Rosario Dawson Boarded ‘Kiss My Grass' Doc To Spotlight Black Women 'Risking All' In Cannabis — Tribeca
As an executive producer and the narrator of Kiss My Grass, a documentary short that premiered last week at Tribeca Film Festival, exploring the underlying roots of racial injustice and inequity in the cannabis space, the actress opened up to Deadline about how seeing the war on drugs 'devastate entire communities' made her want to participate in the project.
More from Deadline
Tribeca Festival 2025 Unveils Expanded Shorts Program With Dedicated Screening Room
Rosario Dawson Will Have 'Unmerciful Good Fortune'
'Rosemead' Review: Lucy Liu Scores As A Suburban Mom Forced To Confront The Unthinkable - Tribeca Festival
'I grew up around a lot of potheads, including my parents. It was always a thing,' she explained. 'My dad's a white guy and he could grow his weed out on the fire escape. My mom was like, 'OK, that's crazy, you can't do that with the kids.''
Dawson continued, 'But he just grew up in Texas, and kind of just did whatever he wanted, and he always behaved that way. And I understood, and so did my mom, and so did the rest of us in the community, that that was a luxury and a privilege that he had, and that he didn't have any other personal experiences, except for through his friends and his family and people, that this war on drugs had done to devastate entire communities.'
Noting that her father was part Indigenous, Dawson explained 'he felt like it was his right, it was something natural.'
'It was incredible being on that journey with him, from watching him when I was a kid,' she added. 'And just feeling like he was privileged to be in California when he got cancer, being able to talk to his doctor and get off of six different medications they wanted to put him on, that he could just use weed for his nausea, for his pain, for his sleeping, and have that conversation directly with his doctor and to see that transformation.'
It was an equally personal experience for Mary Pryor, who co-directed the doc alongside Mara Whitehead, in addition to serving as a subject as the co-founder of Cannaclusive, founder of Sheba, Baby! and CMO of Tricolla Farms.
'We're just getting into the weeds of what it is to be marginalized triple time in this space, with chronic health items, and with being Black, and being a woman, and coming from the descendants of the drug war,' explained Pryor. 'Because my dad happened to be affected by the war on drugs, I just felt and saw inequity in a lot of different ways.'
Pryor wanted to uncover a 'deeper uncomfortable truth' about the government's mentality around cannabis and the struggles of those who are trying to 'righting the wrongs of the war on drugs.'
'This issue is affecting everyone, and so the decision collectively as directors on this, with Mara, to have not just Black women say what's going on, but have white people and Latina folks and different walks of life confirm that this is not just an isolated incident, is real,' added Pryor.
Whitehead, who has a background in impact-driven storytelling, admitted she 'didn't understand the nuances' of racial inequity in cannabis as a white woman who grew up in Colorado, but she 'was shook to my core' after meeting the women involved.
'Because I think so much of this is happening in the dark,' explained Whitehead. 'And when Mary invited me into this space, I think the filmmaking process really was an act of uncovering and unfurling for me in terms of what this story actually entails.'
Meeting with other Black women in cannabis, Pryor felt a sense of 'trauma bonding' in hearing their stories. 'Everyone is already dealing with the inequities of existence. And we have to grow together in order to push and lean in on the truth for the sake of getting to the other side, which is all about doing better and treating people with humanity,' she said.
Dawson praised 'the bravery and the courage' of the women who shared their experiences in the documentary as well as Pryor for continuing to educate people and 'directing this project long since before the project was fully formed or ideated.'
'It was risky, and the fact that these women were putting everything on the line and risking all of that was just so powerful to me, because ultimately, it isn't just about their individual stories,' added Dawson. 'So many of them, it's about like what Mary's been doing, lifting all those boats with that tide, and I just really, really appreciated that.'
Kiss My Grass producers include Ashaki 'Saki' Fenderson, Luke Anderson and Justin Benoliel, with executive producers Dawson, Colin Kaepernick, Nancy Whiteman and Hilary Yu.
