Exclusive: Executive Producer Tracy “Twinkie” Byrd on putting together Lifetime’s Can You Feel the Beat: The Lisa Lisa Story
Airing on Lifetime TV on Saturday, February 1 at 8/7c as part of their Voices of a Lifetime lineup is the premiere of Can You Feel the Beat: The Lisa Lisa Story. The fully authorized biopic follows the journey of singer and actress Lisa Velez (LisaLisa) who rose to fame in the 80s supergroup Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam. Velez both executive produces and stars as her mother along with Jearnest Corchado (Sneaker Heads, Little America) who stars as Lisa Velez, Bre-Z who takes the role of Toni Ménage, and NYC radio personality, Angie Martinez rounds out the cast as Nurse Rodriguez.
The fully authorized biopic tells the story of global phenomenon, Lisa Lisa (Jearnest Corchado) who paved the way for artists like Selena and Jennifer Lopez to shine. As a 15-year-old Puerto Rican girl from Hell's Kitchen, Lisa Velez endured sexism, racism and hid her breast cancer diagnosis to become the first Latina artist to hit multiple music Billboard charts including songs "Can You Feel The Beat," "All Cried Out," and "Lost in Emotion." Lisa's constant companion through her tumultuous ride to the top was her best friend and backup singer, Toni Ménage (Bre-Z). Toni's unwavering support helped Lisa learn how to take control of her professional and personal life. This true-life story of two best friends who refused to allow themselves to be destroyed by the entertainment business is filled with twists and turns and ends triumphantly as the two refused to give up on their dreams.
Can You Feel the Beat: The Lisa Lisa Story is produced by Swirl Films with Tracy “Twinkie” Byrd, Lisa Velez, Toni Ménage, Abbey Sibucao, Ron Robinson and Eric Tomosunas serving as executive producers. Produced in association with GroupM Motion Entertainment with Richard Foster and Chet Fenster serving as executive producers. Tailiah Breon directs from a script by Rebecca Murga.
Blackfilmlandtv.com caught up with executive producer Tracy “Twinkie” Byrd, who is the brains of putting this film together. Byrd is best known as the Casting Director to many music videos, TV, and films including Notorious, Sparkle, Fruitvale Station, Black Nativity, Being Mary Jane, Southside With You, The Clark Sisters: First Ladies of Gospel, and more recently American Skin. As a producer, her projects have include Chrismas Unwrapped, Kirk Franklin’s A Gospel Christmas, The Night Before Christmas, and more recently Young.Wild.Free.
How did this story come about for you?
Tracy “Twinkie” Byrd: It came from me being a fan. The project came from me sitting down and watching, I was inspired by Roxanne Roxanne in 2017 when that film came out on Netflix. And while I was watching that, I was like, okay, Roxanne Roxanne. It was great as a beautiful piece. I said, I want to see a story about Lisa Lisa. I thought someone would do it. I'm like, oh, somebody's going to do a story about Lisa Lisa, but this really needs to be done. And then my mentor, I was like, there needs to be a movie about Lisa Lisa.
My mentor said, well, if you're the one that came up with the thought, then it means it's for you to do. And that is how it came together. And this was before I started producing Christmas movies and projects. I just knew that her story had to be told. I was a huge fan in the eighties. My father was her teacher at Julia Richmond High School. I was watching her music video one day and I was losing my mind. My father just walks into the room so casually. And he was like, that's Lisa. And I said, “Dad, that's Lisa, Lisa.” And he was like, “she's Lisa Velez, my student.” I was like, “no way.” So that's how it happened.
How did it go about in you reaching out to her and getting her approval to do the story?
