Jewel Taylor is a first-time feature director, but she’s not new to Hollywood. Along with Tony Rettenmeier, his writing partner and former USC film school classmate, Taylor helped write the sequels Creed II (2018) and Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021), cementing his credentials as a mainstream popcorn engineer.
His first work behind the camera, the comedy-sci-fi conspiracy thriller They Cloned Tyrone, has a lower profile but is in some ways even more ambitious. Starring John Boyega, Jamie Foxx and Teyonah Parris and streaming on Netflix, the original story written by Taylor and Rettenmeier puts heady questions about structural racism, personal autonomy and the search for meaning into one fluffy package.
In the film, hard-working small-time drug dealer Fontaine (Boyega), who may or may not be a clone, teams up with his least favorite clients—Slick Charles (Fox) and Yo-Yo (Paris)—to uncover a sinister conspiracy that upends everything he believes about himself and the world.
Taylor, 36, who grew up in Tuskegee, Alabama, discussed the surprisingly personal origins of the story, playing with and against racial stereotypes, and why he may owe his career to Gnarls Barkley’s song “Crazy” in two video interviews. These are edited excerpts of the conversation.
Where did Tyrone start for you?
It all happened in a strange little burst. In 2017 Tony and I worked with Macro [the company that produced “Tyrone”] in an episode of their show “Raising Dion”. Then in 2018, we were hired to work on Creed II, and we pitched and marketed that movie while we were working on it.
What was the original idea for the story?
There were several things. I knew I wanted to do a mystery, like a bootleg Scooby-Doo, where the detectives are misfits but somehow uniquely equipped. And then there was a joke I had with Tony: A pimp, a hooker, and a drug dealer walk into a bar. What if we make them heroes?
But the real story didn’t come until I understood Fontaine’s character. In 2016, I reconnected with a friend from college. He got arrested for something when we were 18 or 19 that ended up changing the course of his life. I’ve always been a bit critical of him because I thought he had so much potential, but in this conversation he revealed that he’s been dealing with depression. Then he just didn’t know how to tell anyone. It completely changed my perspective. I started thinking a lot about guilt and responsibility and then all the elements of the film came together. A boy has an identity crisis and must overcome circumstances that are truly beyond his control.
Do you think in general genre?
I think in genre, but usually mood and tone come first. A lot of times it’s a song or a score and I’ll try to recreate what it feels like. This movie was a lot of ’80s R&B and funk — Bootsy Collins, Mary Jane Girls, Patrice Rushen, Alicia Myers — and Southern rap, everything from Three 6 Mafia and Project Pat to UGK and Big KRIT
What about movie influences?
Definitely The Truman Show and They Live. This movie is basically if The Truman Show and They Live had a baby. There’s a bit of The Matrix in there too. A bit “The Manchurian Candidate”. A little Anaconda. In terms of tone, we were really inspired by ‘Jackie Brown’, ‘Boogie Nights’ and ‘The Big Lebowski’. And then for the world building we looked at Napoleon Dynamite and Next.
Did you always know you wanted to make movies?
I originally wanted to do video game design. I went to the University of Florida for my undergraduate degree and graduated from this program called Digital Arts and Sciences. But I quickly realized that I was not a good art student. The only project I did that was successful and that I really had fun with was a music video that I did that was inspired by the Gnarls Barkley song “Crazy.” From there, I kind of got it into my head that I wanted to make films.
The film is set in a fictional southern neighborhood called The Glen, which seems a bit stuck in time. How similar is it to where you grew up?
A lot. A lot of places in the south don’t have the necessary resources and infrastructure, so even though people make the most of it, there’s still this patina where everything looks like it’s from the 80s. This is something that was always at the fore when we designed The Glen.
What made you think of incorporating stereotypical ideas about black culture into the conspiracy plot? He mentions everything from fried chicken to grape drink and curling cream.
We worked backwards from Fontaine’s character. He is in this situation through no fault of his own. Who put it there? And what else are they up to? I thought about all these conspiracies that I heard growing up and just tried to have fun with it and be a little rough. It was a matter of walking a tightrope between these absurd plot points and some darker and heavier undertones. I play with the idea of how we see ourselves and how others see us; but at the end of the day I try to make it fun.
Have you ever worried about being perceived as promoting negative images of black people? Or, on the other hand, a judgment of the culture you’re portraying?
I mean, it’s inevitable. Some of these things make me uncomfortable, so I know some other people will be uncomfortable. We’ve had test screenings where people have said, “I get that it’s satire, but I just don’t like watching this.” And I think that’s totally fair. But you have to accept that if you’re going to explore these topics at all. The second someone eats fried chicken on screen, you’re in somewhat of a danger zone. I totally know people who say, “I don’t eat chicken in front of white people.”
But I don’t know of a way to explore these things without putting the images on the screen. Hopefully it’s a story and these are characters that people will want to engage with. And if you do, you may find that some of these stereotypes are deconstructed and there is more to things than meets the eye. But if that’s not your experience, who am I to tell you that you’re wrong? I don’t want people to think that there is only one way to interpret the film.