Danielle Deadwyler is offering her thoughts on Hollywood and systemic racism after she missed out on a 2023 Academy Award nomination for her role as Mamie Till-Mobley, mother to Emmett Till, in director Chinonye Chukwu’s film Till.
Deadwyler was a guest on Kermode & Mayo’s Take in an episode of the podcast released Thursday. During the conversation, the actress was asked about Chukwu posting to Instagram on Jan. 24 about “unabashed misogyny towards Black women” after the film did not receive any Oscar nominations earlier that day.
The actress said she agreed with the director and went on to describe “residual effects” of systemic racism in both a governmental and societal capacity. She mentioned that Gone With the Wind star Hattie McDaniel was unable to sit with her white co-stars when she became the first Black person to win an Oscar at the 1940 ceremony, and Deadwyler added that it should be widely understood that racism has a “lingering effect on the spaces and the institutions” in today’s society.
“We’re talking about people who perhaps chose not to see the film,” the Station Eleven alum said about Till. “We’re talking about misogynoir. It comes in all kinds of ways. Whether it’s direct or indirect, it impacts who we are.”
Deadwyler’s response included the term “misogynoir,” which is a word attributed to scholar and activist Moya Bailey to describe racism experienced by Black women.
The actress continued, “The question is more intent on people who are living in whiteness, white people’s assessment of what the spaces they are privileged by are doing.”
Deadwyler earned BAFTA, Screen Actors Guild, NAACP Image and Critics Choice nominations for Till and was seen by many Oscar pundits as likely to land a best actress Academy Award nomination for the film that follows Till-Bradley seeking justice for the murder of her son Emmett, who was 14 years old at the time of his 1955 death.
After the movie missed out on Oscars recognition, Chukwu posted a photo of herself with activist Myrlie Evers-Williams, who is portrayed in Till. The director added a caption that read, in part, “We live in a world and work in industries that are so aggressively committed to upholding whiteness and perpetuating an unabashed misogyny towards Black women.”
Ryan Gajewski
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