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Coming Home to Detroit: What it Means to the Stars of Detroit Unleaded
The movie, Detroit Unleaded, set and filmed in Detroit, has its Red Carpet Premiere next week at the Detroit Institute of Arts Detroit Film Theatre. In anticipation of the Premiere and Limited Theatrical Run, I got to talk to the stars of the movie, who are all originally from Detroit.
I could have asked them any number of questions: What is it like to have been at the International and National Film Festivals where Detroit Unleaded has screened to sold-out audiences? What is it like to receive awards and accolades for an Independent Film, like Detroit Unleaded has?
That would have been a great interview. But for answers to questions like those (that have to do with the actual film), you’ll need to check with WDET and the other news outlets in the area that have run those stories.
Because, you see, what happened is what happens whenever Detroiters who aren’t currently in our city get together and talk to someone who is in Detroit: we talked about—well, you guessed it—Detroit.
All three of the stars are currently busy working on projects elsewhere, but they will be home for the Premiere. And they’re quite excited about being back in The D, and for Detroit Unleaded’s first screening in their hometown.
This conversation was fine with me because I always love talking about Detroit and the Red Carpet. (Detroit, because I live here, and the Red Carpet because I too am familiar with it. You know, from TV. And my Grandmother’s hallway. Yeah, I know. Please don’t hate on me.)
EJ Assi, the male lead (okay, I kind of sound like a real reporter when I say male lead, right?), plays Sami, who “works behind the bulletproof glass of a 24-hour gas station” in the film. Assi is apparently familiar with the glass in other ways: namely hockey. When he’s back in town, he definitely hopes he can hit up a Wings game. “A huge part of [coming home] for me, I guess, would be [going to] Joe Louis Arena. I played hockey my whole life so to come from a state that celebrates it is so, well, it’s special for me.”
Assi is also a Wayne State University Alum, so the Premiere will be right in his old neighborhood. He currently lives in New York, but even with all the appeal of the Big Apple, Assi says “I love coming home because that’s exactly what it is for me, ‘home.’ Detroit has an identity that I connect with far more than any other place I’ve ever lived. I don’t if it’s the people or the town, but it just feels right.”
Nada Shouhayib, who’s from Detroit and a University of Michigan Alum, plays Sami’s love interest, Najlah, in the film. And while she too doesn’t currently live in The D, she agrees that Detroit has something special. “I love that there is not any other city like Detroit, it has its own culture that isn’t replicated anywhere else.”
In the film, Sami’s cousin Mike is played by Mike Batayeh. I don’t know if Batayeh would call himself an actor (he’s been on Breaking Bad) or a comedian (he does stand-up), but this Detroiter who also attended Wayne State is serious about loving Detroit. “All my family is there,” he says when asked what he’s most looking forward to about coming home. That, and he wants to make a Lions game while he’s back home for the film’s Detroit Premiere.
Then, like all good Detroiters, we started talking Coneys. For Batayeh, that means Duly’s Coney Island on Vernor. For me, Lafayette. Though nothing beats doing a taste-off with friends by grabbing dogs from Lafayette and American and having the best of both worlds. Living a couple of blocks from these two iconic diners makes everyone a winner!
Batayeh also mentioned he loves all the hookahs and hummus in Dearborn. And when I ask him to get more specific, he says, “I love every aspect of Detroit.”
Yeah. I know. Woodward and Bernstein would have pressed him on that. But, hey, what can I say? I agree.
And if you’re from Detroit, you know what Batayeh means. In many ways, there’s just too much to love and to look forward to doing to be more specific than that.
So we started talking about the event that brings them all home next week, the Red Carpet Premiere. Shouhayib likes them (premieres) and is looking forward to the Detroit Premiere because “it means we are about to have a new audience to show our film to.” The cast and crew are all going to be on hand on Premiere Night for a Q&A following the screening, and when this comes up Shouhayib adds that she also “enjoys seeing and hearing reactions from an audience during the screening.”
Assi agrees with her: “It’s a great chance to see new faces come to enjoy the film.”
While this was all great, so far it wasn’t helping me get the feel of what it was really like to actually be on the Red Carpet.
Then Batayeh piped up. “I like wearing the designer gowns.”
Fine. He was being funny. But this still helped. It is just like what I’ve seen on TV and imagined all those years ago in my Grandma’s hallway.
And next week, along with the rest of Detroit, I get to hit a real Red Carpet when Detroit Unleaded comes ‘home.’
I just hope Mike and I aren’t wearing the same thing.
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You can get Tickets for the Detroit Red Carpet Premiere (Nov. 13th) and the Limited Theatrical Run (Nov. 15-19th) at http://www.dia.org/auxiliaries/event.aspx?id=4184&iid=&aux_id=14&cid=100
The Lofts of Merchant Row