Best of Deadline
2025 TV Series Renewals: Photo Gallery
2025 TV Cancellations: Photo Gallery
2025-26 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Tonys, Emmys, Oscars & More
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hypebeast
an hour ago
- Hypebeast
Jean Dawson: An Interlude
Jean Dawson is typically in the studio every day from 7 p.m. through 7 a.m., so an 8 a.m. call time fell right in the middle of his REM sleep. 'Waking up today kicked my ass, but it was great. I need that sometimes,' says Dawson, who finds humility in the mundane. Waking up early isn't a foreign concept for a now 29-year-old Dawson, who grew up as David Sanders. He split his time between San Diego and Mexico, having to wake up before sunrise to walk to the bus to the U.S. border, where he and his younger brother Jerome would then wait in line for hours to cross into the States, where they went to school. This was the protocol for four years up until Dawson was in middle school; he's always valued sleeping in after that. He tells me it's a marker of success. It's similar to why the musician values hot showers so much. He didn't always have a water heater in Mexico, so he and his brother would heat water on the stove to bathe. The son of a U.S. Army father, local to Long Beach, and a Mexican mother who divided her days between multiple jobs, Dawson was raised by his mom — who relocated the family to Spring Valley, California, when Jean was 12 — alongside Jerome and his 'chosen brother' and now manager, Nico Hernandez. 'I still remember sitting in the hood on his doorstep smoking Newports in the middle of winter, telling him, 'One day we're gonna see the world,'' Dawson recalls, now just a wall away from Hernandez, who is seated at the front of the studio with their French Bulldog, Mala. The day prior, Hernandez and Dawson saw Swan Lake together, chuckling at the audience members who side-eyed the all-black-wearing, face-tattooed 6'2' guys sitting in orchestra seats at the ballet. Hidden by the facade is Dawson's deep admiration and knowledge of classical music, but he still invites everyone to form their own opinions. Because ultimately, he could not care any less about them. 'Judge me. Perceive me, because that opinion lives and dies with you.' Other people's perceptions have never really plagued Dawson. He knows his discography is so diverse that it's almost confusing. He knows his voice sometimes sounds like he's screaming. He knows other times it sounds like he has a woman's voice — if the multi-instrumentalist could trade one of his talents, it would be to swap out his singing voice for that of a woman's. He has no desire to fit in any box, except that of his own skin. He prefers the in-between. 'When someone asks me what kind of music I make, I just say, 'You tell me.' Whatever you decide is what I am.' It's Dawson's own opinion that keeps him up at night. He reflected heavily on this sentiment the last time we caught up with him, back in October of 2023, fresh off the release of his 'NO SZNS' collaboration with SZA and the end of his European tour with Lil Yachty. His own worst enemy and loudest critic, Dawson is still working on speaking more kindly to himself. Admittedly, it's a work in progress, but he feels like, lately, he's been learning more about himself 'in passing as a result of it.' After putting his sonic fluidity center stage on his debut studio album Bad Sports in 2019, Dawson landed early collaborations with A$AP Rocky on 2020's Pixel Bath and Earl Sweatshirt on 2022's CHAOS NOW* , and a coveted co-sign from Rick Rubin. Dawson, the duality-drenched, highly self-aware polymath he is, never let the big-name endorsements or credits get to his head, continuing to instead continue to exist in his own enigma. He's also been in the cut with Hypebeast and Hypetrak for a while now, first taking us along for a raw and unfiltered first look into his creative process in an introspective installation of Hypebeast: Diaries in early 2023. Donning a vintage RAF Simons 'Altered Reality' work jacket, Dawson took the team to an observation deck in Lincoln Heights, where he did a lot of his early writing, drawing, and lots and lots of thinking — not all of it productive. Today, Dawson is prioritizing the productive thoughts, the positive ones, the needle-pushing ones, and posing to the negative ones: 'Who do you think you're talking to?' He's also donning the same RAF Simons work jacket — but this time, it's not styled quite the same way. How are you? I'm good. I'm in an interesting place. I'm learning a lot about myself in passing. Things I didn't know about myself are now becoming very clear. The things I want to convey have changed, and the way I want to convey those things has changed. How are you approaching making music these days? I feel a sense of wonderment that I haven't felt in a long time, like a kid, where everything is still interesting and making me wide-eyed. The work we do can make you jaded, and I've kind of just stopped caring — in a helpful way. The act of caring for me is very specific; I'm very intentional with what I spend my time caring about. What are you spending your time on now? A lot of different things that I'm passionate about. I'm always making more music, but there are new things that are making me feel a different sense of excitement. I'm writing some film scripts, which has been fun. The other night, when I was falling asleep, I