Sophia Michaels
Numa Perrier, the director of “Gabrielle Union and Keith Powers mix business with pleasure in a sexy new Netflix rom-com coming to a screen near you this summer” (the two being both fans of each other’s relationships before splitting), tells us that the reason why her film is about love is because they have one same love interest throughout the course of it. We also know that the career-over-love dilemma that drew her to the project is that Jenna is trying to figure out her next step is when she feels broken, she’s trying to put herself back together. And then Perrier wants to make a great classic, amazing rom-com as her friend’s friendship already exists. We also know that the film’s career-over-love dilemma is what drew her to it, too. What’s your favorite classic? We want to know!
Gabrielle Union and Keith Powers mix business with pleasure in a sexy new Netflix rom-com coming to a screen near you this summer. “The Perfect Find” — based on Tia Williams’s 2016 novel of the same name — stars the two actors as colleagues who become something more, as Union’s Jenna, who’s on the verge of a “fashion career comeback,” falls for her “charming, much younger coworker” Eric (Powers) — who happens to be her boss’s son.
Director Numa Perrier told Netflix’s Tudum that the film’s career-over-love dilemma is what drew her to the project. “Jenna is going through a work and love upheaval and trying to figure out her next chapter, and I was literally going through the exact same thing,” she said. “I felt like I was her in a way. I really related to the idea of trying to figure out what your next step is when you feel broken, you’re trying to put yourself back together. And then I really wanted to make a great classic, amazing rom-com.”
Tudum bills the forthcoming romance story as giving nods to classics like “Roman Holiday,” “Carmen Jones,” and “Mahogany,” but Perrier expressed that she wants “The Perfect Find” to stand on its own, too. “We’re trying to do something that’s classic but also fresh,” the director added. “100 percent romance, 100 percent comedy, 100 percent honesty, and rawness and sensuality. I want to go all the way with everything.”
“The Perfect Find” is produced by Union. Though it finds her and Powers playing love interests, she told Vanity Fair that their real-life friendship is the source of their onscreen chemistry — which started with her and her husband, Dwyane Wade, being fans of Powers’s relationship with fellow actor Ryan Destiny. Powers and Destiny dated for four years before splitting in January 2022, though they posed together at Essence’s 2023 Black Women in Hollywood event in March.
“We were openly fanning about Ryan and Keith and just loving how they moved through Hollywood, how they handled their relationship, how they handled the public love,” she told the outlet, per an interview published on April 17. “It was just kind of a natural progression of a friendship that already existed, but it comes out of respect. He has an enormous amount of respect for Dwyane, I have an enormous amount of respect for Ryan, and it just made working super easy.”
Read ahead for everything else we know about “The Perfect Find” so far, including its release date and new first-look photos.
