Ava DuVernay earned an Emmy nomination for the Netflix limited series “When They See Us,” but according to actress Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, who stars in DuVernay’s newest project “Origin,” they don’t see women of color when it’s time to earn awards in Hollywood.
“This film does something that is very, very brave,” Ellis-Taylor explained to People. “I think it is brave creatively, I think it is brave in its message, I think it confronts things in a way that is innovative. And I just think that we [in Hollywood] award the white guys for that kind of work.”
“Origin,” which hits theaters today, is the unconventional adaptation of Isabel Wilkerson’s acclaimed, best-selling 2020 book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent.” She is also the best-selling author of 2010’s “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration.”
In the film, Ellis-Taylor plays Wilkerson, the journalist who is front and center as the film’s protagonist.
While “Origin” did earn a nomination at the Gotham Awards, the film failed to earn any recognition from the recently held Critics Choice Awards, the BAFTA Awards or the Golden Globes.
“I wish we had more to do,” the 54-year-old actress said about the film which focuses on the United States and its divisive history.
To illustrate specific caste systems throughout history, the film focuses on Nazi Germany in the 1930s, Depression-era Mississippi and on Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar (Gaurav J. Pathania), who helped draft India’s Constitution and fought for the rights of Dalits, people who were once considered “untouchables.”
“It is this time, this moment, that we have to look at what we are doing to each other,” says Ellis-Taylor of the film’s importance.
“What’s happening is not central, it’s not just the American experience. It’s an experience that is vast, it’s wide, it’s cross-cultural, it crosses time. We are connected to the Indian experience, we are connected to the Jewish experience, and the knowledge of that gives us more strength to fight those forces that would keep those divisions in place.”
“Origin” inspired Ellis-Taylor to fight the same divisions she sees at play in Hollywood today.
“You just go, ‘Why aren’t they a part of these conversations? In this season, we’ve had some beautiful, beautiful work with A.V. Rockwell in A ‘Thousand and One Savanah Leaf with Earth Mama,’ and Raven Jackson in ‘All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt,’” she explained. “Gorgeous, subtle, nuanced, innovative filmmaking.”
“It feels like a disconnect,” she added.
“Origin” also stars Jon Bernthal, Vera Farmiga, Audra McDonald, Niecy Nash-Betts, Nick Offerman and Blair Underwood.
