Tomi Adeyemi, the author of Children of Blood and Bone, has described the process of adapting her novel for the big screen as “the worst thing I have ever had to live through”.
In a five-minute video on TikTok, the author said she left the set of the Paramount production “hyperventilating and sobbing”, adding: “I never want to hear about this project again”.
Adeyemi’s TikTok Statement
Adeyemi, who co-wrote the screenplay for the film, had previously spoken about her concerns surrounding the adaptation, saying that she wasn’t intending to watch the film. The video she posted on TikTok was intended, she said, to try to put the affair to bed, although the author conceded it might prolong the story. She also said that the people involved with the film had continued to “antagonise” her.
“What I’m about to share is not a secret to the people involved,” she said. “It’s a reality that I’ve had to live with for about a year and a half, and everyone involved, at least at the highest level, has been made aware of this reality, and they haven’t done anything to make it better. If anything, they’ve only antagonised me, and I accept that. But I also accept if I don’t say something, I think it’s just going to be worse.”
She continued: “I’m not going to speak on what I endured to make it through the young adult trilogy, and I’m not going to speak about everything that I also suffered through or endured to make the adaptation a reality.
“I’m actually only going to speak about what happened after I left that set of my own film adaptation, hyperventilating and sobbing. There are many witnesses, so it’s not really a secret. I came back to America and suffered such severe somatic pain and so many panic attacks. I knew it was so bad that I would never ever be able to watch this film, and I made peace with that.”
Allusions to Casting Controversy
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times earlier this week, director Gina Prince-Bythewood appeared to allude to a casting controversy involving Amandla Stenberg, who portrays Princess Amari in the film.
Prince-Bythewood said the adaptation was “beautifully inspired by Nigeria and also inclusive of the whole diaspora. We wanted all of us to be able to see ourselves within this, just our complete and utter humanity, all the beautiful hues.”
While the actor and novelist seemed close last spring, it looks as if a subsequent disagreement soured relations considerably. A now-deleted TikTok video posted by the writer appeared to show a group chat including Stenberg, to whom Adeyemi wrote: “Do not ever use my name in an interview or video again. Do not text me. Do not call me.”
Cast and Marketing
The film also stars Regina King, Damson Idris, Cynthia Erivo, Idris Elba, Tosin Cole, Viola Davis, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lashana Lynch and Thuso Mbedu.
Prince-Bythewood was speaking at an event to mark the release of a first trailer for the film on Monday, which appears to have acted as an additional prompt to Adeyemi to speak out again.
“As it is being marketed,” she said on TikTok, “and as I am still being antagonised behind the scenes, which is where I hoped all of this would stay, it’s become apparent to me that reality needs to at least be made known, so that you guys can understand how this film, which I worked on to make it a little better for us to be alive, is also the worst thing I have ever had to live through.”
