“Until we had cast the proper white co-star, there was no Miles Davis movie”, says the film’s creator.

Don Cheadle recently debuted his long in-the-works Miles Davis biopic, Miles Ahead, at Sundance this year. While some were irked by the film’s inclusion of a co-starring Ewan McGregor playing a fictional Rolling Stone journalist, Don Cheadle explained in a new interview with the publication that the film wouldn’t have been financed without putting a white character alongside his portrayal of the legendary jazz player.

“Until Ewan came on, until we had cast the proper white co-star, there was no Miles Davis movie. There was no Miles Ahead,” he said. Cheadle, who co-wrote and directed the film, raised a portion of the budget through an IndieGoGo crowdfunding campaign. In the same response he praises McGregor’s performance and the chemistry between the two character, but admits to the bleakness of the situation.

“That’s the reality,” he says. “It’s called moviemaking”.