Boris Kodjoe Talks Directing Wife Nicole Ari Parker in ‘Safe Room’

Boris Kodjoe is adding director to his resume.

The model-turned actor is making his directorial debut with the Lifetime thriller Safe Room. He told HipHollywood he always knew he’d step behind the camera … eventually.

“I always knew that this was the thing that I wanted to do,” said Kodjoe. “Just it’s a great creative outlet to be able to compose a vision and then sort of get others to buy into that vision and release them on the canvas.”

In the film his wife Nicole Ari Parker plays a recently widowed mother whose 14-year-old autistic son (Nik Sanchez) witnesses a break-in in the house across the street. Kodjoe also stars as their kind neighbor Neil.

“I got lucky that my wife agreed to be in my movie, ’cause I wouldn’t have done it without her,” he admitted. “I needed somebody who can carry so effortlessly and who also will exude an energy and a level of professional professionally and skill that is contagious and that is then transmitted throughout the whole set, which she did.”

“I knew that this was something on his bucket list, and I was so happy that I finally was here and that lifetime was on board,” said Parker.

The couple first starred opposite each other on the Showtime series Soul Food. They would later reunite for the sitcom Second Time Around. Beside Boris, Nicole loved working with Sanchez.

“I just loved Nik. I felt so lucky that he was cast and he was such a good actor, and he made me a better actor.”

“I didn’t have a lot of takes, I had one chance to connect with my son, and I had to do it within the boundaries of this particular son, it was an incredible experience artistically for that reason.”

As for if the couple, who’ve been married 17 years and have two children, would want a “safe room” in real life, Kodjoe says no.

“I don’t want a safe room, I don’t want guns in my house, said Kodjoe “If something goes down, I’m gonna grab them and throw him in the car and we go back to  Germany or go back to the motherland.”