that particular scene where she’s where she gets a hit of inspiration while she’s shopping at a swap meet, I was just really trying to find a way to show what was going on in her mind. We were able to source those images that I love. I love vintage Black Hollywood. I love the old Hollywood glamour. Those women are mentors to me, even though I never met them. It’s really meaningful for me to see those images pop up there for people to discover them, but also to honor them at the same time.
What went into that montage that became “The Perfect Find” segment?
That whole montage is all of the writers. It’s kind of a little wink to all of us. Tia Williams as Mahogany, I’m in there as Pearl Bailey. Yes. We have Leigh Davenport, who adapted the script — she’s doing the Aretha Franklin moment, and then there was a beautiful poet who I love named Yrsa Daley Ward, and she’s playing Cleopatra Jones.
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‘The Perfect Find’ Cast and Character Guide: Who Plays Who?
What do the appearances of guest stars like Remy Ma, T.S. Madison and Winnie Harlow add to the story?
It’s another way to keep it as modern as we could because you’re trying to bring in that Jenna would know certain celebrities. Jenna lives side by side in that world. Fashion and film and music are all sister industries, sister art forms, and she would know some of these people. So how can we actually bring them into the fold?
Would you classify this film as a romantic comedy or romantic drama? How does it represent Black audiences in a genre that typically doesn’t have that much representation? How does it improve that space?
In every romantic comedy, you have those heartfelt, dramatic moments, when a couple breaks up, or they have to come to terms with something on a deeper emotional level, and then we got to swing you right back around to bringing you the hope and the arousal and all of those feelings of falling in love. That’s what I really wanted to do. I feel like a lot of my career has been in the rom-com space without calling it that — dealing with intimacy and humor at the same time. I wanted it to have my signature all over it.
What would you say your signature is and how did it appear in the film?
“The raw intimacy, the boldness of that and the honesty of their relationship are the things I strive to keep in my wheelhouse.
Also Read: Gina Torres piece when it goes up! or the breakout Ending Explained
