Sasheer Zamata is taking fans on a wild ride in her new indie thriller Spree.

In the new film, Zamata plays Jessie Collins, a comedian and social media star, who is stalked by a man with a deadly social media obsession. Zamata tells ABC Audio that there is a deeper, more important message to her film which follows one man’s selfish desire to become famous.

“Well, I don’t know if this is like a message that was meant to be in the movie, but I am a Black woman and the antagonist of the film is a white man who feels very entitled to an audience — and to my audience,” she says. “And I grew my audience through work and all the work I put in my career. And he’s essentially just trying to steal that.”

Zamata believes that the theft of her audience by the entitled antagonist highlights an all too familiar narrative of those within the minority.

“And that is something that we’ve seen throughout history, where groups of people try to take credit for or try to take ownership of other people’s work or history or stories,” she says. “And that’s very prevalent in this movie as well.”

Spree, also starring Joe Keery, is now available in select theaters, On Demand and in Digital HD.

By Candice Williams
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