NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� Ava DuVernay kept hearing she had to read She had Isabel Wilkerson鈥檚 book in galleys before it was published in 2020. Oprah Winfrey kept telling her to read it. But she put it off. It seemed an imposing read. Copies kept proliferating in her home.
鈥淎t one point, a high-profile director said to me, 鈥業 heard you got the book,鈥欌�� DuVernay says. 鈥淎nd I was like, 鈥榊eah, I got a couple copies.鈥� He said, 鈥楴o, I heard you鈥檙e doing it.鈥� I said, 鈥楢s in doing a movie?鈥� So I said I better read this.鈥�
But even once she cracked Wilkerson鈥檚 book open, it took DuVernay a few reads before it really sunk in. 鈥淐aste,鈥� a best-seller released shortly before the death of George Floyd, reframed American racism through historical stratifications of caste. 鈥淩ace, in the United States, is the visible agent of the unseen force of caste,鈥� wrote Wilkerson. 鈥淐aste is the bones, race the skin.鈥�
For DuVernay, whose films ( ) have illuminated American history with rigor and passion, the thesis of 鈥淐aste鈥� was eye-opening.
鈥淚 was so wrapped up with the idea of race as a Black woman. That was the lens through which I see myself and the world sees me,鈥� says DuVernay. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what I thought.鈥�
鈥淥rigin,鈥� DuVernay鈥檚 new film, isn鈥檛 a direct adaptation of Wilkerson鈥檚 book. DuVernay, who wrote the script, centers it on Wilkerson (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor), following the author while she researches the book and navigates her own personal joys and tragedies. The film takes a heavyweight work of historical and sociological inquiry and transforms it into a deeply humanistic drama and a globe-trotting detective story.
鈥淪he鈥檚 Indiana Jones. She鈥檚 going around the world in search of the holy grail,鈥� says Ellis-Taylor. 鈥淪he鈥檚 on this process of discovery and then in the middle of that worldwide hunt, she loses, and her loss is immeasurable. But she鈥檚 still searching. That is a hero. That is a cinematic hero.鈥�
DuVernay and Ellis-Taylor met for an interview last month in the downtown offices of Neon, which is releasing 鈥淥rigin鈥� theatrically Friday. They had only just begun talking about their still-fresh experience making the film. Ellis-Taylor hadn鈥檛 yet seen it and wasn鈥檛 sure she was going to. 鈥淚t was so personal for me,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to share it with anybody yet.鈥�
Some have overlooked 鈥淥rigin鈥� since its . DuVernay has lamented Ellis-Taylor鈥檚 absence thus far from the pomp of award season. But underestimating 鈥淥rigin鈥� would be a mistake. The film, which made numerous 10 lists , is audaciously original in how it fuses big ideas with emotional warmth.
If 鈥淐aste鈥� sought to describe some of the man-made hierarchies that repeat throughout history, 鈥淥rigin鈥� 鈥� which DuVernay and her producing partner, Paul Garnes, gathered financing for independently 鈥� is itself a work that boldly and beautifully transcends conventional Hollywood limitations.
DuVernay and Garnes raised $38 million with the help of philanthropists 鈥� including the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation 鈥� many of whom had little Hollywood experience but believed in the movie. Melinda Gates is a producer. NBA stars like Chris Paul invested.
鈥淲e are in an industry and a society where everything has a label. If there鈥檚 a Black woman director and a Black woman lead, it has to be about things they care about,鈥� DuVernay says. 鈥淢y hope is that we can somehow break caste.鈥�
鈥淥rigin鈥� opens with a dramatic recreation of the shooting of Trayvon Martin and later dips into historical vignettes including Nazi Germany, Jim Crow-era Mississippi and . It steps into stories from history while capturing Wilkerson鈥檚 life with her husband (Jon Bernthal) and mother (Emily Yancy) 鈥� intimate dramas that touchingly counter and clarify some of the social structures Wilkerson traces while seeking the roots of racism.
