Danielle Brooks Puts Her Own Money Behind If I Go, Will They Miss Me? to Center Stories That Move the Culture

Danielle Brooks is using more than her voice to champion stories she believes deserve to be seen. The Grammy winner and Oscar nominee recently joined The Breakfast Club to discuss her deeply personal involvement with the independent feature film If I Go, Will They Miss Me?, including why she invested her own money to executive produce the project.

Directed by Walter Thompson-Hernandez, the film was shot in just 22 days and serves as a love letter to Watts, California, while exploring the complicated and tender relationship between fathers and sons.

Expanded from Thompson-Hernandez’s Sundance short, If I Go, Will They Miss Me? approaches its story through childlike wonder and myth-making, using the perspective of young people to explore family, identity, community, and the bonds that shape us.

For Brooks, the project represents the kind of filmmaking she believes can have a deeper cultural impact.

“We need to center more of this,” Brooks said while discussing why she chose to personally invest in the independent film. “These are the movies that really move the culture and make us better people.”

Her decision to put her own money behind the project reflects a larger commitment to creating and supporting stories outside of the traditional studio system. Rather than simply lending her name to the film, Brooks became directly involved in helping bring a passion project to life.

During her conversation with The Breakfast Club, Brooks also reflected on the experiences that helped shape her career. She discussed seeing The Color Purple at 15 years old and how the film influenced her path toward becoming a performer.

That connection is particularly significant considering Brooks would later portray Sofia in the 2023 film adaptation of The Color Purple, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.

Brooks also opened up about navigating elite performing arts spaces as a Black woman, including her experience at Juilliard. She spoke about overcoming what she described as a “single-seat mindset”—the idea that there is only one place available for someone like you to succeed.

That perspective now appears to inform another chapter of her career: creating opportunities not only for herself, but for stories and filmmakers she believes should have room at the table.

If I Go, Will They Miss Me? is rooted in Watts, but its themes reach far beyond one neighborhood. At its center is a story about fathers and sons, imagination and loss, and the ways families create meaning through the stories they tell one another.

For Brooks, executive producing the film represents an investment in that kind of storytelling—and in the belief that independent films can help shape how communities see themselves.

As Hollywood continues to navigate questions about which stories receive resources, platforms, and attention, Brooks is putting her own resources behind a film that speaks directly to family, community, and cultural identity.

If I Go, Will They Miss Me? isn’t simply another acting credit for Danielle Brooks. It marks another step in her evolution as a creative force determined to help bring stories to the screen that she believes matter.