Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor wishes she “had the options that my white women of the time have”
Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor Never shy away from difficult conversations. This quality has proven to be especially valuable when it comes to nickel guy, highly regarded by critics as one of the best films of the year—but also one that was labeled “difficult” as it continued to make its way around the awards circuit. “Especially with a lot of the movies we have in American cinema, it worked for us,” Ellis-Taylor told the magazine this week. Little golden boys (read or listen below). “The film brings solutions, the film gives us hope. But nickel guy is asking for something else—and that’s annoying.”
RaMell RossOutstanding adaptation of Colson whiteheadsThe author’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, based on the true story of the abusive Dozier Reformatory in Jim Crow-era Florida, confronts a brutal chapter in American history through a radical film perspective. first look. Ellis-Taylor plays a student’s grandmother, Hattie, who is working to bring him back home. In increasingly brutal scenes, she reveals the painful news while looking straight into the camera. “I am deeply affected by what happened to these boys,” she said. “Look [their] eyes, I don’t need to be aroused much—but it’s very arousing for me.”
This is the latest, emotional performance from Ellis-Taylor, whose film career began in the early ’50s with King Richardfor which she received an Oscar nomination in 2022. Last year, she took the lead Ava DuVernayAmbitious, traveling around the world Source received critical acclaim, although the film struggled at the box office. She’s still fighting for big roles, finding her path still more difficult than some of her contemporaries. Ellis-Taylor knew it was important to talk about that experience.
Vanity Fair: A few years ago you described the process to me “stalking” RaMell Ross. What about him and his documentary, Hale County This Morning, Tonight, Did you hit him back then?
Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor: Those first moments, it’s also shot in POV. It’s a car going really fast on the highway in Alabama and you feel like you’re in the middle of a video game. But it’s also trees and houses and it’s true. I knew immediately that I was in for a two-hour experience that I had never experienced up to this point. I believe in cinema. Look at the way he documented the life of that community in Alabama—I look at a lot of photography and film, even writing, about black life in the South, and I very rarely feel like I reflected in it or actually witnessed by it. I never felt like I was seeing the work of a relative. But when I see Hale CountyI said, “That’s my man. Those are my people.” That’s a kind of intimacy in his work and he carried it by nickel guy.
What is he like as a director?
He’s one of those directors where you don’t feel like you’re being directed. I have one scene in particular where he’s really trying to achieve something specific. I’ve been struggling with it. We did a lot of scenes that day. But he’s a lovely person—I’m sure you learned that from being around him—and he’s a big-hearted director. He has openness and generosity and he’s also a strange genius. That’s a great combination in a director. He’s got that brain, but it’s not cold. I’ve had experiences where someone is artistically driven in every way and you’re either there or you’re not there.