Tracy “Twinkie” Byrd: I reached out to her and I spoke to her DMs. I went right to the DMS. First I went to her page and I said, check your DMS. And then I went to the DMS and explain because she doesn't follow me. You only have one shot to explain what it is that you want to say to a person and leave it in their inbox until maybe they choose to follow you or they think you're a crackpot or they do their research or whatever. So I had to explain who I was. My father was her teacher. I love her. I love what she has accomplished in her life. Her story needs to be told. Would you be interested? I'm a producer. I did all of that. Didn't hear back. Cricket. Finally did hear back. And she kindly, nicely told me, oh, that's so sweet. “I appreciate you. I don't think anybody wants to hear my story.” She was just so incredibly humble. And I was so taken aback by it. I was like, are you kidding? And, you know, once she responds, then you can, you know, converse. So I went back and forth with her a couple of times. Then I said, OK, let me just leave it alone. Let me back off and relax and see what comes of it. And I went on to to produce a couple of Christmas movies.
Every six months or so, I would touch base with her. And then finally, like five years later, I got a yes in the DMs. Like, let's talk about it. Let's set up a call. Little did I know that the person who was saying, let's talk about it, let's set up a call was actually Toni, Lisa's best friend and manager, who started out as a background singer. It was Toni that said yes. And I thought it was Lisa. But it was Toni. So I'll talk her into it. You just let me know what we need to do. So I spoke to Toni first and then she talked Lisa into it. That's how we got started.
Whenever there is a music biopic, the main thing is the music and having the rights to air the music. Was that an issue when putting this film together?
Tracy “Twinkie” Byrd: Right. Well, the beautiful thing about that when it comes to this project and working with A&E and Lifetime is that they have a music supervisor in-house at Lifetime, A&E. Her name is Jennifer Insogna. And she is the person that went after the music for me. I called her before we were greenlit to see if we can get the music. I was like, “we have to get the music.” You have to do this. You have to. And she said, I have friends. he does this for a living. “I will check into it. I'm going to look into it. Don't worry, Twinkie, don't worry.” That's what she would tell me all the time. “Don't worry, don't worry.” I said, yeah, because you can't have the you can't have a movie without the music. I've seen that before. It doesn't work. It doesn't. Everybody wants to bop to the music because we want it. It's a nostalgia piece. And so it was very important to me. And thankfully, we did. We got the music.
When you're telling this story, the first thing people are going to see for those who don't know her, for those who do know her, is how much of it is correct. From Lisa Lisa to Toni and the band members and others, there’s a lot of moving parts to get as much as you can for the film.
Tracy “Twinkie” Byrd: It just depends on how you're telling the story. So what we were focusing on is Lisa, Lisa and the Cult Jam, the band and who they were and Lisa and Toni, the friendship and sisterhood and who they are. That's what we did. That's what the focus was. And yes, you got the music, but it wasn't about the people who made the music. It was about the people who, created the music. It was about the people who lived the experience of Lisa, Lisa and the Cult Jam.
How much involved were Lisa Lisa and Toni with the script in terms of what to add in and what to take out?
Tracy “Twinkie” Byrd: They involved from day one. They were involved with the script from the top to the bottom. And I kept them abreast of things that we had to take out or things that we had to edit down for time, things that we had to things that we had to allude to, but we couldn't show fully. There was a lot of parts of the story that truly came from them. They sat there with our amazing writer, Rebecca Murga, another Latina. She's a Puerto Rican woman from Chicago. They sat with her. They had meeting after meeting, Zoom after Zoom, and they talked. They talked through so many things.
It was such a long script because Rebecca tried to put everything into this movie. Then we had to go to editing and seeing “does this move the story forward? Does this work? Seeing kids break dancing on the street? Is that really important for the time? Well, yes it is. It's because this is what was happening. Seeing them do their laundry. Is that really important for the script? Can we show that somewhere else? Yes. Yes, we can. We worked through a number of different things, but the story is their story for sure.
Then there is the casting of Lisa Lisa. As a casting director yourself, did you do it or did somebody else find Jearnest?
