Congratulations Aunjanue Ellis On A Stellar Awards Season!

 

Aunjanue Ellis is on fire. 

With the award season over and done, we had only one Black woman constantly in the nomination pool. It was bound to be a hard battle— a tough hurdle when considering the history of Black women’s impossible odds in the industry. A first-time Oscar nominee for the Best Supporting Actress category (now perceived as Black women actresses’ only hope), Aunjanue Ellis’s presence was a beautiful blessing above all things. 

Image from Shondaland.

A Brown University and Tisch School for the Arts alum, the phenomenally talented Ellis has been a dynamite force on both small and big screen for years. Most people will say she was excellent in The Help. Others have watched her in The Book of Negroes, When They See Us, Lovecraft Country, If Beale Street Could Talk, and The Clark Sisters. She got her start in the gritty FOX series New York Undercover in the episode Buster and Claudia (she played Claudia). 

Aunjanue Ellis at the Oscars dressed in a gorgeous tangerine custom Versace gown. 

As an homage to Ellis’s late mother, “Jax Baby” was stitched onto the sleeve. Extremely coincidental that she lost her mother Jacqueline and I lost mine recently— Jacquelyn. Thus, this meaningful act by designers for Ellis touched me too. 

Ellis has been steadily working for decades in sometimes the smallest of parts. Unfortunately to Hollywood Reporter, she revealed why.  

“I’m going to be transparent and honest and say I don’t get a hundred scripts sent to me. Of what I do get, though, I just want to do things that I would wake up in the morning and be glad to go do for the day. What makes me personally happy. What I feel would make Black women feel seen and feel heard. That can’t be in every role that I play, but those are the projects that I try desperately to be part of and to make happen.”

Black women have it difficult in all filmmaking fields— onscreen and behind-the-scenes, especially brown and dark skinned women often encouraged to portray servitude roles, taking backseats to preferred leading candidates. That means not having the opportunity to showcase the full breadth of their talents, of their potential. And Ellis is a well-trained, gifted actress deserving of so much more. 

Ellis at the National Board of Review ceremony. Photographed by Mike Coppola. 

In The Work You Do, The Person You Are essay, Toni Morrison eloquently writes, “Perhaps he [her father, George Wofford] understood that what I wanted was a solution to the job, not an escape from it. In any case, he put down his cup of coffee and said, ‘Listen. You don’t live there. You live here. With your people. Go to work. Get your money. And come on home.’” 

When conceiving that Ellis cannot always choose the roles that do make “Black women feel seen and heard,” at the end of the day, sometimes a part is just a part— just another job. However, in this role of Oracene Price—a role that Ellis advocated and fought for— she found a calling, a welcome mat to demonstrate her acting capability. 

“I looked at the fact that I was playing this woman whom I had so much respect for, and I just felt that this can’t be true. It just felt unbelievable to me.”

Here’s hoping somebody watched Ellis’s performance and said, “I’ve got a story specifically reserved for her and it’s a good, unstereotypical one.” 

Custom Dolce & Gabbana gown at the Critics Choice Awards. Photographed by James Anthony. 

With custom “Jax Baby” on the back. Photographed by James Anthony.  

This was the biggest awards season for Ellis yet. The 2 time Emmy and 8 time NAACP Image Award nominee garnered recognition from the National Board of Review, Black Reel, the Black Film Critics Circle, the African American Film Critics Association, the ACCEC Awards, and the AARP Movies For Grownups as well as several critics awards. While Ellis is triple crown worthy, she deserves notice from our organizations. That’s why the Essence honor was a valid testament to true solidarity, a commendable honor to Ellis’s small yet significant body of work. 

Essence’s 15th Annual Black Women in Hollywood honored Nia Long, Quinta Brunson, Chante Adams, and Aunjanue Ellis. Photographed by Rich Polk for Getty Images. 

Thank you, Aunjanue Ellis for all that you do and will continue to do. You’re an amazing inspiration to so many. Let’s continue giving this brilliant woman her flowers for phenomenally dedicated work in television, film, and theater. We look forward to what comes next.