[Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike.]
Aunjanue Ellis became a household name with her Oscar-nominated performance as Oracene Price, mother to tennis greats Venus and Serena Williams, in the 2021 sports drama “King Richard.” Her extensive list of credits includes everything from films such as “Ray” and “If Beale Street Could Talk” and TV series including “True Blood,” “Lovecraft Country” and “When They See Us.” Now she stars on “Justified: City Primeval,” which brings the Elmore Leonard character U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, played by Timothy Olyphant, back to television once again.
This time, the action has moved from Harlan County, Kentucky, to Detroit, and Ellis’ character plays a criminal defense attorney. “I like her because she and Raylan are kindred spirits. At first, she doesn’t like his tactics and he doesn’t like hers. But she actively seeks justice — even if that justice doesn’t happen in a courtroom — and I think she has that in common with Raylan.”
When asked about a worst moment in her career, Ellis said: “There’s nothing that happened in film or television that I would want to tell anybody, you know what I’m saying? It’s not fun or revelatory. But then I started thinking about my theater career and then it got interesting.”
My worst moment …
“I went to NYU in the graduate acting program. And at that time in the program, film and television was frowned upon. They were doggedly focused on theater. So the expectation was that when you graduated, you went to regional theater or Broadway. And then you just did film or television to pay your rent.
“So I did a few plays in New York. I wasn’t at regional theaters, where you can sort of hide while you learn and get better. It was off-Broadway or Broadway, where everybody in the world saw it. And girl, it was never good! It was always terrible! I was always sucking.
“For example, I played Hermione in ‘The Winter’s Tale’ for Shakespeare in the Park and there’s a scene where she turns into a statue. And the theater critic for The Village Voice wrote: ‘Aunjanue Ellis is best when she’s a statue.’ Oh my god! So that’s what I mean when I say I was always sucking.
“But that’s not the story I want to tell you.
“I did this other play on Broadway that was a reimagining of a Chekhov play. Really wonderful writer. But all the other things that needed to go into weren’t necessarily there, so there weren’t a whole lotta people in the audience. And the further we went along into the run, the audiences kept dwindling.
“In the play, I leave to go find myself, and then I come back. And when I return, I’m this tragic figure and I have a monologue that’s supposed to be heartbreaking.
“Now, at the same time we were doing this production that was not going well, Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs was doing ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ on Broadway. We were mad jealous because everybody was going to see ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ and not us.
“There was a rumor that the cast of ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ had the night off for some reason and they were going to come see our play. So of course, I was like: I’m going to show Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs how it’s done. I’m going to show him sadness like he’s never seen in his life (laughs)!
“So the night comes and, indeed, the cast for ‘A Raisin the Sun’ is in the audience. Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs is there. I go to my corner backstage to prepare and the tears are ready. And I come out and the pathos is just flying all over the place — in my mind, at least. I am emotion in skin! I’m doing my thing!
“And then in the middle of it, in the corner of my eye, I see somebody — in the middle of a row, in the middle of the theater — start stepping over people to get out. To leave! In the middle of my monologue! I’m doing this monologue better than anyone has ever done a monologue in theater! And I look (laughs) and it’s Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs who is leaving!
“I’m thinking: (expletive), where are you going?
“I am doing this tragic speech and you’re gonna walk out in the middle of it?
“Luckily I wasn’t too distracted — I got through it and did my job. But I don’t know if he ever came back (laughs). I don’t think he did.
“I didn’t talk about it with my fellow actors that night. In fact, I have never talked about it until right now. My feelings were hurt and I think that’s why I haven’t talked about it. Now there’s enough distance and I’m able to laugh about it.
“But I realized theater is not for me as an actor. I love being a theatergoer. But I’m not a good theater actor. And I’m at peace about that.”
How did Ellis push through those early years when she wasn’t happy with her work onstage?
“What happened was, I was doing theater. But very soon I started getting these television jobs. And it was the most money that anybody in my family had ever made. And then it became: I gotta keep doing this because I have to take care of my family.
“The thing is, just for context, I never was like: I want to be an actor. So when a critic said ‘you’re better as a statue,’ I was like: I agree (laughs), I don’t think I’m that good either, dude. But then I started making money and then it became about: I gotta keep making this money because I have people to take care of in my life.
“For a long time in my career, I didn’t feel connected to something I really cared about. But I came back home to Mississippi about 10 years ago because I had someone in my family who was ill and I needed to be with them. So acting was a way to take care of this person. And also, I was living in racist Mississippi, and coincidentally, I started doing work that spoke to that. And things just changed and I started to feel different about acting.
“I went through a long time, like 20 years, where, if I wasn’t doing theater that no one liked, I was in TV pilots that didn’t get picked up or in movies that no one saw. That went on for the bulk of my career. And I would say it’s only the last 10 years that I have been in things that people actually saw and liked. And on top of that, they actually liked me in it! So that’s really new to me.”
The takeaway …
“Maybe I needed to learn from my unsuccessful theater career, because it showed me that the time I was investing, not that it was for naught — I grew from it — but it just wasn’t for me. And I think I had to do it in order to know that, and not see it as a failure.
“It was hard because I was constantly getting reamed! It was constant. And maybe I needed to have that public humiliation I guess (laughs) to go: You know, this isn’t for you.
“I love theater. But I don’t necessarily need to be on stage to experience it.
“So maybe there was something pushing me to get to this point. It made me the actor I am today. I don’t trip about a lot of stuff that I think other people do, because I’m used to things not going well. I’m always surprised when they do. So I can appreciate things more, I think.”
