In Elegance Bratton’s largely autobiographical The Inspection, a young, gay Black man named Ellis French (Jeremy Pope), kicked out of his house by his Bible-thumping mother (Gabrielle Union), finds himself homeless and utterly adrift, so he joins the Marines.
What follows is a somewhat familiar basic training film, but with an extraordinary twist—the film takes place during the era of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” This isn’t a case where Ellis tries to “pass” as straight. Ellis’ fellow recruits know that he’s gay. Some don’t care, others seek to sabotage him. There are two important drill sergeants in his life, the sadistic Laws (Bokeem Woodbine) and the compassionate Rosales (Raúl Castillo). Both men shape his experience, in wildly different ways. But what he yearns for most is the approval of his mother. (In a tragic turn of events, Bratton’s own mother died shortly after his movie was greenlit. The film is dedicated to her.)
Bratton moved from New York to Baltimore in 2021. We chatted over Zoom in the midst of a whirlwind press tour for his critically acclaimed film, which also stars Baltimore native McCaul Lombardi, whom I profiled in 2020.
First of all, how long have you lived in Baltimore? What brought you here?
I’ve been in Baltimore since the spring of 2021. It was the middle of the COVID pandemic and I was living in New York City. I realized that my apartment was a horrible place to live because I couldn’t leave it. And Baltimore just had beautiful [more cost-efficient] homes. I really wanted to buy a place. Now that my career is taking off, Chester [Bratton’s husband] and I wanted to buy a place in the U.S., where buying a home would be helpful to Black folks especially. So we chose Baltimore and we’ve been here ever since.
Alright, let’s talk about the film. The character of Ellis, who is essentially you, extends so much grace to his mother, which he does not necessarily get in return. And I’m wondering how Ellis came to be so emotionally evolved to the point where he could extend that grace to his mother?
Ellis comes from an environment where love is mostly transactional. He does not believe that anybody would want to help him unless they wanted something from him. And when he arrives to bootcamp, at a moment when he doesn’t know what his value is in the world, he meets a mentor-type drill instructor named Rosales, who takes an interest in him. For the first time, he kind of has a model of what mutual support can look like. [Rosales] tells him, “You’re valuable because you have the ability to protect the person to your left and the person to your right.” So that grace that Ellis extends [to his mother], it comes down to the fact that he’s the kind of person who really doesn’t give up on people. And that refusal to give up on people is ultimately what fuels his ability to never give up on himself. That’s really the message that we wanted to get through with this film: Keep fighting.
“[Ellis is] the kind of person who really doesn’t give up on people. And that refusal to give up on people is ultimately what fuels his ability to never give up on himself.”
The film is dedicated to your mother.
Unfortunately, my mom was killed a few days after the movie was greenlit. That’s why I’m super grateful to Gabrielle Union for taking on this challenge. She helped to bring my mother back to life so that I could find some sort of closure that my mom could not provide me while she was here on the planet.
I’m so sorry. In an interview, I heard Gabrielle Union say that she almost didn’t believe in her own ability to play this character, which is a departure for her, but that you convinced her. So a couple things: Why were you sure she could do it? And how did you convince her?
Oh, wow. Well, first of all, Gabrielle was my mom’s favorite actor, and I told her that. Secondly, my mom was like the prettiest girl on the block, but she was also a really tough lady. She and Gabrielle kind of have a similar combination of flawless beauty, but real, strong, sharp intelligence. So it was really a matter of letting Gabby know that I believed in her and that she could do it. And I begged and I cried, and she said yes. [Laughs] Gabby ended up being a real sounding board. I got to understand my mother better by the types of questions that she was asking me as an actress, and in the process, I think we were able to craft the performance that Gabby’s proud of now.
This film takes place during Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, which is just such a ridiculous paradox because it’s like this open secret but nobody can discuss it. How does that affect Ellis and the film?
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell may have gotten its name in the 1990s, but in reality, queer service members have been forced to serve in silence for almost 80 years. As for Ellis, you know, my name is Elegance. Anywhere I’ve been in my entire life, everyone has assumed that I’m Black and gay before I’ve even come into the room. So to a certain extent, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is something that Ellis has grown up with.
He’s grown up in an environment where everyone knows what the truth is. He’s just not allowed to be empowered in his truth. This isn’t necessarily a movie about a kid who’s like: “Am I gay? Am I not gay? Should I come out?” It’s actually about someone who knows who they are and has to kind of figure out how to live in the world. But as Black gay men, we exist in the blind spot of a colorblind society, one that hopes to wish racism away by any means necessary, but that is also really uncomfortable with any notion of queer desire/existence.
“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell may have gotten its name in the 1990s, but in reality, queer service members have been forced to serve in silence for almost 80 years.”
