Two girls, two races and one magical espresso that switches the characters’ skin colors for a day and their outlook for the rest of their lives — that is the plot of The Takeover.
Written, directed and produced by alumna Shequeta Smith, the movie represents an important step in her interest in screenwriting that started when she was a student.
Smith said she discovered her love for screenwriting while writing plays freshman year for her theatre class. When her teacher told her she should consider screenwriting, she said her answer was simply, “What is screenwriting?”
“I didn’t pay any attention to it,” Smith said. “It wasn’t until my roommate from freshman year told me she wanted to write for television that I started looking things up on the internet for her and wondered if I could do it myself.”
After her interest was sparked, she wrote a television episode and submitted it to the ABC Fellowship, but nothing happened.
“I started writing a screenplay, finished it, then submitted it to Sundance and found out that I was a finalist, so I thought that maybe I should take this seriously,” Smith said.
After graduating with a degree in sociology, she moved to California in hopes of pursuing a career in the film industry. While there, she finished a short film called The Takeover, which illustrates the difficulties of finding love as an African-American woman. The film features friends Tisha and Ashley who don’t know what it is like to be in each other’s positions until a magical drink switches their bodies and helps them see through their friend’s eyes — literally.
“[Interracial swapping] was always something that my college roommate and I used to talk about.” Smith said. “We used to talk about things like white privilege and discuss what would happen if I were Jennifer and she were Shequeta.”
She realized that the topic of race swapping would come up often in their everyday lives, especially when it came to the topic of dating.
“One day a couple of my friends and I wanted to try online dating, so we put profiles up and almost every black man I would come across would have some kind of disclaimer that would say that they only date Asian girls or they only date Hispanic girls. I was like ‘OK, what is going on?’” Smith said. “So I got off of that because it is one thing to get discriminated upon in person, but this is the Internet. It took it to a whole other level.”
The story is mostly based upon experiences that Smith has had happen in her life and the struggles she has faced.
“Kisha is mostly based off of me, and Ashley is pretty much my college roommate.” Smith said. “They are loosely based off our relationship and how we are together. She is the encouraging, happy-go-lucky type and I am the realist.”
Before The Takeover, Smith worked on the production teams of shows such as Everybody Hates Chris, The Surreal Life and Flavor of Love. Since she moved to California around nine years ago, she has written about 11 scripts.
“I’m just trying to release some things to the Internet to gain momentum,” Smith said. “I’ve been continually writing since I’ve gotten here.”
She is currently working on a musical and a comedy, but film is not the only thing Shequeta is working on these days. She does sales and marketing for a Fortune 500 company as her “day job.”
“The whole entertainment thing is kind of my thing — I’m creative,” said Smith. “But without that, I am still happy because I am able to go out and do sales for this huge company. So it’s a cool job.”
Regardless of what she does to support herself, Smith said she is determined to continue making a career out of what she loves to do.
“Don’t let people tell you what you can and can’t do,” Smith said. “Luckily, I’m stubborn.”