鈥淚 wanted something where her intimate personal journey ran alongside, mirrored, challenged and actually complemented this huge universal truth that we don鈥檛 really know," DuVernay says. "And I felt like somewhere in there, there were touch points where they could complement each other. One doesn't always lead perfectly into other, but that they were in a conversation.鈥�
Ellis-Taylor, the Oscar-nominated co-star of 鈥淜ing Richard,鈥� had acted in DuVernay鈥檚 2019 miniseries 鈥淲hen They See Us,鈥� about the 1989 Central Park jogger case. She signed on to 鈥淥rigin鈥� without a script. 鈥淚 had read 鈥楾he Warmth of Other Suns,鈥欌�� she says, alluding to Wilkerson鈥檚 prior book. 鈥淪o how bad could it be?鈥�
DuVernay describes the making of 鈥淥rigin鈥� as centered on her work with Ellis-Taylor, a collaboration founded on their mutual personal connection to the material.
鈥淭hese things that she speaks about in her pillars of caste, that鈥檚 stuff I lived with. They鈥檙e not abstract ideas. That鈥檚 my reality,鈥� says Ellis-Taylor, who was raised in Mississippi.
Seeing race as a caste was, to Ellis-Taylor, a revelatory new paradigm.
鈥淭hat excites me. That sets me on fire,鈥� she says. 鈥淎nd I believe this film is a dangerous film. If it does the work that I want it to do in theaters, it should make people angry. It should make people mad. I felt myself as being a soldier in that battle.鈥�
DuVernay, too, describes herself as ready for 鈥渦gly feedback鈥� to the film. A prominent proponent of inclusivity in cinema and the first African American woman to direct a $100 million-budgeted live-action film, she鈥檚 accustomed to the cultural battles that often accompany frank discussions of race.
鈥淚 am used to it. But on 鈥楽elma鈥� I was unprepared and it hurt me. It hurt me when people came at me about LBJ (on 鈥楽elma鈥�) and that I鈥檓 tearing down people鈥檚 legacy and that I鈥檓 wrong and how dare I do this and that when I was advancing the perspective of a group of people that usually don鈥檛 have a story told from their point of view,鈥� says DuVernay. 鈥淚t seems whenever I do that, I'm wrong. I鈥檝e felt that vitriol and felt that anger.鈥�
鈥淚n this, I鈥檓 prepared for it in a way I hadn鈥檛 been before,鈥� DuVernay adds. 鈥淎nd my preparation involves: Deal with it. I鈥檓 not going to fight you. It鈥檚 in there. Have at it.鈥�
Yet the most common reaction to 鈥淥rigin鈥� from audiences has been an outpouring of emotion. Moviegoers often come out of the theater drying their eyes. Far from academic, the movie鈥檚 power builds through its straightforward humanity 鈥� what DuVernay calls 鈥�15 little love stories.鈥�
In between are some painful historic episodes. Yet even filming those 鈥� like the Martin shooting 鈥� the director doesn鈥檛 find agonizing.
鈥淢y experience in shooting these kinds of films before has given me a set of muscles and tools where it doesn鈥檛 bother me, and I actually feel empowered and bolstered because I get to be the teller of these stories,鈥� says DuVernay.
鈥淥rigin鈥� was shot quickly, in 37 days across three countries during early 2023. DuVernay turned it around quickly, completing the edit in time for Venice in September. It was a fast enough process that Ellis-Taylor has trouble locating it chronologically in her mind.
鈥淚 think I know why,鈥� she says. 鈥淏ecause it doesn鈥檛 feel real. It feels like a miracle.鈥�
DuVernay calls 鈥淥rigin鈥� the film she鈥檚 proudest of, partly because of how she made it outside the studio system. Each film before has felt to DuVernay, who started in the industry as a publicist, like a test, either to herself or to prove her talent behind the camera. Her last movie, 鈥� for the Walt Disney Co., adapted a famously difficult-to-adapt novel. The experience of 鈥淥rigin鈥� 鈥� while no less daunting -- was different.
鈥淔or me, it鈥檚 shifted everything I know about myself and my work. To be working with a freedom and an abandon yet a sense of certainty in my skills. To not feel like 鈥極h, I didn鈥檛 go to film school and I鈥檓 just skating by,'" DuVernay says. "This was just free.鈥�
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In a story published Jan. 17, 2024, about the movie 鈥淥rigin,鈥� The Associated Press erroneously reported the name of actor Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor. It was updated Jan. 19, 2024, to correct her first name to Aunjanue.
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Jake Coyle, The Associated Press