Tracy “Twinkie” Byrd: I did the casting for the top five roles. Then I hired the local casting director and I was the one who went through every single take and chose from the local casting director, Laquanda Platt. So it was me. I found Jearnest. I was watching Sneakerheads and I saw her and I lost my mind. This was years before we were greenlit. I kept calling her agents and I couldn't tell them what the project was. But I was like, please put her on watch and advise for me. I know you don't know. I don't have dates, nothing. I just want to know if this girl books anything, just text me, email me something, because I just don't want it to conflict with what it is that I have going on. And they were like, well, Twinkie, what do you have going on? And I was like, I can't tell you yet, but it's good. So I have wanted Jearnest for two years before before we did the movie. And I've just been watching, watching her, watching her grow, watching her change, watching her, watching her online, following her on social media. So I was lurking around, keeping an eye on her.
And then Bre-Z. Oh, my goodness. Toni and I talked and Tony was like, I want Bre-Z. I want Breezy. She calls her Breezy. I want Breezy. Do you think we could get Bre-Z? And I was like, yeah, let's call her. Let's see what she says. And so I texted Bre-Z personally. Of course, she knew who Lisa Lisa, and the Cult Jam were. And she was like, “I'm down as long as it doesn't conflict with my dates on All American. I'm interested. Send me the script.” And I was like, we don't even have a script yet. I kept her abreast of every move that I made as it was moving forward before it was greenlit.
Did you want Jearnest because you saw her earlier? Did you want her to sing? Or were you going to take care of that later?
Tracy “Twinkie” Byrd: I was hoping that she would sing because I saw her on Instagram singing. But the tone that Lisa has, Jearnest does not have. I learned that later on. So it was really about the acting, much like Angela Bassett and ‘What's love got to do with it.’ It's really about the life of Lisa. The performances are in there for sure. Her singing in the booth and all of that kind of stuff. Those things are in there. But it was going to be about who Lisa is as a person. And I needed a really strong actress. And that is Jearnest.
Lisa Lisa herself is in the movie as well as Angie Martinez. Is this is this the first time for both of them?
Tracy “Twinkie” Byrd: No, actually Lisa Velez was a series regular on a television show called Taina, where she played Christina Vidal's mom on the show. And the young lady was a pop star. She was the mom of a young Puerto Rican pop star. And I believe that was on Nickelodeon or Disney. She's also done an episode of Law and Order. Lisa has been acting before. Angie Martinez was in Brown Sugar playing herself. Angie has played herself in a number of different projects before. When I asked her to be Nurse Rodriguez, I really I went to her and I said, I want you to be like the surrogate mom that Lisa won't call because her character will not call her mom and tell her what's going on. So I need you to be like the mother figure that she needs at the time when she's learning the worst news of her life. And Angie just got it. She is a mom. She brought that mother quality out and you see it in her eyes. She nailed it. It was just so beautifully done. So no, it's not their first time doing what they do, but they did it beautifully, both of them.
What do you want people to get out of from seeing this film?
Tracy “Twinkie” Byrd: I want to inspire sisterhood and relationships between women that are strong and supportive. Support is a verb. Lisa supported Toni and Toni supports Lisa. And it's just a beautiful bond that they had, that they grew into, and that they still have to this day. Now, Tony is full fledged Lisa's manager. She created a screening the other night that was out of this world. This woman's mind is so creative and she does it for the love of her own craft as a recording artist. Toni Menage was a recording artist before Lisa. She had a record deal at 14 years old. If you look it up, she's Toni Marsh. That was that's the reason why she knew all of the things that Lisa was going through because she had been through it and got burned. And she was trying to keep Lisa from going through the same thing that she went through. She saw herself in Lisa. And for Lisa, that was her confidant. That was the only person that was around her that she could talk to and bounce things off of.
So I want the audience to take away the joy of that music, the nostalgia of the time, the energy, the vibration of the 80s and the sisterhood and the bond of two best friends and soul sisters, Lisa and Toni.