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Margaret Hargrove: Hi, I am Audible Editor Margaret Hargrove. And I'm thrilled to be here today with Malcolm D. Lee, the brilliant writer and director behind The Best Man franchise, and now the author of the new novel, The Best Man: Unfinished Business. Hi, Malcolm, and welcome to Audible.

MDL: Hello, good morning. How are you?

MH: The Best Man premiered in 1999 and is a rom-com classic. It starred Taye Diggs as novelist Harper Stewart, who reunites with his college buddies for one particularly dramatic wedding weekend. Fourteen years later, the sequel, The Best Man Holiday, premiered. And then in 2022, there was the Peacock miniseries, The Best Man: The Final Chapters. Malcolm, you've lived with these characters for more than 25 years; they probably feel like old friends to you at this point. What's it been like growing up alongside them?

MDL: It's interesting. They have become real, I think, for a lot of people. They have become real. I mean, I think for me also, they started in a place where there's similarities or amalgams of friends of mine, and now they've taken on their own lives and journeys. So, they're not the people they started out being, you know? I don't think any of us are. We're all different as we grow up and evolve and mature.

And so, like, growing up alongside The Best Man characters has been a real joy and a journey. I'm honestly surprised that it has lasted this long, to be quite honest with you. I didn't anticipate this when I wrote and directed my first movie. I just wanted to make what I thought might be a classic. And then, to do a sequel and a miniseries, and now a book, or a three-book series. It's pretty incredible. Remarkable.

MH: You've been on a big book tour; you traveled from New York City to New Orleans to Detroit and beyond. Now that Unfinished Business has been out for a few weeks, what's been the reception and feedback from Best Man fans?

MDL: It's been overwhelmingly positive. You know, people are reading it [laughs]. They're reading it like they binge-watch a television show, you know? They are just staying in it; they're doing it in 24-hours, 48-hours. And people really love what they're reading. We've got, you know, a 4.7 or a 4.6 on Amazon, as well as Goodreads. So, people are very engaged by what they're seeing and reading and experiencing. So, that's a beautiful thing. And that's all I could have hoped for, to be quite honest with you.

MH: So, after two hit movies and a successful TV show, why did a book series feel like the next step in continuing the journey of these beloved characters?

MDL: Yeah. It really wasn't... You know, it's just like The Best Men characters, the storytelling has shifted and evolved and pivoted. I felt like after Best Man Final Chapters that we were finished, because honestly, it's very difficult to mount a television show with those caliber of actors, um, and deal with network demands, studio demands, structures of television, the algorithms of the streamer. And I just wanted to tell the story. I've always just been a storyteller. So, I felt, okay, we're done. There's no more story to tell; I don't wanna do anymore.

"I've always loved the written word, and I've often fantasized about writing a novel—'cause you can't put everything into a movie."

But then as the smoke cleared and the dust settled, a friend of mine who's a screenwriter said, “Yo! You're in such a great place, you should do a Best Man book.”

I've always loved the written word, and I've often fantasized about writing a novel—'cause you can't put everything into a movie. You can't put everything into a television show. So, the novel space allows you to have much more space and be expansive in the storytelling. And so I said, "Well, let me try my hand at it." And I pitched it, a three-book series, and Storehouse Voices said: "Yes, we'll do that."

And, you know, I teamed up with Jayne Allen to do it. And I thought, “Okay, this is a good way to really get kind of in the weeds a little bit with each character.” By dedicating each chapter to their POV and really kind of get into the psyche of the inner lives of these characters—which I thought was necessary particularly for some characters.

I think there are people who, um, I dunno if they've misunderstood or misinterpreted Robyn or Harper or even Jordan. Now, this gives us a greater understanding of who they are as people and where they came from and what their inner voices are. So, I thought, “Okay, this is a great opportunity to do that.” And it's a way for me to exercise that novel muscle.

MH: So, after writing so many screenplays, what was the difference in your process of writing the book versus your screenplay?

MDL: It's much more freeing. I will say [laughs], you know, screenplays pay more. But, I mean, that's okay. There's a reason why movies are what they are. But, you know, it was a very freeing, creative endeavor. You get to be, um, not just expansive in the inner lives of these characters, but you get to go to places and travel to places. You know, this book takes place in four different cities, two different continents. I relished the opportunity to do so. And it was a great creative experience and endeavor. Particularly in working with Jayne Allen, who, you know, is an accomplished writer in her own right.

And it was good to collaborate with a Black woman, number one, and then someone who had her wealth of life experience that I thought was really gonna be additive to these characters. So yeah, it was a great place to explore and a great sandbox to play in.

