“I’m not a fan of comics. My sheroes and heroes are real people in history”: Danielle Deadwyler, Tosin Cole, Chinonye Chukwu and Barbara Broccoli on Till

In 1955, 14-year-old African American Emmett Till was abducted, tortured and lynched in Mississippi, after being accused of offending a white woman, Carolyn Bryant, in her family’s grocery store. The story sent shockwaves around the country when his mother, Mamie Till, chose to have her son laid in an open casket so the world could see the evils her son was subjected to.

In 2023, the first biographical movie of the event has been made, and after 18 years of hard work, director Chinonye Chukwu and producer Barbara Broccoli have brought Emmett and Mamie’s story to movie theatres worldwide. Alongside the movie’s stars, Danielle Deadwyler and Tosin Cole, they spoke to journalists at a Q and A following a preview screening of the film at the Soho Hotel.

Broccoli said pitching and making the film has “been a journey”. She said: “People kept saying, ‘No one is going to want to see this film’, ‘Why do you want to make it?’, ‘It’s sad’, ‘What’s the point?’. We heard it for years and years and years, and it wasn’t until we finally went to Alana Mayo, who is the president of Orion Pictures, she said, ‘We are making it’.

“We feel it is a very important story to tell, and the way that our director made this film, she made it a very immersive experience so you don’t feel as if you are looking at something in black and white from 1955. You are in it. You bear witness to what happens, and I think that that is why you feel so emotionally engaged in this and why it is so relevant to everything that is still happening.”

On hiring Chinonye Chukwu to direct the film, Broccoli said: “We needed someone truly remarkable and we found the right person. We were very much wanting a female director.”

Having seen her previous movie Clemency, “We set up a meeting with her, and from the moment we met her, we just felt she was the right person. She was captivating and we just trusted her and she proved to be an extraordinary director for this film. The way she designed every aspect of this film is impeccable.”

Danielle Deadwyler, who takes on the leading role at Mamie Till, said, “Chinonye and I wanted to show the full complexity of Mamie’s humanity, because she makes a full shift from being someone who just wanted to live in a cocooned, prosperous life in Chicago and she is uprooted from it as a result of the tragedy. She comes into a different kind of knowing about her womanhood, her motherhood and one that has applied outside of just one, but to many. That full journey has to be deeply respected”.

Tosin Cole, a British American actor, who plays the role of civil rights activist Medgar Evers, said he didn’t have long to prepare for his audition, and wasn’t aware of the importance of his character at first until he conducted further research. He said: “When I found out who Medgar Evers was I was like ‘Oh wow’. If I don’t know, how many of the people that I grew up with also wouldn’t know about him? So I thought, ‘you know what, let me step up and put my big boy pants on and get to it’.

“I’m looking at Emmett and thinking what he had to deal with and I’m thinking, ‘I’m scared to play this role because I haven’t got enough time?’ I’m thinking, ‘Bro it’s not about me, it’s about a bigger purpose’. So I had to serve that and serve him as truthfully, making sure I get everything right with my soul and being.”

Keith Beauchamp is a filmmaker and historian who specialises in Emmett and Mamie Till, and worked alongside Broccoli to get the movie created. He said: “For me, anyone who came on this project, I had set such a high bar because I knew mother (Mamie) Mobley. All I have ever wanted to do was resurrect my friend. I wanted people to be inspired by the women who I feel gave me a life in many ways with the work that I do. So when I saw them bringing these sheroes and heroes to life, I was truly overwhelmed.

“I am not a fan of comics. My real sheroes and heroes are real people in history, growing up in the Deep South on the front lines. To see them bring it to life is just overwhelming.”

Guy Lambert

Till is released nationwide on 6^th January 2023. Read our review here.

Watch the trailer for Till here: