The Perfect Guy: Sanaa Lathan & Michael Ealy Interview

Actors Sanaa Lathan and Michael Ealy have been fixtures in Hollywood for nearly two decades. Audiences have watched the two evolve as actors as they’ve moved freely through comedy, drama and romance in both television and film—The Following, About Last Night, Barbershop and Think Like a Man for him, and Boss, The Best Man franchise, Love and Basketball, and Brown Sugar for her. Their consistent performances, gorgeous looks and bankable box office has helped to secure their artistic space in an industry that can sometimes be fickle and precarious for African-American actors.

Now they have joined forces as co-stars and producers of the highly anticipated thriller The Perfect Guy, which has been likened to the cult classic Fatal Attraction.

“Comparing our film to an exceptional film like Fatal Attraction is a real compliment to us because that was one of the films that was an inspiration for us,” says Lathan. “It’s a classic suspense, [a] sexy thriller that really shocked the world when it came out. It was done so well, so that set the bar for us.”

Lathan and Ealy’s ability to work together in front of and behind the camera is on full display as they finish each other’s sentences and use words like “we” and “us” when interviewed about the film. Roughly four years ago, Executive Producer Clint Culpeper pitched the script to Lathan over dinner, and she loved it.

“It’s very rare for someone to go scene by scene of a script over dinner and actually keep your attention the entire time. I was on the edge of my seat and kept asking, ‘And then what happens?’” Lathan was excited about the project and said she was interested in seeing where it went, knowing in Hollywood that this type of excitement is often just that—excitement and not much else.

“Three years later, Clint calls me out of the blue and says he has the script. [Michael and I] came aboard the project pretty early, so we helped develop it, which is how we became producers on the film,” she says.

Ealy elaborates. “It was important to go behind the camera, take the script and make it into something that we all wanted to be a part of,” he says. “Developing the script created an experience and a process that is something that I’ll never forget.”