Netflix’s ‘Weathering’ Director Megalyn Echikunwoke On Bringing Awareness to Black Maternal Health

ME: I didn’t know these stories initially. I had to get an education on the subject. I didn’t know about it, which is why I was so inspired to tell the story. I was like, so shocked. Especially by Serena Williams’ story. I was like, ‘What the f**k?’ And then I started reading all these other stories that I didn’t really see really happening. I honestly felt rage. I was so pissed off. When I was telling people during the development of this project, no one knew these stories. I would tell them the statistics, and I would tell them about the data. No one knew. 

What’s so interesting is that, like now between the time when I started writing this and now, there’s so much more information about it and it is becoming a hot-button issue, which is amazing. That’s God telling me that we need to talk about this. And more people are talking about this. It’s not just me. And what’s even more serendipitous is that during the filming, there were like articles coming out, like front-page articles in The New York Times talking about this stuff. While we were shooting one day, this was only a five-day shoot. And I think one of the days was this was an issue on the front page of The New York Times. And then subsequently, while I was in post and honestly, just about two weeks ago, it was a really big issue, a really big news issue. And people are writing about it and people are talking about it. 

So I feel like the stories, they were buried, but now we’re talking about it. And hopefully, this film is a part of the conversation and it’s more of a dynamic conversation than just Black maternal health. Because mental health is a part of maternal health. And Black people deserve the spectrum of health care. And we deserve people to understand and know this. All of us. Every part of us. And if this project has anything to do with promoting a conversation or cultivating a conversation around mental health, maternal health, all of Black people’s health. I’m so excited. I feel so lucky to be a part of the conversation. In a positive way.