Exclusive: Nicole Beharie On Working With Director Channing Godfrey Peoples On ‘Miss Juneteenth’

Coming out this week from Vertical Entertainment is Miss Juneteenth, the debut film from writer-director Channing Godfrey Peoples. The film, which had its world premiere earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival and also won the Louis Black “Lone Star” Award at the SXSW in March, will be released on demand and digital on June 19th. That’s same day as the155th anniversary of the Juneteenth holiday.

The holiday commemorates the abolition of slavery in Texas on June 19, 1865, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation — a celebration that includes an annual beauty pageant.

Written and directed by Peoples, the cast includes Nicole Beharie, Kendrick Sampson, Alexis Chikaeze, Lori Hayes, and Marcus Maudlin.

Turquoise Jones is a single mom who holds down a household, a rebellious teenager, and pretty much everything that goes down at Wayman’s BBQ & Lounge. Turquoise is also a bona fide beauty queen—she was once crowned Miss Juneteenth, a title commemorating the day slavery was abolished in Texas. Life didn’t turn out as beautifully as the title promised, but Turquoise, determined to right her wrongs, is cultivating her daughter, Kai, to become Miss Juneteenth, even if Kai wants something else.

For Beharie, it’s a return to Texas where she broke out in her film debut American Violet. Since then, she’s appeared in Steve McQueen’s Shame, Matthew A. Cherry’s The Last Fall, 42 with Chadwick Boseman, Monsters and Men with John David Washington, and the Black Mirror with Anthony Mackie. For three seasons, she had a lead role in the Fox supernatural drama series Sleepy Hollow.

Blackfilm.com spoke exclusively with Beharie about filming Miss Juneteenth, working with Channing Godfrey Peoples and the history of the date.

How did you get involved with this project?

Nicole Beharie: It was just a normal audition. Actually, I love the script so much. I love Channing’s script. It was like a love letter to Texas and It felt very intimate and nuanced in a way that I wanted to step into the role. I auditioned for it, and then I think that they were on the fence because of my age. And so then I took a few notes, and I did it again. Then we had some conversations about dialect and everything, and then I stepped into the challenge; but she was very serious about me doing Texas, right. We were going to be shooting with locals, which most of the cast is other than Kendrick Sampson and Alexis Chikaeze and I. So it was a challenge. But I was I was excited about it.

How would you best describe Turquoise?

Nicole Beharie: Turquoise is salt of the earth, strong conflict. imperfect, hopeful and forgiving. She’s a single mother, who happens to be married, but is basically raising her child on her own. She’s just trying to really figure it out and she is hell bent on giving and providing for her daughter a better life than the one that she had, by any means necessary. That’s where we find her. She’s very headstrong about the way that it has to happen.

How do you best relate to her?

Nicole Beharie: I relate in so many ways. I was raised by a single mother. I relate to, to be completely honest, aging as a woman. Actually one of the gifts that Turquoise has given me is to don’t look back. There’s a lot ahead of you. You have to see the potential for good and ingenuity in the moment and where you are in your life as opposed to looking back at the past and trying to hold on to whatever that is. Because when you think of it, I did a film called American Violet. That was one of my first films. There’s a parallel between the pageant and stepping into a character like Turquoise and like going back to the South or back to Texas, so that’s really interesting that there’s a symbolic parallel there. Not necessarily like living in your heyday believing in your now and and finding value. I think a lot of women can relate to that, men probably too, but being in the present and seeing where you are and what you have to offer.

How did you work with Channing on this one and what is it that you can probably take from her directing skills to your next project?

Nicole Beharie: I think Channing was really clear about wanting to highlight black natural beauty. She didn’t want a lot of makeup. She wanted certain subtle, smaller acting, a lot of intimacy in the scenes with lower volume. There will all these little things that were important to her that at the time, you probably didn’t really get it, but you trusted her. I feel like it works and it works within the world that she created in a way that she wanted to tell the story. She was very specific about the community and who she cast and the people who actually work and live in that bar that I was working and living in and also at the community center and the Juneteenth museum. All those things are real. She she knows what they are. We had to do this serve and support that. I’ve played characters before that were based on other people. But I’ve never had a director who had a particular relationship with the environment and with the story so that they could be so specific to guide us. I think that is what people are feeling when they say it’s very intimate and like a slice of life.

This is not the first time that you are playing a mom, so what’s that feeling like again?

Nicole Beharie: I’ve played so many moms. This is like my eighth time playing a mom. Wow. I think the only time I didn’t play a mom was in Sleepy Hollow. There’s three projects where I didn’t play a mom. I’ve always had kids.

How was working with Alexis?

Nicole Beharie: That was that was wonderful. For Alexis, this is her first film as well. We auditioned her she was nervous, but she was ready. She was so quick. She’s learning on set. She’s learning where to hit her mark, where to look at the camera, and how to calm. I’ve never seen anybody focus like that and just get it together so quickly. I’m pretty sure I would have been a wreck if I had jumped into that part, the way that she did for the first time on camera. It was really beautiful. There’s a moment in the film where she wet her hair, and it’s actually not scripted. Initially, I think that is something that they’ve worked on or talked about that day. She did it in like one shot. She’s filled with all this emotion. I when I saw the movie, I was so proud of her. The first time you’re on a set, you think there’s going to be just you and the camera, but there’s like a gazillion people in the room. You have to you have to create that intimacy, which is most of the skill. So yeah, she’s a rock star and I’m really excited to introduce her to people.

What can you say about the aspects of the beauty pageant and the history of Juneteenth?

Nicole Beharie: Well, the pageant is a is an interesting thing. I’m not a big pageant person personally, and I know that there are people who want to do this because they’re into the pageant thing. In that whole pageant world, that’s not really something that drew me in. I was more drawn to the history of the celebration of honoring the slaves that were free, our ancestors that were free on June 19 1865, which is two years after the Emancipation Proclamation in Galveston, Texas. That was one of the last hold on freed slaves. They were finally told or finally found out that they were free. That just means a lot to me. Every time I say this I get chills, because in this moment, I feel like people are calling on and demanding freedom yet again. It’s like a continual process. So I think it’s important to to celebrate when that change officially really happened even though we have the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. People weren’t actually fully free for set free until 1865. I think it’s our job and with what’s happening right now, to continue and move in the direction of freedom and higher consciousness and access and equality

Because of the pandemic and a stoppage of work in different areas, lots of people have had to do things to survive. What have you been doing during your period, especially when there’s no productions going on?

Nicole Beharie: I’m not going to lie. At first I actually was really nervous and in shock about the Coronavirus because I’ve dealt with illness in the past. I wondered about the risk and what it would be like, but then I grounded. I’ve been spending a lot of time in nature. A lot of time with family. A lot of time connecting. I actually am writing some scripts with some people. So that’s something to look forward to.

Because of some of the things that I’ve experienced in the medical field and and in the healthcare system, I’m working on making some holistic products and tinctures and just talking a little bit more about that. So I’m planning that launch. Even though it’s scary to stop and not be working and not be like going, going going and I live in New York and always out and about, it was something and is something really powerful about reframing and taking stock of what was really important. I feel like a lot of that happened for me in particular, during this time. I personally feel different than I was in March and the beginning of March.Today I feel like a different person. So much has happened. So many epiphany, so much change from just sitting still.

It’s been some time since folks so you in a leading role. What’s that feeling like?

Nicole Beharie: I don’t know. It’s weird because it was such a small production. It just felt like a theater troupe. We were in people’s homes in Texas and in a family friend’s funeral home and all that. I don’t know. It feels good to have so much work to do. I do like to build a character and I love to make it nuanced. It was nice to have a nice storyline. But I honestly don’t mind being the wife in Black Mirror and showing up for a scene or do a Little Fires Everywhere. like I love. I love all of it to be completely honest. It’s wonderful to have the opportunity. I’m definitely not trying to stop any abundance at all my direction, but it’s fun to do all of it.