![]() ![]() The stage of the career that I’m at, you start to think about your legacy. PACKER: I haven’t really quite been able to put into words yet. Your alma mater, FAMU, recently named an amphitheater in your honor for the work you’ve done. I just try to show real depictions of African American life. That’s not true and that’s not realistic, but you also can’t just show them as completely imperfect, unintelligent, and shiftless. You don’t have to just show Black people as perfect super human beings. I like to see, especially Black people, as our full selves. I start thinking about who I’m making the show for and how they want to see themselves or a journey that they want to take with characters or storylines that can be either provoking or inspiring or aspirational. PACKER: I always think about the audience, honestly. What’s the secret to your approach and success? Going back to Oprah’s point, a lot of movies and shows do rely on “mess” to build and audience and you never have. I’ll wait for the right to dynamic to happen.” D.C., you’re not seeing that. They see something they want, they go get it, because that’s a little bit of the culture of D.C.Ītlanta and Houston were Southern cities - a little bit slower, a little bit like “what’s for me is for me, I’ll wait for things to come to me. It’s a very competitive environment and what you’re going to see is that these people bring that same competition that they bring from the political arena, to the show. They are ambitious because you have so many people that work in government and in the political realm and those are people that oftentimes are go-getters. PACKER: Every city has its own flavor, and D.C. ![]() We definitely have a core audience that loves the show and it’s getting bigger every week. And we have people from the show that have actually found love and stayed together, and some folks that met when the cameras were on, got together when the cameras were off. And sometimes that makes for good television, but I’m super proud of the fact that now we have gone to multiple cities, multiple seasons and have had a host of people. I’m not saying that older people don’t act a complete fool at times, because they do. These would be adults.” It’s a little bit different when you have 20-somethings, you don’t really know what you want in a relationship. I said: “Queen O, I got you.” I said, “It’s going be fun drama, but it’s not going be the same kind of mess because these would be grown people. We don’t do stuff on this network that they might do on some other networks.” And she said, “I like this idea of yours Will, but it can’t be no mess. I had not done an unscripted show before. I went to her house and we were talking about ideas for shows that I could make for her. WILL PACKER: I actually pitched Oprah on this show herself. And even as he made a foray from scripted television shows like Being Mary Jane into reality TV with Ready To Love and Put a Ring On It, Packer has steered clear of negative stereotypical portrayals of Black men and women while still allowing their most authentic selves to shine through.Īs audiences continue to watch the love connections between the singles in the latest season of Ready To Love play out on OWN TV, we had a chance to chat with Packer about conceiving the show - and pitching directly to Oprah Winfrey, how Florida A&M University prepared him for success in the entertainment industry, and producing the 94th Academy Awards in 2022. We’ve witnessed family and friendship in movies like This Christmas and Stomp The Yard. For more than 20 years, the producer and founder of Will Packer Productions and Will Packer Media has shown us Black love from films such as Think Like A Man all the way up to last year’s The Photograph. ![]() If there’s one person in Hollywood whom you can say, unequivocally, has Black folks’ backs, it’s Will Packer. ![]()
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