Nika King Interview
Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot (2024) is a tear-jerking feature film starring Nika King, Demetrius Grosse, Diaana Babnicova. The film follows Donna and Reverend Martin who ignite a movement of compassion in their East Texas church of 22 families to adopt 77 of the most difficult-to-place kids in the foster system.
TNBFC were able to sit down with Nika King to discuss the inspiration behind her role and the representation of the foster care system in the film.
Nika King: Up until Sound of Hope, the story of Possum Trot, I was very engulfed in doing my comedy. That's always my default. If I'm not working, if I'm not on set, I like to stay active doing standup. And so that's kind of like my buffer. And it's been interesting because I've been known now for drama. And so now it's kind of like people are always asking me, well, which one do you like better? And I'm like, well, comedy is my safe place, is my home. But I enjoy drama, especially stories that bring awareness to a situation like the foster care crisis or like with euphoria, addiction and dealing with abuse and stuff like that, like substance abuse. And so when I have great drama stories, then that's great, right? But right now, for me, it's all about finding that balance. The story is a true story, as you know.
Nika King: And it's actually a story that is true to me because my mom was adopted by a pastor and his wife when she was about four or five years old with her brothers. And it's ironic because as we keep seeing the film, we're seeing so many similarities. And so that was the initial draw for me, reading the script and having my mom read it and us seeing like, wow, this is your story in a way. And after reading the script, I was just praying to God, like, okay, I wanna be a part of this film some kind of way. I don't care what it is, just I wanna be able to be in this movie. And so it just happened to be that, First Lady Donna Martin had my name on it.
Nika King: My mom has six kids, so we all have our stories. We all have our ideas of how we grew up. And so after watching the film, we realised that, man, it touched us in so many different ways, not realising that we also was fostered multiple times while my mom was on her journey to becoming clean and sober.
Nika King: And we talk about some of the homes that we stayed in and some of the things that happened. And my older sister kind of being a surrogate mother when my mom wasn't home and we didn't go into the system so long that we, you know what I'm saying? My mom didn't have custody of us. She eventually got custody of us, got clean. And so it's a healing thing for us too, to talk about it and to realise that we're blessed and God had his hand on us. And man, I just feel for kids, you know, that don't have that because that is a reality and it is something that the film touches on. My immediate work on the role was to watch video of her, old pictures of her, talk with her.
Nika King: We actually had a chance to have lunch and she came over with Bishop W.C. And we prayed and we went into the upper room and it was just like, once that happened, everything just kind of clicked into place. There was this kind of like surreal moment of like, okay, we're making a film about these two people who are standing in front of us. And Demetrius and I understood that this is not just a film.
Nika King: It's a cute, cuddly film about adoption and fostering. No, no, no, this is real life. And I think we all understood that. And that made it easier to kind of bring those words to life and those scenarios to life. But there were of course challenges because, you know, when you're trying to do things to bring light to horrible situations, you have the spiritual world working against you. But God said, not today, Satan, we made it happen.
Nika King: It came to theatres and people are, every day I get DMs, people are moved and people are touched by the film. When you're doing a film based on a true living person, there's this, for me at least, there was this self-imposed, like I had so much anxiety around getting it right. So the challenge, I mean, of course there's challenges on set, technical stuff and things that come up, you know, because making a movie is problem solving.
Nika King: Filmmaking is problem solving. So every day there was a problem to be solved. But for me, the biggest challenge was internally really not allowing myself to get in the way and start overthinking and start, you know, trying to do things that were unnatural, meaning like, you know, as an actor, we have to make certain decisions. And I just, you know, I just prayed. I just literally, girl, I was praying to God. I said, God, I need you to come and I need your spirit because I wanted to make sure that I was getting it right.
Nika King: And when I talked to first lady Donna Martin after she saw the film, she was like, you did it. You did it. And she was like, you showed pieces of me that nobody had ever seen. And I didn't know that I was doing it. I was just being obedient and saying, okay. You know, and some of those scenes I look back and I'm like, wow, I don't even remember doing that.
Nika King: I don't even remember saying that, you know, because I was just allowing myself to just be like put myself in her shoes. And literally like when I put on my costume, I was first lady Donna Martin. People would dress me as first lady because I wanted people to see her and I wanted to see how people would react to her because then that infused my performance.
Nika King: I think this film is truly about following that guiding light, right? Following that urge to do more with what you have while you're on this earth because there's nothing more satisfying and nothing more, for me at least, joyful than helping other people, right? We all have that, of course, that selfish side that we want to kind of like just do us and really not look outside of ourselves. But when you really have a heart like first lady Donna Martin to go out and adopt kids and then convince your church to adopt kids and bring them into your home, there's definitely a spirit of resilience and strength that this woman has because it sounds great, but it's not an easy thing to do. And I'm sure you've seen the film and people will see the film on October 11th is that it's showing all of the good and the bad and the ups and the downs.
Nika King: And I think people need to see that because this is not just a cute story about a family adopting kids. No, this is the reality that kids have been hurt. And first lady Donna Martin and Bishop W.C. Martin, they have the love of Christ and they showed that by being determined.
Nika King: Even when things got downright ugly, they still stuck through and kept the kids and didn't want the kids to go back. That was their biggest thing. They do not want them to go back into the system.
Nika King: So we was having church for real. Okay, it looked like church because it was church. And there were times where LaDonna who plays the organ player in the movie.
Nika King: So she's playing the, you know, playing the da-da-da-da and everybody's in the spirit, everybody's worshipping. And Joshua would be like, cut. I'm like, I'm sorry, you can't cut on this.
Nika King: There's no reset to one. There's no, okay, let's do that again. Because people were moved and people were like really thanking God. Like even some people came to Christ and to know Christ on set, you know? And I think, you know, capturing those moments that church was really small, it was hot. There was no AC, you know, people were, you know it was like we were in the backwoods of Possum Trot. Like we were definitely having church.
Nika King: And I love those scenes because I remember like being those scenes and my wig is popping up because the glue melting and then we're like trying to reset and put it back on. And I'm like, oh my gosh, this is like, for me it brought me back to my childhood growing up in the church and then having the actual people from Possum Trot come in and be a part of the cast and the extras and the background. And it was great. And Demetrius, he, man, he took it there. You know, we had some really fun behind the scene moments. And I really truly believe that like God was in the room.
Nika King: God was definitely like, you don't play church. Like I know growing up, you don't play church, you know. And that's what this film is about.
Nika King: It's really capturing, you know, the good and the bad, you know, and showing people that, you know, this community is a light, is a light in the world in this dark world, you know, if they can do it we can all do it. And they had limited resources. You know, they're from a small, small rural area in East Texas and they did an amazing thing.
Nika King: And I think we can all be examples of Christ and do more. You know, I am really, I'm invigorated by this movie to go out and just keep telling stories that bring light into the world and show powerful black women like first lady Donna Martin, who's getting her flowers. You know, you don't have to be a celebrity or, you know, have a million followers on Instagram.
Nika King: Like you can impact the world with where you are right now. And I think she's a perfect example of resilience and courage and faith and strength and just obedience. And so for me, when I get to meet people like that I'm forever changed, you know, I don't take that lightly.
Nika King: I don't think things happen by coincidence. I think everything is destiny and everything is divine. And so for me, it's now like, okay how can I be more like her and Christ with my platform with my voice, you know? And so, yeah, I'm definitely inspired.
Nika King: I think we all should be inspired to go out and just be better people in the world and to show unconditional love because that's what we need right now. The world is a very dark place and we need to show that, you know, Christ is still alive and he lives within us.
Sound of Hope released on 11th October 2025 in the UK.