Interview: I Love Boosters Cast On Fashion And Capitalism
The Ladies Of ‘I Love Boosters’ Talk Stealing The Show, Benevolent Crimes They’d Commit, And Women Of Color Leading The Revolution – ‘Why Is The Person Doing The Revolution Always A White Guy?
- Boosting, seen as theft or community service, is the core theme explored through an all-woman 'Velvet Gang'.
- Inter-community solidarity and the power of collective action are central to the film's message.
- The diverse cast plays women of color at the forefront of a revolution, challenging typical narrative archetypes.
“I love women!” is what you are likely to say after watching I Love Boosters.
Written and directed by rapper and activist Boots Riley, if you’ve watched any of Riley’s work, i.e. Sorry To Bother You and I’m A Virgo, then you know you’re in for a RIDE.
I Love Boosters takes a very colorful and surrealist stance on fashion, capitalism, and community — all through the lens of boosting.
The film follows the all-woman “Velvet Gang’” led by aspiring designer Cassandra aka Corvette (Keke Palmer) and her besties Sade (Naomi Ackie) and Mariah (Taylour Paige) who run an underground boosting ring in the Bay Area.
For those unfamiliar, a booster is someone who shoplifts and resells stolen goods at a lower price. Some may see the act as stealing, while others believe it to be community service, a theme that is explored in the film that begs the question: “Who is stealing from who?”
I Love Boosters Cast
When Corvette discovers that Christie Smith (Demi Moore), a designer and founder of Metro Designer, stole one of her designs, the Velvet Gang stitches together a plan for revenge.
Along the way, the boosting crew joins forces with cashier Violeta (Eiza González) and Jianhu (Poppy Liu), a Chinese Metro Designer sweatshop worker whose pursuit of vengeance is fueled from exploitative and harmful work conditions inside the factory.
HelloBeautiful’s Char Masona chatted withKeke Palmer, Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige, Poppy Liu, and Eiza González, about playing women of color at the foundation of a revolution.
“I grew up obviously loving movies and I always thought ‘I want to watch Marvel, I want to watch Harry Potter.’ I was like I can get there kind of, but I’m not there, there yet. I thought, why is the one always a white dude? Why is the person doing the revolution always a white guy? No issue if there wasn’t such a lack of everyone else being able to do it,” Ackie said.
“Reading the script and being a part of projects like this about women of color being at the forefront, being in the spotlight, and starting up revolutions like this is really powerful just for my inner child, let alone what it could do for other people watching it.”
Keke Palmer reflected on the tone of the film garnering a positive feeling at the end that excited her. “We aren’t ignoring the issues with life. We’re not ignoring the structures that exist. We are also showing a way to metabolize the feeling without losing your joy, losing yourself, and losing your community.”
Inter-community solidarity is a theme of the film that excited Poppy Liu. “Collectively our power is so strong,” Liu told HelloBeautiful. “The people in power are so scared of us realizing that we have more in common than not and that if we unify we can tackle it all.”
Now that you have working knowledge of the plot, now multiply it by 100, add teleportation, situational acceleration, pyramid schemes, and BOLD fashion, then you’ve barely scratched the surface of this film and all its glory.
Watch more of the conversation as the leading ladies discuss diversity, cultural appropriation, and benevolent crimes they’d commit.
I Love Boosters is in theaters now.
The Ladies Of ‘I Love Boosters’ Talk Stealing The Show, Benevolent Crimes They’d Commit, And Women Of Color Leading The Revolution – ‘Why Is The Person Doing The Revolution Always A White Guy? was originally published on hellobeautiful.com
