When Love Kills: The Falicia Blakely Story Is A TV One Original Film
TV One is set to reveal their latest film and conversation starter, When Love Kills: The Falicia Blakely Story later this month. The film is based on the true story of Falicia Blakely, who is played by Niatia “Lil Mama” Kirkland. Blakely is introduced to viewers as a teenage mom living in Atlanta who becomes attached to a fast money lifestyle that ultimately leads to her making life-threatening decisions.
Blakely is a sixteen year old single parent who lives with her mother. Between having a child who depends on her and a mother who she fails to see eye to eye with, Blakely decides to venture into the strip club and become an exotic dancer. Despite all the money that Blakely begins to see from becoming an exotic dancer, she soon begins to see the dangerous lifestyle attached to her position.
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Working as an exotic dancer introduced Blakely to the opportunity to make money and provide for her child and herself, but she was also introduced to a man named Dino who changed her life for the worst. Dino is played by Lance Gross, in a role unlike anything we have seen from him before.
Lance Gross talks embodying the role of Dino in this video interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BoXFQF5VZ0
This film touches on the fact that there are girls still experiencing relationships like the one Blakely experienced. It was important for producers to be able to humanize Blakely so that young girls would relate to her on a deeper level, especially if they are in similar predicaments.
The film director Tasha Smith, who has appeared on the Fox series Empire and played in Tyler Perry’s hit TV show “Tyler Perry’s for Better or Worse” was specifically chosen to direct the movie with confidence in her ability to humanize Blakely. This is Tasha Smith’s full length directorial debut, but from the final product, you would think she’s a seasoned professional behind the camera.
Smith says when she first heard the story from TV One, it was easy for her to connect with it due to coming from an urban environment, her upbringing and her experiences in the strip club.
Smith revealed, “I just felt like I would be able to bring a heart and humanity to this character. A lot of times people just dont understand what people’s struggles are, what their emotional upbringing is, what can cause them to end up in the situation they may end up in. I felt like we needed to have sympathy for the Falicia Blakely’s of the world.”
Lil Mama also discussed her role as Falicia Blakely. Watch her interview with us below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QZtJsNq7rw
Watch an extended preview of When Love Kills: The Falicia Blakely Story below:
The film premiered on August 28, 2017 on TV One.
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