remembered this quote that's been informing everything I create. I forget if someone said it to me or if I made it up, but it goes: 'I feel like I'm everything because I already was by the time they said I couldn't be,' and that has been ringing true to not only my music and my outlook, but the fluidity of me as a person. By the time someone tells me I can't be something, I've already done it. What are your current thoughts on genre and people trying to box in your sound? If I had to give my music a genre, I'd call it ghetto pop. But I've never belonged to any 'genre' in music. I've never belonged to the punks. I've never belonged to the rock kids. I've never belonged to the hip-hop kids. I've never belonged to the jazz kids. I've never been in a clique of things. Because I can migrate from thing to thing, by the time someone tries to box me in like, 'You make rock music,' I'm already onto the next thing like, 'Oh really? Cool!' Whenever someone asks me what genre of music I make, I say, 'You tell me,' because whatever they decide it is, is what it is. One day I want to do Janis Joplin, then the next I want to do The Temptations, and then the next I want to do Jodeci. My music changes because I change. I respect artists who find a sound and can keep pounding at that. I think that's noble and strong. I'm not strong in that way. I get bored. I can't just color with orange. I need black in there. Is it weird having to tap back into past sounds when you're so far past that point in life? Imagine waking up and the only clothes you have in your closet are from high school… It's like that. So I just do my best to put on those clothes that not only don't fit the same, but also just look funny now. A lot of people found me on an album I dropped in 2019, and I had to get comfortable with the fact that that was a time I'll never be able to replace for them. How do you not let the outside noise affect you? It's not that it doesn't affect me. I feel like the only thing I can provide is a smile and a hug, and being a decent human being to those around me before anything else. I heard something special not too long ago: 'Stop acting like the person next to you isn't your brother or sister.' That's how I'm trying to look at the world and myself. I still can be pretty mean to myself, but I've started to defend myself from myself. It keeps me in check. My favorite thing to say is, 'Who do you think you're talking to?' Or I'll think about the child version of myself. 'You wouldn't talk to seven-year-old you like that. So shut up.' One of my favorite sentiments of yours that we discussed in our last chat was 'Your opinion of me lives and dies in your head.' Is that still your mentality? It's that with more care. It's less punky of an idea and more of an acceptance of self. I know who I am, and whether or not someone sees me the same way is up to them. In the grand scheme of things, I think I'm insignificant — and not in a negative way at all. Insignificant in the scheme of everything good and bad in the world, and that principle allows me to explore my creative freedom. What are some things that hold significance to you today? The sky. The ocean. Babies. This is our first time here (that we know of), and I want to treat it as such. I want to stumble. I want to fall. I want to experience things for the first time. This naive, childlike perspective of 'Oh yeah, I can try this' has given me so much room to gallop. Your sound has changed with every project, yet they all still feel connected. Walk me through getting from your first studio album, Bad Sports , to your most recent, Glimmer of God? From Bad Sports to Pixel Bath , that was me going from crawling to walking. From Pixel Bath to CHAOS NOW* was a jog. CHAOS NOW* was the first album I wrote for myself. Every one before that was for my dad. The stars in the track names are fireworks; I didn't want to end my sentences with periods because everything on that album is meant to be continued. It's supposed to feel like a bunch of run-on sentences written in crayon. Then we get to Glimmer of God , which is me speeding up to where I am now. With that album, I wanted to do something I hadn't done. I wanted to start singing for real. So I locked myself in the house and practiced singing. Before that album, I was just shouting. That album is my ode to truth. And my truth was realizing that I'd been mean to myself for a long time, and that project is me letting that go and starting to be kind and sweet to myself. The deluxe version, Rockabye Baby: Glimmer of God , is the end of the story. It's different, but it's informed by everything I've done. What is it that ties all of your projects together? They're all connected by the same throughline. Little secret: pretty much every song on each album connects to a song on the next album. Every album is a more mature version of its predecessor. On Pixel Bath , I had 'Pegasus' and on CHAOS NOW*, I had 'SICK OF IT*'. Those are the same song; one is just better. What was the guiding principle behind Glimmer of God ? The album is about me embracing my duality. I want to embody beauty and grace in music. It's something I think Prince has done best. It's subversive and it's sweet, but it's also strong and masculine. The things I'm learning about myself have been very informed by my ability to bend like that. There's this anime you should watch called Berserk . One of the male protagonists is named