Last month, Danielle Deadwyler missed out on a Best Actress nomination at the 2023 Academy Awards for her role in as activist Mamie Till-Mobley in “Till,” to the ire of the film’s director, Chinonye Chukwu. Not long after the Academy released its nominations, Chukwu took to Instagram to protest her film not receiving any at all. Chukwu called the snub “unabashed misogyny towards Black women.” Now, Deadwyler follows up on her director’s comments.
The Hollywood Reporter reports that Deadwyler spoke about “Till” getting shut out on “Kermode & Mayo’s Take” podcast yesterday. And she agrees with Chuwku’s take. On the podcast, Deadwyler described how she believes the “residual effects” of systemic racism informed the Academy snubbing “Till” entirely. “We’re talking about people who perhaps chose not to see the film,” said the actress. “We’re talking about misogynoir. It comes in all kinds of ways. Whether it’s direct or indirect, it impacts who we are.” Scholar and activist Moya Bailey coined the term “misogynoir” to describe racism as experienced exclusively by Black women.
Deadwyler also referenced the Academy’s history of systemic racism at its awards ceremony, citing “Gone With The Wind” star Hattie McDaniel not being allowed to sit with her white co-stars when she became the first Black person to win an Oscar at the 1940 awards. Like her snub for a Best Actress nomination, Deadwyler sees McDaniel’s story as an example of how racism has a “lingering effect on the spaces and the institutions” in contemporary society. “The question is more intent on people who are living in whiteness, white people’s assessment of what the spaces they are privileged by are doing,” Deadwyler continued.
While Deadwyler failed to receive an Oscar nod (or a Golden Globe nod) for her turn in “Till,” the actress did earn them from BAFTA, Screen Actors Guild, and NAACP Image and Critics Choice. Thanks to those nominations, Deadwyler and Chukwu liked their chances to land the same accolade from the Academy. In “Till,” Deadwyler portrays Till-Mobley as she seeks justice for the 1955 murder of her 14-year-old son Emmett.
After “Till” failed to get any Oscars recognition, Chukwu took to social media to defend her film. On Instagram, she posted a photo of her and activist Myrlie Evers-Williams, with the caption, “We live in a world and work in industries that are so aggressively committed to upholding whiteness and perpetuating an unabashed misogyny towards Black women.”
