On Oscar nominations morning, Aunjanue Ellis did her best not to pay attention. The “King Richard” star didn’t watch the nominations announcement and she turned off her phone. Despite earning two Emmy nominations, for “When They See Us” and “Lovecraft Country,” and both BAFTA and Golden Globe Awards nominations for “Richard,” this was something else. So, in case it was bad news, she waited.
READ MORE: Will Smith chronicles tennis history as “King Richard” [Telluride Review]
“I didn’t know about them until about 11:00 that night. I wasn’t so much nervous for myself, but I had a whole bunch of people who wanted it for me so badly, and if it didn’t happen, I couldn’t face them being disappointed,” Ellis admits. “So, I just turned off my phone, cleaned my house, did laundry, read, ate everything I wanted to eat, and then about 11:00 that night, I was like, ‘O.K., Aunjanue, just face it, just deal with it, whatever happens.’ Then I found out.”
As Oracene “Brandy” Price, Ellis portrays the mother of iconic tennis players Serena and Venus Williams in the Reinaldo Marcus Green-directed biopic. This isn’t her first Oscar-nominated project, however. Over a 25 year career, she’s appeared in films such as “Ray,” “The Help” and “If Beale Street Could Talk” as well as numerous television roles on programs such as “Quantico,” “The Mentalist,” and the upcoming “61st Street.” Ellis is the epitome of a talented professional actor who has finally gotten her due.
“I think that’s why people are so happy for me, is because I have worked for a long time and really kind of worked in anonymity and a little bit of oblivion, and that sort of started changing, just in the last couple of years,” Ellis says. “And because I’ve worked so long and nobody knowing my work, nobody knows what I’m doing, but being in movies that were big, but I only had a couple of scenes in them or something like that. So, what I’ve had to do really is just sort of say, ‘I’m all right with that. I’m good with it. As long as my bills are paid, as long as I can take care of the people in my life with my paychecks, I’m good.’ I had become satisfied with being on the sidelines if that makes any sense. But the reality is when these things happen, when these nominations happen, the Emmys or whatever it is, they help you get more work. That’s the pragmatic part of it. It’s a pragmatic part of it that you can’t… It’s just undeniable. Especially for someone like me that having those two words after my name? It changes things. It’s just the reality.”
Over the course of our conversation, Ellis reflected on the pandemic interrupted shoot, the appeal of a Serena and Venus project, and gives a tease for “61st Street” which will debut on AMC on April 10.
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The Playlist: How did you watch the nominations, and what was your reaction?
Aunjanue Ellis: I didn’t watch the nominations. I turned off my phone and I didn’t know about them until about 11:00 that night. I wasn’t so much nervous for myself, but I had a whole bunch of people who wanted it for me so badly, and if it didn’t happen, I couldn’t face them being disappointed. So, I just turned off my phone, cleaned my house, did laundry, read, ate everything I wanted to eat, and then about 11:00 that night, I was like, “O.K., Aunjanue, just face it, just deal with it, whatever happens.” Then I found out.
When you turned your phone on, had it ever blown up like that before?
Oh yeah, well, for different reasons. But this was something different. This was something different.
You’ve been in the business for a while and you’ve worked on television and films and had such a rich career. Was this an emotional moment for you? Does this mean something or is it just another part of the journey?
No, it absolutely means something. It absolutely means something. Here’s the thing. I, as you said, I have worked for a very long time, and I think that’s why people are so happy for me, is because I have worked for a long time and really kind of worked in anonymity and a little bit of oblivion, and that sort of started changing, just in the last couple of years, but yeah. And because I’ve worked so long and nobody knowing my work, nobody knows what I’m doing, but being in movies that were big, but I only had a couple of scenes in them or something like that. So, what I’ve had to do really is just sort of say, “I’m all right with that. I’m good with it. As long as my bills are paid, as long as I can take care of the people in my life with my paychecks, I’m good.” I had become satisfied with being on the sidelines if that makes any sense. But the reality is when these things happen, when these nominations happen, the Emmys or whatever it is, they help you get more work. That’s the pragmatic part of it. It’s a pragmatic part of it that you can’t… It’s just undeniable. Especially for someone like me that having those two words after my name? It changes things. It’s just the reality.
When the role in “King Richard” came your way, what excited you about it?
Oh, Venus and Serena. That’s what excited me about it. Because I just love them. They have been heroes in my life. I’m not a tennis fan, but I love them, and they are cultural icons. They’re tennis icons, but they’re cultural icons, and the way that they have affected what really is this continuing social movement of being a woman in this country. We will never know the full of measure of that. And they did that just by being themselves. Unapologetically and brazenly being themselves and not conforming to any expectation. That is incredible to behold. And so, yo, to play their mother, you know what I mean? That’s what the excitement was. And then on top of that, when I got the job, started researching her, and then I found out how phenomenal she is and that she was their coach and people don’t know that Ms. Oracene Price was the coach of her daughters. And here’s the thing, no one knows that because it was not important to her that people knew that. She’s just an incredible figure, an incredible figure. Incredible woman.
Did you get to meet her before you shot the film at all?
No, I didn’t get to meet her. What she did was, is she did some recordings. And she talked about her life. She was interviewed by our writer, Zach Baylin, and Will, our star, and our director. And she did these epic, extended recordings and just talked about her life, but I didn’t get to meet her. We kind of were trying to make that happen but then the lockdown happened.