Speaking of queer desire, I’m wondering if you had any hesitation about showing the fact that Ellis was turned on by Rosales in the communal shower, because there is definitely a school of thought that says, you shouldn’t show that because it’s bad for the community.
No, I totally understand that. I think we’re in a sea change moment in our society, where maybe the last 50-60 years of civil rights has been about creating an environment of tolerance. And tolerance requires the illusion of sameness. And I think that the LGBTQ rights movement, especially when it comes to gay marriage, is a very similar approach. Like, look at us! We get married, we have kids, we own houses. We’re just like straight people! And, more importantly, we can be where you’re at without bringing our sexual problems into those spaces. But I don’t think sex is a problem. I don’t think attraction is a problem. And I don’t think that Ellis is generally turned on by everyone. He’s turned on by someone. So, yeah, that’s where that scene comes from. And no, I don’t feel any qualms about pretending that gay people don’t experience desire.
A lot of the recruits and officers in the film are cruel to Ellis, but you also showed a lot that had decency and conscience. Why was that important to show?
Honestly, a huge part of this movie is to challenge the notion of what masculinity is, and to also incorporate some more nuance and layers to that. I think we’re in a world ruled by male violence because men are not given the privilege to understand emotional intimacy amongst one another. It’s uncomfortable for men to acknowledge those types of needs and wants. But emotional intimacy is a part of male socializing.
I was thinking about this idea that gay people often search out surrogate families. And it’s like, wow, Ellis found a surrogate family of sorts in an unexpected place.
The thing is, no family is perfect. So my message to people is, family is where you find it. Nothing in this society will ever get fixed if the left and the right are just screaming at each other across their differences. There has to be a culture of coming to the middle, and you can’t do that unless you listen to people you disagree with. I know it sounds kind of Pollyanna, and there’s definitely nuance to this. I mean it’s America—there’s racism, there’s homophobia, there’s sexism. And all the things America deals with is concentrated in our armed services, for sure.
At the same time, we come from a culture where we’re taught there’s no white marine, there’s no Black marine. There’s only dark green and light green, right? When you understand that your life is potentially in the hands of someone else, even if you disagree, you come back [to them]. Even if they got you wrong, you come back. And I think that is what family is too, right? How many of us are sitting around our dinner table on Christmas passing the mashed potatoes to someone who’s broken our spirit at some point in our lives? But nonetheless, because we are interdependent on one another, you have to come back and figure it out. So that’s what that’s all about for me.
I want to talk about Jeremy Pope because I think he really gives a towering performance as Ellis.
I mean, Jeremy is phenomenal talent. And it had to be Jeremy Pope [playing Ellis], because it’s rare that people who are Black and queer get to be the heroes of movies. We’re kind of like the accessory to the hero, the handbag, if you will. And we live in a world where one out of two Black gay men will be HIV positive in their lifetime, the CDC claims. We’re also eight times more likely to commit suicide, eight times more likely to be homeless. And I do believe that our compromised social position has something to do with the lack of visibility on screen. When people go to the movies, we are paying to see aspirational versions of ourselves. If you’re not included in that aspiration, then that has social consequences, as well. Here’s one movie where you see yourself be a hero and triumph over adversity.
“It had to be Jeremy Pope [playing Ellis], because it’s rare that people who are Black and queer get to be the heroes of movies.”
What’s it been like watching this film with audiences? How emotional has it been? What’s the reaction?
Honestly, I haven’t watched it in the crowd since Toronto [Film Festival]. Because very often, when there’s a festival. I have to speak after the film, and there are so many emotions at once that it becomes hard to focus on a microphone and say what needs to be said. A lot of times people are just consoling me. And holding me. And I’m crying. [Laughs] But outside of that, I’m just filled with all sorts of gratitude and joy and appreciation. There are so many people who’ve been in my DMs or come up to me at screenings who are like, “Thank you for telling our story.” And a lot of those people are not Black queer people at all. I had a straight Navy guy DM me who was like, “I joined the Navy when I was 17, and my dad and I hadn’t spoken for a couple of years and I had to go get my birth certificate from him and it was so awkward, so hard. Thank you for telling our story.” And I’ve talked to so many service members who’ve been discharged because of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, who say thank you for bringing to light the fact that queer people are part of this military. We’ve always been a part of this military.
That’s the stuff that also becomes so emotionally overwhelming, but in the best possible way. When I was going through this in my life, I felt like I was the only person in the world going through anything like this. And I came to find out that I’m not alone. I think that’s why I made this movie. I made this movie for anyone who’s ever felt like you know, downtrodden, oppressed, ignored, abandoned. I hope that by the end of watching it, you feel like you’re enough, that you matter, you know that you have it within you to persevere.
The Inspection is now playing at The Charles and other local theaters.