Ava DuVernay continues to wow us with her powerful body of work and she’s proud of everything she has created. The fab directress is featured on the cover of ESSENCE’s March “Black Women In Hollywood” issue. Go inside for a few insightful quotes she dropped about being a female director and more…
If you follow Ava DuVernay’s work then you know she’s nothing but the truth. “Queen Sugar” will have you all in your feelings as you start investing in the characters she created, while her documentary 13th will open your eyes on how America has never been in favor for the black man/woman. She uses storytelling like no other and she takes it very serious to convey different messages to the masses.
The fab directress graces the cover of ESSENCE’s March “Black Women In Hollywood” issue where she opens up about her films, which she dubs as her “children,” and how she approaches directing. Her good friends Oprah and David Oyelowo also dish on Ava’s directing style.
Read the highlights below:
On her "children": “I want to do what I want to do for as long as I want to do it. I don’t have children. These films are my children. So this is what I will leave. I’m going to give them all the love and nurturing I can and send them out into the world to do what they’re gonna do…”
On her approach to directing:“I don’t have to approach film like a man would, or like anybody else I read about, because it’s personal…so there’s no right way or wrong way. Directors talk about their process but that doesn’t have to be my process. My process is where the sets feel very familial, where I like to know my cast personally and where I value who people are more than their names…[It’s important to] imbue the sets and the experience with a sense of myself, a sense of warmth, a sense of family, not shying away from the things…that make me a Black woman, and just embracing those things and letting that come out in the material itself…”
Oprah on Ava as a director: “I saw Ava on the set of Selma, out in 104 degrees, finding knee pads for some of the older women who needed them. She’s walking around handing out knee pads: ‘Ma’am, here. Put this on your knees. Ma’am, I think you should have some water.’ And she’s got a whole thing of waters. She, the director, comes from behind the camera and she’s passing out water…”
David Oyelowo on working with Ava: “Who we are intersects with what we create, and Ava is someone I genuinely adore spending time with. I refer to her as my sister because I feel like I’ve known her far longer than I have. We barely need to say words for me to know what she needs out of me…” [Excerpt: ‘His goal, adds Oyelowo, is to continue to doing projects with her forever: “Until the day I die…”’]
So magical.
Check out a behind-the-scenes clip of Ava during her photoshoot below:
Ava's cover and full interview hit newsstands Friday, February 17th.
Photo:ESSENCE