Martin Donovan: Let’s invade another country.
Rihanna: That’s dope. That’s what I love to do.
Donovan: I kind of understand why.
***
Rihanna: I'm over the whole structured clothing, overly shoulder-padded shit. This is the first time I actually ever have been in a real movie and I'm really enjoying the experience actually.
Donovan: It’s set in Tennessee, sort of backwoods Appalachia, drugs, crime, getting in trouble with the law. We were just laughing our heads off.
Rihanna: Then we made it hot pink.
Donovan: We threw that out and started over.
Rihanna: I don't know how to feel about that. (laughs)
***
Donovan: You have to have a form or a box that you can go crazy in. Does that make sense?
Rihanna: Yeah. We really took it for granted, but we basically spent the entire day on the beach with summer all year round. It wasn't special to us because that was just normal for Barbados, but after I moved to America and I experienced all these different seasons—and not only the seasons, but you don't get to see the ocean, where it's clear or it's baby blue.
Donovan: Exactly. That’s what I remember as much as anything: the trees.
Rihanna: I didn't want to be lazy or feel groggy, so I just kept drinking Red Bull. You know?
***
Donovan: Is there anything you want to tell me?
Rihanna: Like, I had to meet Jay-Z and audition for him at the same time.
Donovan: Then the Devil is there, and he starts messing with his head and challenging him and, if I remember correctly, The Book of Life is a MacBook laptop, which he ends up throwing off the back of the Staten Island Ferry into the bay and chooses not to bring down the apocalypse in the end.
Rihanna: That was another overwhelming experience. But every woman is vulnerable. She would be like a bundle of karma.
***
Donovan: What is it about this existence that connects us to each other socially, politically, whatever, and how much of that is ignored or dismissed or subconscious or whatever?
Rihanna: I get asked that a lot. (laughs) How are you?