2 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Why Beyoncé and BET Keep Calling Jesse Collins
There's a memorable scene in Beyoncé's 'Homecoming' documentary about her headlining performance at Coachella in 2018, when she asks a production crew member for a 30-foot-wide camera track. He tells her it doesn't exist. She then proves him wrong.
The Emmy-winning television producer Jesse Collins remembers that moment well, so when the pop superstar called on him to produce her Christmas Day N.F.L. halftime extravaganza 'Beyoncé Bowl' for Netflix, he was ready to meet her demands.
'Hell no, I will never tell her something doesn't exist unless it really doesn't exist,' he said recently with a laugh, 'because she'll Google it and she keeps up with technology. If it can't happen, I am 1,000 percent certain it can't happen.'
Collins, 54, has worked closely with Beyoncé on awards show performances, including her raucous rendition of 'Freedom' at the 2016 BET Awards, when she danced and kicked in a shallow pool of water.
'The water was one of the most complicated things that I've ever done on any award show,' Collins recalled in a video interview from his office in Burbank, Calif., in a comfy black hoodie as the sun beamed behind him. 'Most people try to get away from water,' he said, but an executive had promised it. 'When you start the conversation with, 'This was promised to Beyoncé,' everybody's like, 'We're going to make this happen.''
Making things happen is Collins's specialty, and it's why heavyweights like Oprah Winfrey and Jay-Z have recruited him for their projects.
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