Oh, right.
So, I didn’t get to meet her but I did have these, those recordings, and the great thing about that is that I didn’t have to trust secondhand information about her. I just heard her talk about herself.
I’m assuming you did get to meet Serena and Venus and get their at least thoughts in the context of the film, right?
Yeah. I did get to meet Venus and Serena. I did get to meet them, but we really didn’t talk that much. I was too scared actually to talk to them. I was too nervous. I’m nervous to this day to say “Hi” and keep going. But the research thankfully was done before we started it, with those recordings. I’m sure Will did other things, but that was important to me. The other thing that I did was Ms. Oracene is a devout Jehovah’s Witness, at least she was during that time that we captured in the film, so I made sure that I went to a worship service because that’s the other part of her character that is so crucial.
You have such incredible scenes Will in this film and I think that’s why people were rooting and so excited for you because I’m not going to say you steal the movie, but you sort of steal the movie. You talked about the lockdown and if I recall correctly, “King Richard” was one of those first productions that resumed shooting during the pandemic. Did you guys have time to actually rehearse in person?
Yeah, we rehearsed from the beginning of January. Yeah, from mid-January until around the end of February. And we had a quality rehearsal period. We, of course, wanted more. I definitely wanted more because we wanted to do some more work on the words a little bit more. But we started shooting, shot for maybe three weeks or so, and we had to stop shooting. And then I just had to let it go. I let it go completely. And then we came back in September and we finished in December. And all that time that we did, we did a lot of work in our rehearsal period. And then Zach Baylin, our writer, was working while we were on lockdown. So, when we came back, he had done a lot of work on the script. And then we had another period of time before we started shooting again where we were rehearsing and working still on the words.
Were you afraid the movie wasn’t going to finish?
Oh yeah. Oh my God, yeah. I didn’t think we were going to finish at all. At all. I didn’t think I was going to be in it. You know what I mean?
Wait, what? Really?
What I’m saying is it was miracles all along the way for me. To be in it, and then I was like, this is never going to happen. And then we’d start shooting and I’m like, this is not going to happen. Even when I’m shooting I’m like, this is never going to happen. And then the pandemic happened. I was like, see, it was never going to happen. I told myself this was never going to happen. So we shut down and I was like, see, it’s never going to happen. And they would send emails saying, we’re going to start back shooting in a couple of weeks and I’d be like, “Dude, stop. It’s not going to happen.” And then they called us back and so every week I was waiting for us to shut down. It seemed we’re not going to finish, we’re not going to finish. And then we had to shut down actually when we started finishing because someone had tested [positive for COVID]. See this is before vaccines.
Yep. 2020.
Yeah. So someone had tested positive on a day when everybody had worked. Big scene. So for a week, no one shot anything, and then it turned out everybody was O.K. And then we went back and I was like, “We’re going to shut down again.” I was saying that until we stopped shooting on December 9th, 2020. So all of this that’s happening now is the miracle added to the miracles. I was just glad we finished the thing.
It does sound like a miracle on a miracle. My hope for you is… Are you going to enjoy this? Are you going to enjoy going to the Oscar luncheon and going to the show?
No, man, look, let me tell you, when I ultimately found out that I was nominated I was dancing around my apartment. I was just dancing around my apartment and I was like, “I want to buy me something.” I got to say, I’m not used to this. I’m not used to this. And then for it to be for this. Something that we… It was a year of my life. And then it to be about the Williams sisters and it to be about Oracene who I just have such admiration for. It’s really, really special. And then, these other things happen as well. I’m going to enjoy it. I’m enjoying it.
I don’t know if it’s too soon to ask this, do you know who you’re bringing? Do you know who your guest is going to be?
No, I don’t know who my guest is going to be. It’s going to be somebody from my family.
Hmm. They’re working out those ticket allotments. But the next thing I wanted to… I know you’ve got “61st Street” which is coming up soon on, on AMC. Can you just quickly say, talk about what that experience was like and who you play in it?
Well, “61st” is a courtroom drama that is about police corruption and brutality in Chicago, and a testament to how my experience on that is that I still have an apartment in Chicago because I love the city so much. And that’s where I am now. I worked with Courtney Vance who I’ve worked with a few times at this point. I know he’s tired of me, but I keep following him everywhere. I think it’s going to be interesting to see how it turns out. Courtney of course is extraordinary and we have some really young actors who are just really good. Really good. And I just pray it turns out with the intention that it was made.
Well, it certainly has an Emmy-friendly release date, so I’m going to hope that it does. My last question for you is, you talked at the beginning about how these awards and being in these big movies helps beget more work. Obviously, the film has had so much notoriety and I’m sure just getting the Oscar nomination has affected that much in a week or two weeks or whatever it’s been. But has this experience already helped your career?
It remains to be seen because what I want it to do and what I hope it will do and what I will pray that it will do is that it will create a situation where I don’t have to work for somebody. That I’m the person, I’m working for myself and in service of telling these stories that I want to tell. So the full measure of that hopefully remains to be seen and I hope that it will be seen. It kind of started maybe before the nominations came out with certain scripts being said to me that I don’t think would’ve been sent to me. And I just think it’s just the strength of the film and the strength of how people have responded to the film itself. So, I’m happy about that. I’m happy about that.
“King Richard” is now available on HBO Max.