Based on Zane’s very first novel, ADDICTED is the simultaneously provocative, suspenseful and emotional story of a happily married, highly successful businesswoman who unexpectedly finds herself crossing the line, only to become entangled in a sticky web of heated affairs that endanger everything she loves.
Director Bille Woodruff (HONEY, “The Game”) brings together the volatile chemistry of Sharon Leal (DREAMGIRLS) with Boris Kodjoe (LOVE & BASKETBALL, “Soul Food”), William Levy (THE SINGLE MOMS CLUB, “Dancing With The Stars”) and top male model Tyson Beckford in this story of desire inside and outside of marriage, and in and out of the usual bounds of restraint. ADDICTED opens in theaters October 10, 2014.
The queen of erotica
ADDICTED turned out to be a breakout novel for Zane. Not only did the book blaze a new trail for women’s erotic fiction, it was also the spark that lit dozens more best sellers, as well as a popular social network and two steamy Cinemax series. Most of it all, it forged Zane’s reputation for crafting raw, candid, humor-and-suspense-filled stories that finally broke open taboo conversations about women’s fantasies, impulses and real sex lives.
Zane has been a pioneer on multiple fronts. The mother of three children, who got her start writing edgy stories for her own enjoyment, she is one of only a few African- American women to make the New York Times fiction bestseller “print list” in this century. Yet she says she never anticipated the degree to which she would tap into an unaddressed need for the kind of stories few others were telling. Her stories were a way of expressing something honest about life, including the sexual parts of life, she says, and the idea that others found them sensual adventures took her by surprise.
“Believe it or not, I never imagined ADDICTED would be a published book let alone a movie because at the time that I wrote it, I was mostly writing to entertain myself,” she confesses. “But I knew I wanted to write a story about how what happens to us in childhood affects our adult lives. I also wanted to write about a woman in therapy, because it’s still considered a stigma in the African-American community.”
She goes on: “I also really wanted to talk more about how women truly do have needs and desires just like men do — but these desires too often are not even mentioned, let alone addressed. There are still a lot of double standards when it comes to women. So I started writing about this woman named Zoe who was married and doing the most, but was unable to talk to her husband about her desires.”
Zoe’s long-suppressed impulses drive her to endanger herself, the business she has worked so diligently to build and the family that is her very sustenance. Yet, Zane ultimately sees her as a courageous woman – one who must better understand herself and the roots of what turns out to be a sexual addiction if she has any hope of saving her marriage and her life.
William Levy shows many layers
To play Quinton, the filmmakers were in search of someone who could embody the artists’ many shadings, from his light-hearted charisma to a far more frightening side that only emerges whenever he is threatened with abandonment. That combination was found in William Levy, the Cuban-American actor and former model who has been rapidly rising, recently seen in THE SINGLE MOM’S CLUB, “The Tempest” television series and as a popular front-runner on “Dancing With The Stars.”
Levy himself was seduced by the script. “I loved it and I’ve never had the opportunity to play a character anything like this one before, so it was very exciting to do something new,” he says. “Quinton seems like an incredible guy at first, but he has a lot of layers that Zoe cannot see until they become more involved.”
Quinton’s fascination with Zoe is genuine, notes Levy, even if it becomes increasingly fraught with dark, underlying needs. “He feels something very passionate and deep for Zoe and he feels like they are both looking for that right now in their lives,” Levy explains. “Things happen really quickly, and just as she becomes addicted to him, he becomes very much addicted to her.”
That was borne out in the chemistry between Levy and Leal, which was inescapable. “Sharon is very talented and very professional and when you’re working with someone like that your job becomes a little easier,” notes Levy. “We had an amazing chemistry.”
In turn, Leal says of Levy: “I was so impressed with William because he really threw himself into this role. We worked so well together because he’s so open and he injected things into Quinton that made the character his own and felt organic to me.”
Cast:
Sharon Leal (Zoe Reynard)
Boris Kodjoe (Jason Reynard)
Tasha Smith (Dr. Marcella Spencer)
Tyson Beckford (Corey)
Emayatzy Corinealdi (Brina)
Kat Graham (Diamond)
William Levy (Quinton Canosa)
Directed by: Bille Woodruff
Screenplay by: Christina Welsh and Ernie Barbarash
Produced by: Paul Hall, p.g.a.
Based on the Novel by: Zane
Executive Producers: Zane, Charisse Nesbit
Director of Photography: Joseph White
Production Designer: Jeffrey Pratt Gordon
Edited by: Bruce Cannon, A.C.E.
Costume Designer: Lorraine Coppin
Music by: Aaron Zigman
Co-Producer: Jennifer Booth
Casting by: Kim Taylor-Coleman, CSA
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