Q&A: Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor speaks on Oscar-nominated film 'Nickel Boys' and why it matters

In the Oscar-nominated film "Nickel Boys," the warm embrace from Hattie (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) radiates from the screen, pulling the viewer deeper into the heart-wrenching story.

Hattie is the grandmother of Elwood (Ethan Herisse), a Black teen who gets sent to a juvenile reform school in the 1960s Jim Crow era just before he starts college. There, he builds a friendship with Turner (Brandon Wilson) as they both navigate the dark, segregated underbelly of Nickel Academy, where abuse and corruption runs rampant. Throughout the film, Hattie works incessantly to reunite and seek justice for her grandson.

"Hattie saw Elwood as her hope," Ellis-Taylor explained. Notably, shot from a first-person point of view, the film was directed by RaMell Ross and was based on Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. It's inspired by the harrowing true story of the now-shut down Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, Florida.

The institution was at the center of atrocious allegations of racism, deaths, beatings, and poor conditions. It was closed in 2011, and dozens of unmarked graves were found on the grounds. Last year, Florida officials awarded millions to an estimated 400 survivors for the abuse that occurred between 1940 and 1975 at Dozier and a second overflow reform facility.

“Nickel Boys” is nominated for best picture and best adapted screenplay. USA TODAY interviewed veteran actress Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, who has played in movies like "Ray," "If Beale Street Could Talk," and "King Richard," which earned her an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress.

She spoke about her role as Hattie and the film's timeliness. (Note: This interview was edited for clarity and length and contains minor details about the movie.)

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Q&A with Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor of 'Nickel Boys'

Q: I'm curious to know if you knew the true story before you got the script and, if not, what your reaction was during your research.

Aunjanue: I would say I had superficial knowledge about what had happened at the Dozier school. I didn't have a full understanding of it. I knew that what had happened -  at least with the bits and pieces that I had heard about - was barbaric and yet unsurprising. But I didn't become fully educated about it until I started to work on the film.

Q: What helped you prepare for your role as Hattie? Where did you draw inspiration from, and how do you feel you maintained her sense of warmth in such a tragic story?

Aunjanue: I think one of the things that I was conscious about and intentional about was that I wanted her to be warm.  I wanted to show what it is like for a grandmother to love her grandson. I tried to express that in my smiles.  I wanted that adoration to shine as much as possible, just because we see it so rarely. And I know how much I adore my niece and nephew. They make me smile far more than they make me scowl so I wanted to show that because that was real to me.

Q: Can you tell me how you think the film adequately shows the grandson-grandparent dynamic, especially in Black families, and how the film depicts that truthfully?

Aunjanue: Hattie saw Elwood as her hope. She was nervous for him, nervous for the activism work that he was beginning to do. She was nervous for his life, but in many ways, relented because she knew that Elwood was among thousands of Elwoods during that time, and they were the hope, not just for her, but the hope of and for the Black community and communities at risk in a racist and casteist society.

Q: In the scene when Hattie first meets Turner, she doesn't know him from anywhere. She just sees him at Nickel Academy, but she still embraces him. What do you think that scene reveals about Hattie, just as a character?

Aunjanue: I think Hattie and Turner have something in common, and that is loneliness. That's isolation. It's this exile that they both feel.  I think Hattie is a lot like all our Black grandmas and Black mamas. They have an emotional intelligence in that way. They're very sentient in a way that they can look at you and know something ain’t right. She looks at this boy and the idea that he doesn't have somebody to hug him and thinks that is a crime. And thinks that's a travesty, and it's like, "No, not in my presence, not today. Somebody's going to love you today."

Q: Why is the scene when Hattie finally hugs Elwood at the school so effective for viewers?

Aunjanue: I think that it depends on how the viewer meets the film. If you're me, and you see this, you're thinking about the idea of not being able to reach or touch someone you care about, someone you love, especially when you know that the thing holding them and keeping them away from you is unjust. You know the frustration of that, the pain of that, the inevitable depression, the scars that it puts not only on your psyche but on your body. We don't talk about the physical effect of white supremacy on Black life and how it affects your body.

Some of the work that I did in Mississippi regarding the Confederate flag there, I remember days when I could not get out of bed because I was so depressed and so angry and felt so helpless. That affected my sleep pattern. Folks who don't care about stuff like that ain't losing sleep, you know what I mean. It affects your health. So imagine being a grandmother, and you’re not just dealing with the tools of white supremacy, but white supremacy taking something specific and human -  your grandson away from you. What does that do to her body? Let alone her mind and soul, you know? So if you come into it with that coursing through your blood, I know you watch that and feel reflected.

Q: How challenging was it to film that scene from a first-person point of view?  I know you previously spoke about speaking to a camera instead of a person, so how was that experience for you in general?

Aunjanue: Weird, you know? Listen. I knew that whatever I was going to do with my genius director, RaMell Ross, was going to be something that I had never experienced before, and that's why I wanted to do it. I knew that I was going to have to make, as my co-worker Ethan Herisse says, the camera a scene partner and, ultimately, the viewer a scene partner. And I don't like cameras. I hate them. I despise them. Sorry! I've never felt comfortable with them. They've always felt intrusive. It always makes me feel like what I'm doing is fake. So imagine having to take that thing you have talked about, which has been an enemy all your life, and make it your friend and have a relationship with it. It was strange. It was hard. It was never, not tough, but you know what Hattie was going through at the time was never not tough, so I think it fed the work.

Q: Why do you think now, in 2025, is the right time to tell this story?

Aunjanue: It is past the time for everybody to know what happened to those children at that school. First of all, it shouldn’t have happened in the first place. There were folks in that community. They knew what was happening to those kids, and they did not say anything. What does it say about this country that we allow that kind of barbarism to happen on our soil and don't say anything, don't do anything about it? I mean, slavery happened here, and it took hundreds of years for that to end because, somehow, it was okay to do that to people. What does that say about our humanity? It was always the right time to tell this story because it should have never happened.

Q: How do you think this film will impact directors who want to tell similar stories of injustice in the future?

Aunjanue: What RaMell is doing, I think, cannot be overstated. What he has said about “Nickel Boys” and the way that he shot it, is it's not enough to tell the story. I can answer your question by saying, Yeah, we need to tell more stories, right? But that's not enough. It's not enough to tell more stories. You also have to examine the tools with which we do the storytelling, and that is what he has done. What he is saying is it's not just about the dearth of storytelling about Black life and injustice and so on. It is the camera itself that needs to be confronted and how the camera itself has been complicit in creating these images that have been complicit in how we have been demoralized and harmed by this economy that is built on white hatred.

Q: What was your reaction to the film’s nominations for best picture and best adapted screenplay?

Aunjanue: We had to get people to understand that what RaMell is doing is something that is this sort of necessary revolution and a way to honor these children and what happened to them in a way that is singular and rare. So I swear to you, it is all I wanted, and for it to happen, I'm just overjoyed.

Taylor Ardrey is a news reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her at tardrey@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Q&A with 'Nickel Boys' actress Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor