‘Nickel Boys’ Star Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor on Experiencing the Most Prolific Year of Her Career and Why She Likes Playing ‘Inconvenient Women’

variety.com:

Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor has never regarded the camera as her ally. “I’ve always felt like it was an enemy, because it feels intrusive,” says Ellis-Taylor, folding her legs under her on the couch in a West Hollywood hotel as she discusses her latest role in “Nickel Boys.” Movie sets are like construction sites, where filmmakers build a world out of nothing.

There, in the middle of all that hammering and people rigging lights, “actors are asked to transform and have a human experience with a big-ass piece of machinery that is a foot away from you,” she says. “And then you’re not supposed to look at it.” “Nickel Boys” — in which she plays Hattie, the dutiful grandmother of a teenage boy wrongfully sentenced to attend a brutal reform school — presented a unique challenge.

Director RaMell Ross shot the harrowing drama in a distinct visual style, with Ellis-Taylor staring down the lens of the camera instead of into the eyes of a human scene partner. “Then I get this job, and I have to make it my friend.

I have to have an intimate relationship with it and embrace it.” The experimental setup was difficult to get used to, even for an Oscar- and Emmy-nominated actor.