Aramide Tinubu When the script for “The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat” landed on Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor‘s desk, she jumped at the opportunity to star in the historical drama.
Despite a three-decade-long career, it’s a rarity for Ellis-Taylor to find herself cast in projects that pass the Bechdel test. “The Supremes,” which debuted at the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival (MVAFF) on Wednesday night, is based on the best-selling novel by Edward Kelsey Moore.
Directed by Tina Mabry, the film offered Ellis-Taylor and her castmates, Sanaa Lathan and Uzo Aduba, the chance to participate in something rarely seen on screen. “There is a lack of curiosity about Black women, about the lives of Black women.
A lack of interest, and a lack of care,” Ellis-Taylor says, sitting down with Variety at the festival. “[The Supremes]” is a rebellion against that.” Set in a small southern town, the film follows lifelong friends Odette (Ellis-Taylor), Clarice (Aduba) and Barbara Jean (Lathan) as they experience the joys and sorrows of life, grasping tightly to their friendship until a series of tragedies during their middle-age years threatens to rip them apart.
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