‘The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat’ Cast On Black Women’s Stories

When the script for “The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat” landed on Onganio Ellis Taylor’s desk, she jumped at the chance to star in the historical drama. Despite her three-decade career, it’s rare for Ellis Taylor to find herself in projects that pass the Bechdel Test. “The Supremes,” which premiered 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 gave Ellis Taylor and her co-stars, Sanaa Lathan and Uzo Aduba, the chance to take part in something rarely seen on screen.

“There is a lack of curiosity about black women, about their lives,” says Ellis Taylor, sitting with colleagues. “There is a lack of interest, a lack of care.” diverse “At the festival.”[The Supremes]”It's a revolution against that.”

Set in a small Southern town, the film follows lifelong friends Odette (Ellis Taylor), Clarice (Aduba), and Barbara Jean (Lethan) as they experience the joys and sorrows of life, clinging tightly to their friendship until a series of tragedies during their middle years threaten to tear them apart.

When Mabry (Mississippi Damned actress) first learned about the film, which follows women over 30 years, she was intrigued.

“Gina Prince-Bythewood wrote the first version of the novel, and then she reached out to me and said, ‘Hey, there’s a movie. You have to read the book,’” the director says. “Reading the book, I saw my family and all the women I know — my friends. It was so familiar and authentic in a way. We don’t get a chance to show what women of this age look like and a love story between friends. There’s so much gap and longing and desire for that.”

Bringing “The Supremes” to the big screen was no small feat — especially given the short production schedule. “With 30 days to shoot a 121-page script, 35 actors, four time slots, and one of your top five actors getting COVID on the second day, that’s a pretty big slap in the face,” Mabry notes.

Still, the director was determined to create an effective set for her crew. “I’m only as good as the crew I work with,” she says. “And I hope they feel safe enough in the environment I can provide them to be vulnerable.” “You can’t fail on my set. It’s not possible. I have three actors sitting here — how can I get them to behave well?” no “Let them do their work and put it on the table? I'll guide them, but I want them to always feel safe enough to try. You can't have that everywhere.”

Since the story follows women from 18 to 50, the veteran actresses worked with their younger counterparts, Kayana Simon (Odette), Tati Gabrielle (Barbara Jean), and Abigail Ashery (Clarice), to ensure cohesion throughout the film.

“It was amazing,” Lathan says. “It was so funny because you realize that no matter how old you are, you still feel the same age. But then we showed up on set — it was like two different movies.” She explains that the film was shot chronologically, so the younger actors got their roles first. “There’s so much energy. They’re all so talented, and they were so sponges and so curious, and they were really looking to us for cues, and we all analyzed the characters together. We spent time with them separately, and we still stay in touch. To this day, it feels like we’ve made new friends.”

Allowing the characters to stand up for their own faults and flaws helped give the film credibility. In her portrayal of Clarice, who gave up a career as a classical pianist to raise a family with her cheating husband Richmond (Russell Hornsby), Aduba learned a valuable lesson.

“When you lose yourself, even if it’s just a part of you, the idea of ​​sacrifice — and I’m not saying you need to be completely selfish — but leaving yourself behind comes with devastating costs,” she says. “And I think that happens more often than we know. [Clarice] “He taught me to do things that make you happy. We watch a woman who left her life behind in service to others.”

“The Supremes” is not just a superficial story of life’s ups and downs and friendship, but it has the same texture and nuance that made films like “Waiting to Exhale” and “Fried Green Tomatoes” so beloved. For example, Lathan’s Barbara Jean is a delicate woman who has been ravaged by life’s hardships. Yet showing her character’s softness through her pain was crucial.

“I feel like they’re not mutually exclusive,” Leith explains. “You can go through a lot of pain and still laugh. Black women are known for that, right?” [Barbara Jean] “She found happiness in aspects of her life, her son, her family. What I love about this scenario is that these are full human beings. It's not stereotypical. So she's messy at times, but she's so much more than that. She's struggling with addiction and pain, and yet she's still able to provide care and be a good wife to her husband.”

“It’s so funny,” Leithan continues. “Women of a Certain Age, it’s like we’re 80, right? But we’re still vibrant. We’re still living, we’re still learning. We’re still having experiences, and we need to see that reflected in our lives. We’re not all good. We’re not all bad. I love that.”

As beautiful as the story is, it’s rare for women—especially black women—to see themselves portrayed in this way on screen. That’s why pushing for these roles and representation in an industry that often doesn’t see black women involved is part of Ellis Taylor’s larger goal.

“It can tear you apart. It can tear you apart because you see what is appreciated and what is not. And we are not appreciated,” she explains, growing more passionate as she speaks. “I’m from Mississippi, where the legislature is trying to remove figures from our history from the curriculum. I know the power of film and television. If it’s not happening in the classroom, we have to do it somewhere else.”

“It's hard to stay on track when you feel attacked by that, when you feel lied to by that,” concludes Ellis Taylor. [That’s] “Why I am so grateful to Tina and Gina Prince-Bythewood. This is a rebellion against that.”