Exclusive: Whoopi Goldberg on playing Alma Carthan, Mamie's mother & Emmett's grandmother in Till
Hitting theaters everywhere on October 28th from Orion Pictures is director Chinonye Chukwu’s Till, starring Danielle Deadwyler as Mamie Till Mobley and Jalyn Hall as Emmett Till. The film had its World Premiere at the 60th New York Film Festival.
Till tells the story of Mamie Till-Mobley (Deadwyler), whose pursuit of justice for her 14-year-old son Emmett Louis Till (Hall) became a galvanizing moment that helped lead to the creation of the civil rights movement. As Time Magazine reported, “…thanks to a mother’s determination to expose the barbarousness of the crime, the public could no longer pretend to ignore what they couldn’t see.” Mamie’s decision to have an open casket at Emmett’s funeral, and to have Jet magazine publish David Jackson’s funeral photos, was driven by her motivation to ensure people everywhere knew what had happened to her son.
Till stars Danielle Deadwyler (Mamie Till Mobley), Jalyn Hall (Emmett Till), Frankie Faison (John Carthan), Haley Bennett (Carolyn Bryant), Sean Patrick Thomas (Gene Mobley), John Douglas Thompson (Moses Wright), Jayme Lawson (Myrlie Evers), Tosin Cole (Medgar Evers) and Whoopi Goldberg (Alma Carthan).
Produced by Keith Beauchamp, Barbara Broccoli, Whoopi Goldberg, Thomas Levine, Michael Reilly and Frederick Zollo, the film is written by Michael Reilly, Keith Beauchamp and Chinonye Chukwu.
For Goldberg, the film has been a long time coming. Back in the days when she was getting leading role films and won the Oscar for her role in Ghost, Goldberg was part of a project where she was to play Mamie Till Mobley. The financing was a challenge and the film never got off the ground. Decades later, she finally to get to be part of an Emmett Till project but in a different role and as a producer on the film.
Blackfilmandtv.com’s Wilson Morales spoke with Goldberg about her experience on the film.