Griffith, and he's gorgeous. His hair is always flowing, and he speaks very calmly. Conversely, the other main character is named Guts, and he's the total opposite. He's a warrior. But both characters are essentially the same person, just two sides of the same coin. That's what I wanted the album cover to feel like: glamorous but don't fuck around. Don't play with me. Where does your innate adaptability come from? It all comes from my mom. She let me be everything I was supposed to be. I was very fortunate to have that. One of my biggest life goals is to open an institution where kids can learn instruments. If they attend enough classes, they can keep their instrument and return whenever they want to refresh their skills. Once they graduate from the program, they can come back and volunteer to teach the kids. You don't know where the next Freddie Mercury might come from. He, she, or they might come from Milwaukee. Or East LA. But when they don't have the opportunity to explore their talents, they'll never know. What are some things you feel privileged to experience today? My favorite thing that I get to do is wake up when I'm not tired. That's my marker of success. Also, being able to travel the world with my brother, Nico. I still remember sitting in the hood on his doorstep smoking Newports in the middle of winter, telling him, 'One day we're gonna see the world.' Now, we're sitting in front of the Eiffel Tower. Yesterday we saw Swan Lake . We're just two colored boys with face tattoos from the hood going to see Swan Lake . People were looking at us like, 'What are they doing here?' Don't get it fucked up. I know more about classical music than you do. Judge me. Perceive me. That thought lives and dies with you. But we can watch Swan Lake together. You designed some of the pieces you're wearing today, like the bedazzled hats and the studded Rick Owens Ramones. Has fashion always been something you've tapped into? I've been making clothes since I was a kid. My mom would take me shopping at the thrift store for clothes. I'd always find skinny jeans in crazy colors, but they wouldn't fit, so we'd bring them down to my aunt in Mexico to tailor them. For every pair I gave her, she charged me a dollar, just to keep me responsible. She'd always try and take me to Foot Locker, and I knew we couldn't afford it and would be like, 'Mom, we can go to Walmart.' I'd get these Starter sneakers and would ask her for colored shoelaces. Then we'd go to Joann Fabrics to get gemstones and glue, and I would spend hours designing my shoes. To this day, I'll buy some Balenciaga and fuck it up. Those hand-studded Ramones took me so long to do. Making music doesn't always calm me down, but fashion is something that calms me down. What does making music feel like today? Making music feels like a long kiss. There's something romantic about being lost in it, and there's something romantic about stepping back and observing it.
Newsweek
3 hours ago
- Newsweek
List of NFL Teams With Male Cheerleaders as Backlash Spreads
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The 2025 NFL season is set to kick off in September, but social media is already full of discourse before the first game has been played amid a backlash over the presence of male cheerleaders. Newsweek has contacted teams with male cheerleaders for comment via email and online contact form outside regular working hours. Why It Matters Male cheerleaders are not new. Cheerleading began as a male-dominated activity in the late 19th century. In the 1950s and 1960s, the NFL began to adopt all-female dance-style squads, which quickly became the dominant model. However, in 2018, the Los Angeles Rams and New Orleans Saints introduced dancing male cheerleaders, sparking a culture shift that more teams have since followed. In recent years, the NFL has become a flash point for online culture wars as sports fans and social media users have criticized it for being too "woke." The organization has faced online fallouts over its Super Bowl halftime show, the use of pride flags and the performance of "Lift Every Voice and Sing," a hymn often referred to as the Black national anthem. Two new male cheerleaders on the Minnesota Vikings has sparked similar criticism. A composite image showing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Cheer in an August 12 Instagram post and the Los Angeles Rams cheer squad in an August 11 post. A composite image showing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Cheer in an August 12 Instagram post and the Los Angeles Rams cheer squad in an August 11 post. Tampa Bay Buccaneers Cheer/Instagram, Los Angeles Rams/Instagram What To Know NFL teams have seen waves of criticism on social media in response to their inclusion of male cheerleaders on their squads. According to posts shared on their social media accounts, the following teams have male cheerleaders this season: Baltimore Ravens Los Angeles Rams Minnesota Vikings New England Patriots New Orleans Saints Tampa Bay Buccaneers Tennessee Titans San Francisco 49ers Philadelphia Eagles Washington Commanders Seattle Seahawks The Minnesota Vikings responded to the criticism in an email shared with Newsweek on August 15. "While many fans may be seeing male cheerleaders for the first time at Vikings games, male cheerleaders have been part of previous Vikings teams and have long been associated with collegiate and professional cheerleading," the statement said in part. Male cheerleaders have also long had a presence in popular culture. The 2000 film Bring It On, which features high school cheerleading competitions, shows male cheerleaders on multiple squads. TV shows such as One Tree Hill, Heroes and Glee—which take place in academic environments—also feature male cheerleaders. Though the backlash has been loud and pronounced online, many have offered messages of support for the cheerleaders, highlighting that male cheerleaders have long participated in the sport. What People Are Saying The Minnesota Vikings said in an email shared with Newsweek: "In 2025, approximately one third of NFL teams have male cheerleaders. Every member of the Minnesota Vikings Cheerleaders program has an impressive dance background and went through the same rigorous audition process. Individuals were selected because of their talent, passion for dance and dedication to elevating the game day experience. We support all our cheerleaders and are proud of the role they play as ambassadors of the organization." Author Zach W. Lambert wrote in an X post viewed 1.2 million times: "Elephants are born weighing 250 lbs. They are the biggest babies on earth except for the people mad about male cheerleaders in the NFL." Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, wrote in an X post viewed 670,000 times: "The whole country is resisting this type of BS, yet the @NFL continues their war on their fans. This isn't 2020." User @AriDrennen wrote in an X post viewed 1.2 million times: "Note how the rainbow panic has moved on from telling people they can't change their sex to telling people that they can't enjoy and excel at activities associated with another sex." Tomi Lahren, a conservative political commentator, wrote in a post viewed 2.8 million times: "I'm sorry, but I don't get the outrage over the male cheerleaders. Who cares? At least they're not pretending to be girls. Male cheerleaders are not a new thing. Oh well. It's not necessary for conservatives to be outraged over absolutely everything. It's inconsequential." Actor Kevin Sorbo wrote in an X post viewed 53 million times: "I've been a Vikings fan all my life... sigh. I need a new team now." What Happens Next The NFL season is set to begin on September 4.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Netflix's Extraction Spinoff Keeps Getting Good News, And I'm Pumped It Just Added A Game Of Thrones Alum
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Fans of the Extraction films starring Chris Hemsworth got some good news about the franchise earlier this year, although not in the form of a continuation in the form of Extraction 3. A television spinoff is happening to expand the world of the films, and there are finally some casting updates beyond Omar Sy as leading man. Game of Thrones vet Natalie Dormer landed a role, just days after another star was announced. Dormer will be a series regular on Extraction, according to Deadline, to play the leader of a private military contractor by the name of Clayton Wisper. This will be Dormer's second project for Netflix, although it's a safe bet that working on the series will be a lot more intense than her voice work on The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. (The Dark Crystal show was cancelled in 2020.) The actress is likely still best known for portraying Margaery Tyrell on Game of Thrones, with Dormer's character actually in more episodes than heavy-hitters like Joffrey Baratheon (Jack Gleeson) and Catelyn Stark (Michelle Fairley). Netflix describes the project as an "action thriller" following a mercenary on a risky mission in Libya to rescue hostages, stuck between killers and factions at war. It won't be all action, however, and the story unfolding as a TV show rather than a movie means that there will be more time for character development than could happen in either of the films. The spinoff comes from showrunner, executive producer, and writer Glen Mazzara (known for shows like The Walking Dead and The Shield), with the Russo Brothers of MCU fame on board as executive producers. While the Extraction show certainly won't be ready in time for a premiere in the 2025 TV schedule, there's more encouraging news about the progress so far. Boyd Holbrook has been cast to play an Extraction team leader named David Ibarra, according Deadline, as a series regular. Like Dormer, Holbrook has worked on Netflix productions before, including Narcos opposite stars like Wagner Moura, The Last of Us' Pedro Pascal, and Andor's Diego Luna. More recently, he wrapped his time as part of The Sandman cast with the series finale in July. Natalie Dormer and Boyd Holbrook star opposite The Killer and Jurassic World: Dominion's Omar Sy, who was the only cast member confirmed when the Extraction spinoff was announced in early 2025. (Sy also has Netflix credits to his name with three seasons of Lupin.) Now, if you're a fan of the Extraction films (both of which are available streaming now with a Netflix subscription), you may notice that I'm not listing Chris Hemsworth or any other names from the movies. At the time of writing, it's not clear how closely tied the show will be to the stories of Tyler Rake (Hemsworth), if at all. For now, you can always revisit the two movies streaming on Netflix, and keep your eyes peeled for any more casting news to come out of the show in the weeks to come. Solve the daily Crossword