MH: You mention Jayne Allen, who's your co-author on Unfinished Business. She wrote the much-celebrated book and series Black Girls Must Die Exhausted. So how did you two team up and what was it like working together?

MDL: Well, I knew I couldn't do this myself. I do have a day job, and, you know, I needed a collaborator. I read a number of authors, including Jayne. I liked her writing. We had an interview. And again, I really liked her world and experience. She had gone to Duke University. She had gone to Harvard Law. You know, she worked for Prince for a little while. She worked in the music industry. She built businesses. She had a wealth of experience. I really liked that aspect.

But the thing that got me was the question she asked me—because I had a bunch of questions for her—and then she said to me, "Okay, I have a question." I said, "Okay, what is it?" And she said, "Well, why are you doing this?" And I said, "Well, I wanted to, you know, explore this side of myself and try novel writing."

"No, but what is the reason?" And I was like, "I'm not sure I understand the question. I think I answered it." And she said, "Do you wanna win?" And I was like, "Huh." I love that question. I didn't even know exactly what it meant, but I liked the mentality.

And she was really asking was I gonna be 100 percent in trying to make something that was culturally impactful and not just be like, okay, well, you know, I might just dabble in this thing. And I said, "Yeah, I wanna win." So, you know, working with her, we have a very similar work ethic and drive and a desire to push one another, a desire to make something great.

She has a whole thing about healing Black people, and healing Black women, in particular, through writing. And I think that's kind of what my ministry has been as well. I mean, my ministry has been normalizing Black life in America. Is to humanize, you know, Black life in America—particularly when it comes to Black men. And so we had quite a collaboration that spanned months and some timelines. She was in L.A.; I was in New York. Then she was in Detroit, and then I was in South Africa [laughs]. You know, I was in Ghana at a certain point doing research. But she's very dedicated andserious about her craft and wanting to make it good. And I really wanted to make sure that, that this was a literary and cinematic experience.

MH: So, Unfinished Business picks up where The Final Chapter series ended. It's also the first book of a planned trilogy, like you mentioned. Why did you decide to focus on Harper, Jordan, and Robyn to start?

MDL: I think, number one, Harper is the “best man,” right? And, uh, I wanted to certainly explore life for him when he's gotten to what he thought was the pinnacle of his career. What he was trying to achieve, winning the Pulitzer Prize, getting critical success. But he's alone, you know. His wife Robyn has gone to Ghana and is raising their preteen daughter, Mia, and she's opened a restaurant. And I wanted to just explore that dynamic, one. And then Jordan has always been that person, the “will they, won't they” side of this best man story. And I think fans wanted to know that question, right?

So I wanted to explore with these three characters because they are kind of the love triangle, the crux of, or one of the cruxes of this story. Obviously Best Man is a lot about brotherhood as well and bromance, and that has elements in this first book. But I wanted to concentrate on these three characters and dedicate chapters to each one of them. And we are gonna do the same thing in subsequent books, getting to explore Lance and his new bride, and Quentin and Shelby, and Murch and Candace and their inner lives as well.

MH: Oh, good. That was that my next question [laughs].

MDL: The idea really was to, you know, tell this story and tie it up with Harper, Robyn, and Jordan. But, um, as the story and the characters dictate, and as I told you, they kind of have taken on a life of their own. Even with me, they're like, “This is where we're going.” And so we didn't plan on continuing their stories and give them, you know, POVs in the next chapter of the next two books, but we're going to, because the characters and the story dictated that we did.

MH: Cool. So, like you mentioned, Unfinished Business opens with Harper coming off his Pulitzer Prize win, enjoying the perks of the bachelor life in his Brooklyn penthouse.

MDL: Mm-hmm.

MH: He's also working on the outline for his Hollywood sequel. How did you approach Harper's arc as far as what success and accountability looks like for Black men in high-achieving spaces?

MDL: You know, first, it's funny, like, I didn't think of him as a Black man necessarily, but it was Harper and he's all... And by the way, yes, The Best Man characters are all Black, but their stories and their, um, hangups are all universal. And so I wanted to have a mirror put up to Harper to say like, “Okay, here's what you wanted, and you've gotten it. Are you satisfied? Are you happy?” And he is not, right? He's enjoying, you know, the fruits of his labor in many different ways. He's successful. He's got a, you know, a number of women that he's dating. Um, he no longer fits into his friend group in the same way. And he misses that. He feels kicked out of his life.

"Jayne has a whole thing about healing Black people, and healing Black women, in particular, through writing. And I think that's kind of what my ministry has been as well."

He feels like things don't fit anymore. And he's co-parenting from afar. So, things are fractured, but he's all—he's got a healthy ego. And even though on the outside he's probably like, “Well, I did the right thing,” on the inside, he's churning. He's like, maybe I made a mistake. Maybe I didn't fight hard enough. Maybe I should have been more compromising. So, I think he has a lot of emotional growth in this movie about what he needs to do to be in a relationship that is reciprocal and, where one is not always the flower, but one who has to be the gardener. That's a huge part of his journey and his emotional growth.

It's so funny 'cause, you know, there's so many women that have read the book [laughs], they're like, "Oh, I just wanted to shake Harper sometimes." And [laughs] you're probably one of them! And I'm just like, "Oh, that's, you know, give the man space to grow, you know. He'll get there."

So it's very interesting. Even in the writing process with Jayne and our editor Chelsea, there were times when, you know, they would challenge me. They would push where I wanted to pull and vice versa. I think by the end of it, it did end up with a great result and a great ending of an arc for Harper as well. That wasn't the plan initially—or at least not in the way that it turns out. But when we started asking the tough questions and having other characters hold him accountable—like his boys, they love him, but they're also gonna hold him accountable. And that comes with growth, and that comes with maturity as well.

I always wanna protect my male characters, always. He's number one, even though he's very deeply flawed—any good character is.

MH: You mentioned wanting to shake him, and this is like unrelated to anything, but when the daughter reaches out to him—

MDL: Mm-hmm.

MH: ...and says, "Oh, I need you to come." That whole, from my perspective as a mom, I felt like if he had just taken a second to call Robyn to be like, “Hey, let me just check in and see what's...” He just, like, bought a plane ticket and got on the plane! And I'm like, what are you doing? [Laughs].

MDL: No. And Jayne and I had those discussions also.

MH: Okay.

MDL: And, you know, I think as a man, as a Black man in particular—one who's about his business and about, like, you know, I think somewhat about his “image,” but also wanting to protect and love his daughter and make sure that he's always there for her—he would do anything for her at any time. He never wants to be the dude that's, like, oh, deadbeat dad, or, like, absentee father or whatever. Yes, it's very irrational, but he's like, I'm not gonna be that dude, right? I’ll deal with this; I'll deal with my ex-wife's rant or whatever. My daughter needs me; I'm there.

MH: Right.

MDL: That's the only thing he's thinking.

MH: Got it. There're also recurring themes of self-care, meditation and therapy in the story, particularly as it relates to Black women. Jordan, for example, is very different than how most of us remember her. She's said goodbye to the busy corporate grind and is living her best life in Malibu. Why was this an important narrative to include?

MDL: Well, I think self-care and the image persona of the strong Black woman that Jordan epitomizes, I wanted to explore, right? I think we have certainly, in our community, destigmatized the idea of therapy and self-help and self-care. And, you know, Jordan decided to choose herself at the end of Best Man: Final Chapter. By the way, so did Robyn. They made very, I guess, revolutionary and radical decisions for themselves. And I wanted to explore that. I mean, Jordan, we get to explore her backstory: Where she came from; how she grew up; who her parents are. And why she is always about the grind and has always been about the grind. And the grind is still pulling her, 'cause she wants to have something.

She doesn't know anything else because she's always led with her head and not, never with her heart. And now she's like, “Well, maybe I need to balance that out.” And she's going reluctantly, you know. She wasn't going headfirst into therapy. She wanted to, you know, "I don't know if I need this." But then she found the right fit. And again, it's a push-pull for her because it's so much about exposing yourself and being vulnerable. And Jordan Armstrong has never really done that.

MH: Mm-hmm.

MDL: And then, it has bitten her in the butt. So we wanted to explore that. We wanted to do the same thing with Robyn, where she had to find herself, you know, and find her purpose and lean into it and not feel guilty about it or not feel inadequate about who she was and what she wanted.

She was disgruntled with, not only her marriage, but the country in which she was born. And said, “I don't wanna fight here anymore. I don't wanna be, um, devalued on a daily basis. I wanna be someplace where, you know, I can feel love.”

"I always wanna protect my male characters, always. Harper's number one, even though he's very deeply flawed—any good character is."

Now, it's not always smooth in Accra, Ghana. But she does feel a sense of home at this place, at this point. So, yeah, we really wanted to explore that 'cause I think these are the things that "strong Black women," uh, grapple with, you know. Like, “Am I enough? I don't need anything else. I don't need anybody else.” And, you know, I think these are themes that we wanted to explore and hold up the mirror to the reader.

MH: Accra feels like another character in the story. You've mentioned it a few times. The sights and sounds and smells of Ghana are so vivid and real. Had you spent a lot of time in Ghana to get these details right?

