It was Tillman's first time experience being an African American director "working in a white film world." When working with De Niro and Gooding, Tillman felt a bit intimidated because he knew both were big stars. He knew De Niro could take up to fifty takes and knew from his research that he looks to the director to possess all the answers. "I remember I called him one day and I said, 'Bob, I wanna know how you like to work on a set because I wanna make it easy for you.' And he told me, 'I like what you did with "Soul Food", you won't have any problems with me,'" according to Tillman. In regard to Gooding, he knew that he always had to know the back-story to his character. Tillman enjoyed what Gooding presented in his first film, "Boyz n the Hood", and wanted to incorporate that persona. Tillman really had to do his research on both actors in order to achieve the direction he was going for in the film. "It all depends on a person, on an actor, and it's my job to figure those things out."