Malynda Hale on Bringing Humanity To The Screen in Bull Street

Malynda Hale has built a career at the intersection of music, acting and storytelling, bringing a passion for the arts to both sides of the camera. Now, she brings that passion to Bull Street, in which she stars alongside Loretta Devine and Oscar winner Amy Madigan. For Hale, the film offered both a deeply personal character and the chance to learn from two veteran actresses.

”She’s really fueled by her mother, and fueled by her grandmother and the legacy in the history of her family,” Hale says of her character, LouEster Sadie Gibbs. A small-town lawyer, LouEster was raised by her grandmother, Mrs. Big-Gal (Loretta Devine, Waiting To Exhale, Crash). When an Ivy League attorney and LouEster’s half-sister, Kendra (Arielle Prepetit), challenge the family’s claim to their longtime home and land, LouEster is drawn into a courtroom battle over privilege, legacy and what it means to protect one’s birthright. 

For Hale, the role offered an opportunity to explore a woman discovering just how much she has to fight for and knowing what she’s fighting for is more than just land. “It’s more than just a house. And I think one of the reasons I was drawn to the character was her fight but also the relationship that she had with the grandmother,” Hale says. As the story unfolds, however, LouEster finds her strength, fueled by her mother, her grandmother and the history of her family. That connection to family was one of the things that initially drew Hale to the character. LouEster’s close relationship with her grandmother reminded Hale of her own relationship with her mother, which she describes as “very close-knit, playful banter but doing things together, going through life together.” It was a dynamic that allowed Hale to find something personal within the character and the story.

Hale’s path to acting began with another form of performance. “I actually started out as a singer,”  Hale says. Growing up singing in church, she developed a love of music and was inspired by performers including Whitney Houston, Audra McDonald and Heather Headley. Musical theater eventually introduced Hale to acting, leading her toward film and television, appearing in commercials. “It incorporates all of the things that I love, from characters to story to adding music to the vision of a shot and how it all comes together,” Hale says.

The role in Bull Street came about when writer-director Lynn Dow discovered Hale’s reel on the website Actors Access. Dow told Hale that Devine and Madigan (who plays Judge Mary-Ann Motley, who presides over the case) were attached, and that was more than enough to get Hale interested in the project and take a look at the script. “I fell in love with the character and with the story,” Hale says. After a private session with Dow, Hale booked the role. “Within two weeks, I was flying to South Carolina to film,” Hale says. “It really was one of those just serendipitous things that was meant to be. I’m so glad I had my reel.”

Working alongside Devine and Madigan proved to be an education in itself. “It was a masterclass in acting,” Hale says. “Watching the experts at work and seeing how they interpreted the text, how they would change different things during different takes. They would even encourage different things for the actors. They were just so wonderful and so giving.” Hale can’t speak highly enough of her co-stars and has maintained a close relationship with both. “Obviously, when you’re doing this kind of work, you wanna have a scene partner that has a lot of give and take. And they’re both at the top of their field. So it was a learning experience for me in the best way possible.”

That sort of experience is precisely what Hale is striving to bring to her fellow artists through her production company, JMV Entertainment. “I’m huge on showcasing marginalized voices and experiences and trying to make them more mainstream,” she says. Hale’s goal is to develop projects centered on authentic and meaningful storytelling, creating stories that are “authentic and that are healing and that are universal, regardless of who is telling them. There are archetypes of thinking that only certain stories are meant for certain demographics,” Hale explains. “But I believe that a story is a story, and anybody can relate to something that is the human experience. And that’s something that I’m really passionate about.

Whether she’s in front of the camera or shaping stories behind it, Hale is determined to keep telling “really, really passionate human stories” — stories rooted in authenticity, driven by empathy and capable of reaching beyond the boundaries of any one audience. For Hale, that isn’t simply the work; it’s the reason for doing it.

Read more film interviews by Patrick Gibbs:
John D’Aquino on Sugar Season Two and the Craft of Acting
The Buzz Around Angelina LookingGlass and The Rivals of Amziah King

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