Actress Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor’s performances often entail her holding something back from the camera. She received an Oscar nomination for her performance as the tight-lipped Oracene Price in the 2021 film King Richard. In 2023, she gave an emotionally devastating performance in the Ava DuVernay drama Origin. Her latest role is as a grandmother trying to get justice for her grandson in the film Nickel Boys. The film, which is based on the Colson Whitehead novel, follows two Black boys in the Jim Crow South who are sent to an abusive reform school. Ellis-Taylor tells The Treatment how the film resonated with her and her family’s experience in the Jim Crow South. She talks about holding something back in dramatic scenes and about why she rarely cries on camera.
Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor and Elvis Mitchell at KCRW HQ. Photo credit: Rebecca Mooney/KCRW