Lil Rel Howery’s directorial debut is here thanks to his latest film, Haunted Heist.
While Howery stars in the film alongside Tiffany Haddish, Karlous Miller, Stephen Blackwell, Brett Gelman and Abhinav Singh, he also spearheaded the behind-the-scenes work, not only as the director, but also by watching the project go from an idea to inception.
The actor shared his excitement to see Haunted Heist released in theaters.
“I’ve done a bunch of stuff, but I’m so married to this,” Howery said in an interview with AFROTECH™ Culture. “It’s such a big accomplishment for me, and it’s not just because I directed and acted in it, but I’m so involved in this thing from marketing to everything we’ve been spending since we got the money for everything, since we’ve shot this film. I’ve been battling emotions all day, and I’m being straight up: you just caught me at a very transparent time — I literally have been praising God since I woke up this morning. I’m so thinking. This is some little kid me. This is beyond what I dreamed.”
On securing funding for the film
Howery has starred in blockbuster films and indie films alike, which made it all the more satisfying to land a budget for Haunted Heist.
“One thing you learn when you’re doing an indie is, when the money comes in, you gotta go,” Howery explained. “That’s why you gotta be ready. It’s like jump rope. You’re just waiting to jump in the rope. You know what I’m saying?”
He added, “You’re waiting on them to write the check, because you can’t do anything until that happens for real, honestly. Once we got the money following, we just had to move really fast. So we’re talking about casting, negotiating, scouting. It was such a… honestly, I love that type of stuff. Even with marketing this movie and the PR and everything we had to do, it’s just this organized chaos that I kind of enjoy because you don’t stop.”
The actor admitted that securing funding for Haunted Heist was difficult, but he and the team were grateful to have good financiers.
He notes that he doesn’t know if this is always the case, but that showing genuine interest and enthusiasm, and a strong work ethic, really worked in his favor when it came to securing the money needed to make Haunted Heist.
“My mind is blown being at the end of the road of this a bit because this was just an idea,” Howery recalled. “Even the way we were going into theaters with the 50-50 split with the theater owners and learning to go directly to the theater owners. Man, it’s a game-changing moment that’s happening now, and I’m just excited to see what happens. We put all the work in. We made the movie. We decided to do a digital campaign because that’s what we could afford. But we got a lot of bang for our buck with that, and just with the PR and the relationships, we were still able to do a lot of mainstream PR hits for an indie film. It’s been a blessing. What a process!”
Industry lessons that Howery applied to this role
Howery says the 2023 Hollywood Strike was an aha! moment for him because so many professionals had demands for the industry, but it posed a very important business question — “Why don’t they want to give it to us?”
“It can’t be that they’re all just evil and extra greedy,” said Howery. “What’s the business reason for this? And so I started just wanting to learn what the executives thought. I wanted to see things from both sides, just not from a side of asking for something, and so when I started thinking like that, you know, I produced my special, where I co-financed it with my partners, who honestly are the parents of a young man I mentor, and they just had some extra money they wanted to spend, and they helped me produce and do my special, and I licensed it to Tubi.”
He explains further why he took that route.
Here’s what the biggest business lesson was
“I did this because a lot of people love watching Tubi. So I was like, ‘What does it feel like to do a special on Tubi?'” Howery continued. “I started learning all of these things and started asking a lot of questions from my executive friends and wanted to learn the money part for real. And I didn’t want to ask anybody for money without having a game plan for them getting their return, and that was one of the biggest business lessons I learned. Don’t ask me anything you can’t get the return on.”
Now, Howery can officially add director to his resume, and this wouldn’t have been possible without some of the connections he made along the way.
In fact, he called several friends to perfect his craft and give directing his best shot.
“The first thing I did to help with the process, before I got started, I reached out to directors I love and respect,” Howery recounted. “The two that picked up the phone for real were Ava DuVernay and Sean Levy. And when I tell you, I’m so grateful for them sitting on the phone with me a couple hours and answering all my questions and sending me shot lists, and Ava gave such great advice, and it was little stuff that people don’t even think about that she was telling me and I applied all of that going into this.”
The number one thing for Howery was to be organized, because, shooting on a lower budget, the days count, and they simply could not afford to go over the 18 days.
Directing also opened a new chapter of Howery’s career that he plans to keep pursuing.
“My wife was on set the first day, and she was like, ‘Babe, you look like you’re in your element. Like that’s the happiest I’ve seen you on set,'” said Howery. “And I’m like, ‘Dang, yeah, I am.'”
He concluded, “I’m so proud of this movie, and I had so much fun, and this is just my first feature, so my eyes, everything is 20 times better now. I can’t even describe how much I’ve been diving into this. I’ve brought every book. I’m watching every masterclass. I’m rewatching stuff just to look at it. I’m on one now.”
