Actor Nnamdi Asomugha Discusses “Sylvie’s Love”

NNAMDI ASOMUGHA, ACTOR: Yes, you know, there’s a saying there are no new ideas, just new perspectives. And this was a romantic film that, you know, a lot of us have seen these romantic films, but there is a generation and a culture that has not seen themselves on film in this way and on screen. And I think it is a testament to our writer and director, Eugene Ashe, who just, you know, you can tell in his writing that he’s been greatly influenced by the women in his life and just in his spirit, you can tell that. And he really wanted to honor the generation before him, his parents, his aunts, his uncles, and sort of tell a story that they hadn’t seen. I think it is important to do that especially when you’re telling a love story that can focus on the interpersonal issues and not the societal issues. This is the civil rights era, but we’re just talking about the love, we’re talking about two people meeting each other and starting a family, and it was important.

AMANPOUR: And again, that just simple tale is actually what makes it so powerful. Of course, you are a saxophone player and it is a story of your rise through the ranks and getting your career on the way and also, as you say, making a family. Tell me, you actually learned to play the saxophone, right? This isn’t somebody sort of whatever lip syncing.

ASOMUGHA: I did learn to play the saxophone. You know, I had been saying for the last few weeks that — and a friend of mine called me out on this actually, but I had been saying, I think I’m a glutton for criticism. You know, like I go from one career where everyone is sort of watching me with the microscope and then another career where the microscope is probably even bigger and my friend said, no, I just think you like a challenge. And I think that’s what it was. To be able to learn the saxophone, you know, all I needed to do was really play it for a couple months to just get fingering down, but I fell in love with it and I really wanted it to be deep in the character. So, I worked on it for over a year and learned it and it was a part of my life in a really big way.