Danielle Deadwyler, who plays Mamie Till-Mobley, the mother of murdered black teenager Emmett Till, has said that being a mother to her own 13-year-old son brought extra emotion to her role.
The film also stars Whoopi Goldberg as Mamie's mother and Jalyn Hall as Emmett, the fun-loving 14-year-old kid who travels from his native Chicago in 1955 to visit his cousins in the deep south at a time when racist Jim Crow laws still held sway.
One fateful day, an innocent act of friendliness to a white girl leads to Emmett being kidnapped by white locals and murdered. Till covers the murder, Mamie's brave decision to have Emmett’s brutalised corpse displayed in an open casket and her lifelong campaign to secure justice for her only child.
Speaking to RTÉ Entertainment, Danielle said, "My mother was born in 1955, Whoopi was born in 1955 so it’s a critical year that echoes in my mind and has always done so. My son is 13 and Jalyn was 14 at the time of filming so it just has that weight.
"I’ve known about the killing of Emmett Till since I was a child in elementary school, yet I did not know about the experience of Mamie, which is introduced in this film, let alone the experience of Emmett himself so it was an awakening for me for sure as it will be for the audience."
It was a demanding role for Deadwyler, the 40-year-old actress from Georgia who has previously starred in The Harder They Fall and TV series Atlanta. She delivers a powerhouse performance of strength and controlled fury as a grieving mother.
She describes herself as a child of the civil rights community and has worked with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, where Martin Luther King began his life’s work for equality in America.
Danielle says she went through physical therapy, including acupuncture, and processed what she went through on a "psychic and a spiritual level" after she completed filming.
"Oh, indeed. And I am almost still in recovery. The recovery after filming was physical and mental and emotional.
"And I think there is also a sharing process which is almost more important because films are made in isolation, but this is different, this is still reverberating in the community, people’s experiences of it and it is a visceral experience for them.
"I'm ok though! I’m happy and I can laugh. This film goes past the trauma and celebrates the joy of Emmett and Mamie’s love."
Relative newcomer Jalyn Hall as Emmett really captures that sense of joy in a charismatic performance full of charm, cheekiness, and sadly fatal innocence.
"Jalyn has talked about his experience of the movie as just playing a kid," says Danielle. "That’s what Emmett was, he just wanted to do things that other kids did. He wanted to be with his family, be with his cousins, have fun, joke around, be 14, and grow up in a loving dynamic. That's Jalyn all over, all day."
Nobody has ever been convicted for the murder of Emmett Till and 67 years after that tragic night, Danielle hopes that Till will awaken a new generation to a terrible event as the question of race goes through a global reckoning.
"I know that Keith Beauchamp, who co-wrote this movie, had the case reopened in 2004," she says. "I know that film and documentaries have the opportunity to influence people and audiences who might not be aware of these stories.
"So, if this movie has an impact like that, if it could have an impact like that, perhaps. Has that person who is part of this case been held truly accountable? No, they haven’t, and they should be. The Till family wants that and if this movie can reignite a certain understanding in the legal process, let’s go!"
Alan Corr @CorrAlan2
Till is in cinemas now.
