It’s lovely and so refreshing to take heed to. I’ve seen discourse on-line with sentiments like “Black movies at all times must have some sort of trauma. Why cannot our characters simply be glad?” What are your ideas on that line of considering?
AET: Violence is a actuality. Violence and violence towards Black folks, specifically, are a actuality. Why are we curious about mendacity about it? But the problem for us is to not make it pornographic, to not fetishize it, and to deal with it in a method that provides presentation, relatively than being written for us, which occurs after we watch the information, proper? So, that is what’s essential. Life is difficult. What we did not say was that within the midst of all of it, within the midst of the trauma, within the midst of the ache, we at all times discovered pleasure. It was by no means only a trauma. There has at all times been pleasure in there someplace. There has at all times been love in there someplace. I feel that is what Hattie does, and the rationale I attempted to do what I did in Nickel Boys is as a result of so many occasions these representations of black motherhood are… it is nearly like tears are foreign money.
What I needed to do was additionally make his smile related, make his adoration for his grandson, the love he had for his grandson legitimate, make it equally essential, as a result of there was a scarcity of that, not simply within the motion pictures, however in our properties. My grandmother did not smile at me, however she took care of me. She stood in line to get me authorities cheese as a result of she did not have the cash to purchase it herself. She did all this stuff for me as a result of she was desperately in love with me, however she by no means smiled at me. He by no means mentioned, “Aunjanue, I really like you.” He by no means mentioned, “Aunjanue, you might be so cute.” He by no means mentioned these issues, however he beloved me desperately. This is how he expressed love. Right inside her was the smile… inside her was the adoration. What I needed to do was carry it out, present it bodily.
