If you were asked about who are the greatest American filmmakers working today, you’d be hard-pressed to come up with many that would rank higher than Ava DuVernay. After dabbling in TV and indie film, the director broke out in a big way back in 2014 with her MLK biopic “Selma.” Since then, she’s been nominated for a Golden Globe, an Oscar, and won a Primetime Emmy. She’s also broken new ground, as a Black woman in an industry and in a role that has yet to fully embrace people like her. And with her next project, the Netflix miniseries “When They See Us,” it appears that she’s going to keep that hot streak going.
In a new interview with THR, DuVernay talked about her upcoming Netflix series, and why she chose not to include Donald Trump as a character, as well as the future of the industry and her next big project, WB’s superhero epic, “The New Gods.”
But before she tackles superheroes, DuVernay tackles racism, crooked police, and a broken justice system in “When They See Us,” the series that tells the harrowing true story of the wrongfully convicted Central Park 5. And if you’re familiar with that story, you know that Donald Trump actually plays a fairly significant role in the lore surrounding the case.
Back in 1989, at the height of the news surrounding the case of the Central Park 5, Trump took out a full-page ad in the four major NYC newspapers, calling for the death penalty against “criminals of any age” (the CP5 were teens, at the time). Many saw this as fear-mongering and racism, and over time, the ad has been criticized by almost everyone. However, even though the ad is such a talking point in the case, DuVernay didn’t want to cast anyone as Trump in her miniseries.
“I decided I was telling the story of the men,” DuVernay said. “They knew a rich, kind of bloated, flamboyant guy who owned buildings across town had said something about them. They were much more concerned with their families and their lives than some guy in a golden tower.”
Obviously, having an actor play Donald Trump in the series would have made headlines, but maybe not for the reasons DuVernay hoped, so you have to commend her there.
As for other reasons to commend the filmmaker, fans of streaming services and film, in general, would probably agree with her about why she supports Netflix and its brethren in the debate between streaming and theatrical experience.
“We’ll look back in a very short number of years and it’ll all sound ridiculous,” she said. “Do audiences in Compton count? Do audiences in Selma count? Because I can’t show ‘Straight Outta Compton’ in Compton, and I can’t show ‘Selma’ in Selma because there are no movie theaters. Now you have a platform that’s saying, ‘You can make ‘Orange Is the New Black,’ or you can make ‘Roma,’ and we will make sure that audiences, not only in this country, but in 190 countries, for the price of a hamburger can see your movie, your TV show, your whatever.’”
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She continued, “For there to be any debate where that is valid is, to me, kind of self-preserving. It’s unfortunate because while some people are self-preserving, other people are being excluded, both from the making of the piece and the enjoyment of the piece. These are things that I hope the academies, both film and TV, start to think about.”
As for her future, DuVernay is set to tackle the aforementioned WB film “The New Gods,” which is a cosmic superhero story that fits in the DC universe. And much like other comic book films, she’s mum on the exact details, but she does give a hint as to the tone.
“It’s been said to be the basis of ‘Star Wars,’” she says. “It’s grand and epic in that way. It has a kitschy kind of comedic and romantic heartbeat to it that is just unlike a lot that’s out there.”
“When They See Us” will hit Netflix on May 31.