'She's Gotta Have It': Then and Now
Twenty-five years after Spike Lee's feature-film debut, find out which cast member is a born-again Christian, who went on to become a BET executive and who is a published author.
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Tracy Camilla Johns, Thenmovieclips.comNola Darling: "It's really about control, my body, my mind. Who was going to own it? Them? Or me? I'm not a one-man woman. Bottom line." In her film debut, Tracy Camilla Johns played the confident and sexually independent Nola Darling, a woman who juggled three men with three very different personalities -- and changed assumptions about black women's sexuality.
Captions by Erin E. Evans
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Tracy Camilla Johns, Nowshadow and actWhatever happened to Tracy Camilla Johns? After roles in Family Ties, Mo' Better Blues and New Jack City, Johns didn't make another on-screen appearance. According to comments on the website Shadow and Act, it seems she's become a born-again Christian.
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Tommy Redmond Hicks, ThendailymotionJamie Overstreet: "Nola, I don't want to chance not seeing you again. Whatever you want to do, I'll do. Wherever you want to go, I'll take you. Will you see me?"
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Tommy Redmond Hicks, Nowgetty imagesSince She's Gotta Have It, Hicks has appeared in several TV series and movies, including The Five Heartbeats, Meteor Man and Charmed. He's currently a member of the Kuumba Speakers Series with the Association of Black Culture Centers.
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John Canada Terrell, Thenmovieclips.comGreer Childs: "If you weren't fine, I wouldn't even deal with you."
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John Canada Terrell, NowfacebookHe appeared in a few of your favorite early-'90s movies: Mo' Better Blues, The Five Heartbeats and Boomerang, and then he took a nearly 10-year hiatus before appearing in an episode of Law & Order in 2000. You can add him as a friend on Facebook here. Watch as he talks about his role as Greer Childs in a 2008 interview.
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Spike Lee, Thenmovieclips.comMars Blackmon: "Please baby, please baby, please baby, baby, baby, please!"
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Spike Lee, Nowgetty imagesThe filmmaker has come a long way since his feature-film debut. He's been nominated for two Academy Awards: best original screenplay for Do the Right Thing and best feature documentary for 4 Little Girls. He no longer appears in all the films he directs, and he often recruits other writers to scribe them (Miracle at St. Anna, Inside Man). His production company, 40 Acres and a Mule, just finished principal photography for his next film, Red Hook Summer.
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Raye Dowell, Thenmovieclips.comOpal Gilstrap, Nola's lesbian friend, would do anything to get a little bit closer to Ms. Darling. At one of our favorite blogs, Shadow and Act, writer Brandon Wilson depicted Opal as Spike's worst female character: "Opal hates men. She seems to have 1 thing on her mind: getting Nola in bed … Opal is nothing but a stereotype of the rapacious lesbian trying to recruit. Nothing more to the character."
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Raye Dowell, Nowgetty imagesShe appeared in two Spike Lee joints after her role in She's Gotta Have It: Mo' Better Blues and Malcolm X. She also had a role in Boomerang with fellow castmate John Canada Terrell. After a cameo in Living Single, she began producing films, including Virgin, Out of the Woods and, most recently, Hounddog in 2007. She also had a child with Forest Whitaker in 1990.
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Joie Lee, ThenflickrJoie Lee played Clorinda Bradford, Nola's old roommate. Spike's sister later appeared in many of his films, including School Daze, Do the Right Thing, Mo' Better Blues and Crooklyn.
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Joie Lee, Nowgetty imagesIn the 2000s, Lee pulled away from her brother and began writing and appearing in non-Spike Lee joints, such as Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and All the Invisible Children. In 2010 she appeared in her brother Cinque's film, Window on Your Present.
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S. Epatha Merkerson, ThendailymotionDr. Jamison: Your friend, if you choose to call him that, confuses a healthy sex drive with a sickness.
Nola: I'm no addict.
Dr. Jamison: ... If what you want is total female sexuality, be honest. The beautiful sex organ is between your ears, not between your legs.
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S. Epatha Merkerson, Nowgetty imagesMerkerson appeared in nearly 400 episodes of Law & Order as Lt. Anita Van Buren before exiting the show in 2010. She's been nominated for two Tony Awards and has won Obie, Emmy, SAG and Golden Globe statues. Merkerson recently wrapped filming on the comedy We the Peeples, co-starring Kerry Washington and The Office's Craig Robinson. She's also been cast in a CBS medical-drama pilot set to premiere this fall.
