Tomi Adeyemi Calls Blood and Bone Film 'Worst Thing' She's Lived
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- Tomi Adeyemi said in a five-minute TikTok video that the Paramount film adaptation of her novel was "the worst thing I have ever had to live through" and that she "never want[s] to hear about this project again."
- Adeyemi said she left the set "hyperventilating and sobbing" and later suffered "severe somatic pain and so many panic attacks" after returning to America, adding she has made peace with never watching the finished film.
- Adeyemi said people involved in the film have "antagonised" her for about a year and a half, and that she tried to keep the dispute behind the scenes but felt compelled to speak publicly now that the film is being marketed.
- Director Gina Prince-Bythewood, speaking to the Los Angeles Times at a first-trailer event on Monday, appeared to allude to a casting controversy involving Amandla Stenberg (who plays Princess Amari), saying the film was "beautifully inspired by Nigeria and also inclusive of the whole diaspora."
- A now-deleted TikTok video appeared to show Adeyemi writing to Stenberg in a group chat: "Do not ever use my name in an interview or video again. Do not text me. Do not call me."
- The film — whose first trailer dropped Monday — co-written by Adeyemi and starring Regina King, Damson Idris, Cynthia Erivo, Idris Elba, Tosin Cole, Viola Davis, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lashana Lynch and Thuso Mbedu, is heading into its marketing push with its author publicly at war with the production.
Why it matters: Adeyemi co-wrote the screenplay yet says she will never watch the finished product, and her public falling-out with lead actress Amandla Stenberg is erupting just as Paramount kicks off marketing with a first trailer on Monday. The dispute now threatens to overshadow a big-budget adaptation with a sprawling A-list cast at the exact moment the studio is trying to sell it.
