Gabrielle Union Discusses ‘Authenticity’ in ‘The Inspection’ Behind-the-Scenes Clip (Exclusive)

The Inspection, a moving drama starring Gabrielle Union and Jeremy Pope (Pose, One Night in Miami) is now available to own on Blu-ray and DVD. In support of the film’s home video release, PopCulture.com has an exclusive behind-the-scenes clip, which can be seen above. The clip features the cast members and the film’s writer/director Elegance Bratton discussing many important aspects of The Inspection, including its level of “authenticity” and how well Pope is able to capture the “yearning” of his character.

In The Inspection, Poe plays Ellis French a young, gay Black man whose story is inspired by Bratton’s real-life experience. Ellis is “rejected by his mother [Union] and with few options for his future, decides to join the Marines, doing whatever it takes to succeed in a system that would cast him aside. But even as he battles deep-seated prejudice and the grueling routines of basic training, he finds unexpected camaraderie, strength, and support in this new community, giving him a hard-earned sense of belonging that will shape his identity and forever change his life.

“Gabrielle is a beautiful human,” Pope says of his on-screen mother in the exclusive behind-the-scenes clip. “I think the work that she’s doing is very special. I just wanted to be very present and available for her to connect and to find the nuances. Because I do think this relationship between french and his mom is very interesting and layered and we wanted to hopefully infuse that into the characters as much as we could.” 

Speaking about playing opposite Pope as her son, Union offers, “Jeremy brought a level of authenticity that is visceral. I still feel it to this day. It’s like the performance hasn’t ended. He will always be my child. He humanized the yearning or connection. The yearning to fit in the yearning for your mother’s love and attention and validation and sexual desire.”

Finally, Bratton speaks on what it was like working with Pope, explaining, “What you are experiencing in the audience when you see the result of that labor is the sacred space that Jeremy and I shared in the creation of French, who definitely get to start from me but finds his home in Jeremy. The clip then ends with a scene from the film in which Ellis tearfully expresses why he chose to join the military. “The streets was gonna kill me no matter what? So if I die in this uniform, I’m a hero. Somebody.”