MDL: Prior to the first draft of the book, no. You know, when we were crafting the outline and crafting the first draft, Jayne was like, "We should go to Ghana." And I was like, "Yeah, you're right." I knew some people from Ghana. I was talking to some people from Ghana that I knew and that had been there, that have lived there. And, you know, it's just not the same. And so, right as we finished the first draft I got myself on a plane. We were both gonna go, but those tickets are not cheap, and I wasn't gonna be funding the whole trip. I was like, “You know what, Jayne, I'll go.” And so I spent about a week to 10 days there and really got a much more holistic view of the country.

Stepping foot on the soil, interacting with the people, smelling the air, being in the place where my ancestors were snatched from the shores, and in a city, in a country that is on the rise was a great place to be in and explore and absorb life. So, I wanted to make sure I got that infused with the narrative. So, when we came back... Robyn's story got much more full and layered.

MH: Oh, it feels like you spent longer than a week there. [Laughs]

MDL: I'm a great observer.

MH: Cool. You have a dream team of narrators for Unfinished Business: Jakobi Diem, January LaVoy, and Zenzi Williams. How did you cast the narrators? It's interesting that we have the same characters, but now with different voices. How is it hearing these characters you know and love performed by these narrators?

MDL: I'm fine with it, you know. Like, I think there may be a disconnect for folks because they're picturing the other folks. I think regardless of how you consume the book, it's gonna be a great experience. And these actors are fantastic in their depictions of these characters. It's actually a nice, you know, change of pace, to tell you the truth. It's a different format, so we're gonna have to get used to it over the next two books. Or read it, read it for yourself.

MH: Are you planning to use the same narrators for all three books?

MDL: We'll see.

MH: Okay.

MDL: You know, I'm so new to this space that it's a constantly moving train and a constant involvement for me as a creator and as an author to say, “Oh, well, huh, this is an interesting element or whatever, you know.” But so far, so good.

MH: So, let's talk about the cliffhanger at the end of Unfinished Business.

MDL: Is there a cliffhanger?

MH: I mean, is there? [Laughs].

MDL: Are you left wanting more, Margaret?

MH: I mean, I don't even know what to say other than when will we get book two, and is that tomorrow?

MDL: [Laughs] I'll answer your questions. No, it is not gonna be tomorrow. When will we get book two? We're working on it.

MH: Okay.

MDL: We are diligently working on it. And we're very excited. We're in a very good place. We are gonna, you know, tell a lot of different stories. Book two is gonna focus on Lance and Jasmine. We're gonna get a new voice that we haven't heard before. Jasmine and her working-class, Caribbean background and adjusting to life as a superstar's second wife. Lance's new journey as a football coach, still rearing his children and sharing those duties with someone else. Murch and Candace and their new endeavors in the school that he's built. And he's being offered something that's even, um, bigger and decided whether he's gonna take it.

And raising two teenage daughters. And teenagers have their own way of thinking about life and, you know, how life is coming at them. And is education really worth it? Do I need to go to school? I'm disgruntled with it. And things that they post on social media that could get their parents in trouble. So, you know, we're gonna be exploring all those things. Plus, there's much to explore between Robyn, Harper, and Jordan still, and what's gonna happen, um, with that dynamic.

MH: I can't wait to see. I have thoughts, but I don't wanna pretend to know—because I think it could go the other way. I'll be surprised either way. Has anyone from The Best Man cast read the book? What have they had to say about it?

MDL: Yeah. All three—Taye, Morris [Chestnut], and Harold [Perrineau]—have all read it. They all are really big fans of it. Harold, in particular, was very effusive in his praise. He was, like, you know, “You are Harper Stewart. I think you're a better author than him.” So, it's great to get that feedback. Yet to hear from anyone else, but they'll get to it in their own time.

MH: Mm-hmm. So, other than the finishing out the rest of the book trilogy, what's next for you?

MDL: I'm still making movies, still developing television shows. I'm still developing movies. I'm in the midst of editing my latest picture. It's an erotic thriller with Blumhouse and should come out early spring, I think. We haven't set a date. But it's very exciting. It's something that's new for me, a new genre. And it's kind of fun. It's with Lynn Whitfield and Chloe Bailey.

MH: Mm. I heard you're also working on the adaptation of my girl Kennedy Ryan's book series, the Skyland series.

MDL: Yeah. We're developing that as well, along with John Legend and Debra Martin Chase. We're in the midst of figuring it all out. It's very exciting because it has such a robust fan base and, you know, we want to get it right. It’s a beautiful story between two lovers who lost their way and divorce was necessary in order for them to get back to each other.

MH: Cool. Well, thank you, Malcolm, so much for being here today. Thank you for continuing the story of The Best Man and bringing these beloved characters to our listening libraries. Listeners, The Best Man: Unfinished Business is now available on Audible.

MDL: Alright. Thank you.