Right time for inspiration
Director aims for ‘a little bit of sweetness’ for children’s classic
LOS ANGELES — Oprah Winfrey wants nothing but the best for Ava DuVernay. So she is elated to witness DuVernay’s meteoric rise over the past half-decade.
That time frame also marks the duration of their young friendship, so far. Soon after they met, Winfrey jumped on board as co-producer and actor in DuVernay’s 2014 film Selma, which recounts a pivotal moment in the life and activism of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Things are a little different this time around, as the two women prepare for the release of A Wrinkle In Time, the long-awaited adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s 1962 novel.
“First of all, you have Disney money,” Winfrey said, referring to the $103 million budget that has seen DuVernay become the first female filmmaker of colour to direct a live-action feature with a production budget of more than $100 million.
“With Selma, at the end, it was, ‘Are we gonna have enough money? How much money do I have? Let me see if I can help you out here,’ ” Winfrey said. “(This time) we’ve got the Disney machine. And one of the reasons why it’s so exciting is that you’ve got Ava DuVernay at the helm of that. It makes me well inside. …”
For DuVernay, being handed that kind of budget to oversee the adaptation of a world-famous kids’ book by the world’s biggest and most storied children’s film company was a dream come true.
And she immediately set about making the story her own, casting an actress of colour as the film’s protagonist and sprinkling the rest of A Wrinkle In Time with a contemporary spirit that marks it as a flagbearer for Hollywood in the era of #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter.
A Wrinkle in Time tells the story of an awkward adolescent girl named Meg (Storm Reid), who with help from her little brother, Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe) a cute older boy named Calvin (Levi Miller) and three benevolent deities — Mrs. Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon), Mrs. Who (Mindy Kaling) and Mrs. Which (Winfrey) — must travel through space and time in search of her father.
“It’s a film for young people, and people who are young at heart,” DuVernay said. “I had to ask myself, ‘Do I still have heart?’ And, ‘Is there an inner child still in me?’
“There is love in every frame of this movie,” she said. “There’s love in every frame of everything I do. … These films are my children, they’re what I leave behind.”
Without naming names, she said her latest film can be seen as a balm for the current political climate.
“I tried to give a little bit of sweetness to the world in these dark times,” she said. “It’s a tough time, right now. This film really saved me, in a lot of ways, from going down dark holes. ”
The story’s celebration of the ingenuity of its young female protagonist is crucial, DuVernay said. The child of physicist parents (played by Chris Pine and Gugu Mbatha-Raw), Meg struggles to fit in at school and to find the strength to overcome the seemingly insurmountable challenges of her mission. Ultimately, she learns, that strength must not come from the world outside, but from within. That message of empowerment resonated with the director.
“We’re living in a chaotic time, as adults,” she said. “Imagine the tension (kids) feel. So to be able to give a little breather, say who you are is enough, and this is how you’re going to make it through — by finding something in yourself that guides you. We all have that little voice inside of us, and a lot of times we don’t listen to it.”
To illustrate her point, DuVernay brought it back to someone she loves and respects, who recently had to deal with millions of people telling her what they thought she should do.
“A friend of mine had a tremendous experience of peer pressure of gigantic proportions that I had never experienced or seen, just a couple of weeks ago, when the whole country was saying, ‘You should run for president,’ ” DuVernay said, eyeing Winfrey with a wry smile.
“She said, ‘The voice inside of me says, ‘I am not your president. I can do good in the world in a different way.’ I probably would have even said, ‘Everybody thinks I should? Maybe I’ll try.’ But that’s what we need more people to tap into — your own voice.”