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Stephanie Covington, ThenCovington, center (movieclips.com)Keva, Mars' girlfriend in Nola's nightmare: "I'll be damned if she takes Mars from me. I'm four months pregnant. I'm from Brownsville. We don't play that ... "
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Stephanie Covington, NownotallblackgirlsCovington penned a memoir in 2009, Not All Black Girls Know How to Eat, based on her experiences growing up with an eating disorder. She currently works with the National Eating Disorder Association's diversity task force to educate minorities on anorexia and bulimia. She's also written three stage plays.
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Renata Cobbs, ThenCobbs, left (movieclips.com)Shawn, Greer's girlfriend in Nola's nightmare: "There goes that homewrecker. I don't blame Greer. I blame her."
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Renata Cobbs Fletcher, NowfacebookFletcher is the vice president for public policy and community partnerships at Public/Private Ventures. In 2008 she wrote a blog entry for the Huffington Post titled, "How Much Progress Can We Make With Our Mothers in Prison?"
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Cheryl Singleton, Thenmovieclips.comToby, Jamie's girlfriend in Nola's nightmare: "I know she's trying to steal my man. If Nola had loved Jamie, it would have been different. It's sisters like her who are corrupting our men."
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Cheryl Singleton, NowstagesourceSince She's Gotta Have It, Singleton has taken her acting skills to the stage. She played in New Repertory Theatre's production of Passing Strange as the main character's mother in Boston earlier this year.
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Monty Ross, Thenmovieclips.comAs Dog 1: "You're so fine, baby, I'd drink a tub of your bathwater."
Ross and Lee met as undergraduates at Morehouse College and have worked together since 1981. Ross co-produced several films with Lee: School Daze, Do the Right Thing, Mo' Better Blues, Malcolm X, Crooklyn and Clockers.
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Monty Ross, Nowyoutube"I think I became aware of [Spike's vision] when I saw She's Gotta Have It for the first time ... " he said in a 2010 interview with the Reader. "It was just a culmination of having that core of people around you who think like you do, and they're able to take your vision and take Spike's vision and then make it happen in a way that's visually stimulating and pleasing to the audience."
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Erik Dellums, Thenmovieclips.comAs Dog 3: "I just want to rock your world."
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Erik Dellums, NowYou'll probably recognize Dellums' distinctive voice, if not necessarily his face. He had a recurring role in HBO's The Wire as Dr. Randall Frazier and in Homicide: Life on the Street as Luther Mahoney. He's currently working on Shoedog, a film slated for release in 2012.
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Reginald Hudlin, Thenmovieclips.comAs Dog 4: "Baby, it's got to be you and me."
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Reginald Hudlin, Nowgetty imagesSince appearing in She's Gotta Have It, Hudlin has directed House Party, Boomerang, The Ladies Man and an episode of Modern Family, to name a few of his behind-the-scenes projects. But perhaps you've laughed more at spoofs of Hudlin on The Boondocks, which poked fun at him for his controversial stint as BET's president of entertainment from 2005 to 2008. He also wrote Black Panther for Marvel Comics; a movie adaptation is currently in development.
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Eric Payne, Thenmovieclips.comAs Dog 5: "You may not realize it tonight, but you're sending out some very strong vibes. May I continue? You're lonely. You're alone. You're sad. You're confused. You're horny. You see, you need a man like me."
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Eric Payne, NowwhosdatedwhoPayne has enjoyed a steady TV career since his role as a "Dog" -- from recurring roles on My So-Called Life to ER to Boston Legal. He's in a film, The Dark Party (directed by Kadeem Hardison), that's set to be released later this year.
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Ernest R. Dickerson, Thenmovieclips.comIn a brief appearance, Dickerson's character, Dog 8, bellows, "I love you" to Nola.
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Ernest R. Dickerson, Nowgetty imagesShortly after his first and only on-screen appearance as Dog 8, he made his directorial debut in the cult classic Juice. Dickerson has directed several episodes of popular TV shows, including Treme, The Wire, Weeds and Lincoln Heights.
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Fab 5 Freddy, Thenmovieclips.comAs Dog 10: "Look, baby. Let's go to my house right now. Let's do the wild thing. Let's get loose."
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32 of 32 Fab 5 Freddy, Nowgetty imagesAlready a famous figure on the New York hip-hop scene when he appeared in Lee's film, Freddy has since made a few more on-screen cameos: New Jack City, Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Rachel Getting Married, to name a few. He's perhaps best known as the first VJ to host Yo! MTV Raps. He's been a co-executive producer for the VH1 Hip Hop Honors since its inception in 2004.
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