When the script for “The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat” landed on Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor‘s desk, she jumped at the opportunity to star in the historical drama. Despite a three-decade-long career, it’s a rarity for Ellis-Taylor to find herself cast in projects that pass the Bechdel test. “The Supremes,” which debuted at the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival (MVAFF) on Wednesday night, is based on the best-selling novel by Edward Kelsey Moore. Directed by Tina Mabry, the film offered Ellis-Taylor and her castmates, Sanaa Lathan and Uzo Aduba, the chance to participate in something rarely seen on screen.
“There is a lack of curiosity about Black women, about the lives of Black women.A lack of interest, and a lack of care,” Ellis-Taylor says, sitting down with Variety at the festival. “The Supremes” is a rebellion against that.”
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Set in a small southern town, the film follows lifelong friends Odette (Ellis-Taylor), Clarice (Aduba) and Barbara Jean (Lathan) as they experience the joys and sorrows of life, grasping tightly to their friendship until a series of tragedies during their middle-age years threatens to rip them apart.
When Mabry (“Mississippi Damned”) first learned about the film, which follows the women across 30 years, she was intrigued.
“Gina Prince-Bythewood had done the first adaptation, and she reached out to me and said, ‘Hey, there’s a movie. You’ve got to read the book,'” the director says. “Upon reading the book, I saw my family and all the women I know —my friends. It was just very familiar and authentic in a way. We don’t get a chance to showcase what women look like in this age group and a love story between friends. There’s a very big gap and a yearning and a want for that.”
Bringing “The Supremes” to the big screen was no small feat — especially given the short production schedule. “With 30 days to shoot a 121-page script, 35 actors, four time periods and one of your top five getting COVID on day two, it presents very much a hiccup in the schedule,” Mabry notes.
Yet, the filmmaker was determined to create an efficient set for her cast and crew. “I’m only as good as the crew that I work with. I hope they feel safe enough in the environment that I can provide for them to be vulnerable,” she adds. “You can’t fail on my set. That’s not possible. I’ve got three thespians sitting here — how can I not let them do their job and bring that to the table? I will guide them, but I want them to always feel safe enough to try. You don’t get that everywhere.”
Since the story follows the women from age 18 to 50, the veteran actors worked with their younger counterparts, Kyanna Simone (Odette), Tati Gabrielle (Barbara Jean) and Abigail Achiri (Clarice), to ensure cohesiveness across the film.
“That was wonderful,” Lathan says. “It was so funny because you do realize that whatever age you are, you still feel the same age. But then we showed up on set — it was almost like two different movies.” The film was shot chronologically, she explained, so the younger actors did their part first. “There’s just so much energy. They’re all so talented, and they just were sponges and so curious, and they really looked to us for gestures, and we all broke down the characters together. We spent time with them separately, and we keep in touch. To this day, it’s like we’ve made new friends.”
Allowing the characters to stand in their missteps and flaws aided in the film’s authenticity. In portraying Clarice, who forgoes a career as a classical pianist to raise a family with her philandering husband, Richmond (Russell Hornsby), Aduba learned a valuable lesson.
“When you lose yourself, even if it’s just a piece of you, the idea that you would sacrifice — and I’m not saying you need to be wholly selfish —but to leave yourself behind comes at devastating costs,” she says. “And I think it happens more frequently than we know. Clarice taught me to do those things that make you happy. We’re watching a woman who left her life behind in service of others.”
More than just a flat story about the ups and downs of life and friendship, “The Supremes” has the same texture and nuance that made films like “Waiting to Exhale” and “Fried Green Tomatoes” so beloved. Lathan’s Barbara Jean, for example, is a tender woman devastated by the hardships of life. However, showcasing her character’s softness with her pain was paramount.
“I just feel they’re not mutually exclusive,” Lathan explains. “You can go through a lot of pain and still laugh. Black women are known for that, right? Barbara Jean found joy in aspects of her life, her son and her family. What I love about this script is that these are whole human beings. It’s not stereotypical. So she’s a mess at times, but she’s so much more. She’s struggling with addiction and pain, and yet she still can provide and be a good wife to her husband.”
Lathan continues: “It’s so funny. ‘Women of a certain age,’ that sounds like we’re 80, right? But we’re still vibrant. We still live, and we’re still learning. We still have experiences, and we need to see that reflected. We’re not all good. We’re not all bad. I love that.”
As beautiful as the story is, it’s still a rarity for women —especially Black women — to see themselves portrayed this way on screen. That’s why pushing for these roles and representation in an industry that doesn’t often see Black women is a part of Ellis-Taylor’s larger objective.
“It can tear you apart. It can rip you at the seams because you see what’s valued and what’s not valued. And we are not valued,” she explains, growing more passionate as she speaks. “I’m from the state of Mississippi, where the legislature is trying to redact figures in our history from curriculums. I know the power of cinema and television. If it’s not going to happen in the classroom, we’ve got to do it in other places.”
Ellis-Taylor concludes: “It is hard to stay on track when you feel assaulted by that, when you feel the lie of that. That’s why I am so grateful to Tina and Gina Prince-Bythewood. This is a rebellion against that.”
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