Interview: Ava Duvernay
Ava Duvernay is having a moment. An actual super-hot, super-defining cultural moment. But also a moment in the sense that my nana meant it. The director is sitting, eyes wet, in the white marble bar of a swanky London hotel. She’s just realised that this, right here, right now, is the end. The very end of the very long journey that has been the making of new Disney fantasy epic A Wrinkle In Time. Grazia is Ava’s final interview of the whole two-year process. The night before was the European premiere and her cast – including stars Storm Reid, Mindy Kaling, Reese Witherspoon and Oprah – have already left. She stayed on in London to speak to me and is reflecting on the still-raw goodbyes. ‘It was really emotional,’ she says, visibly moved. ‘I saw Reese on the red carpet and said, “This is it.” Her eyes immediately welled up with tears and she was like, “We can’t do this here!”’
We’re celebrating the end with a spread of deepfried delights: chips, calamari and cheese fritters that jostle for space on the table with Ava’s Prada clutch. It was, is, a pretty big deal. Ava Duvernay has made history. Again. She was the first female African American film-maker to receive a Golden Globe nomination (for 2014’s civil rights drama Selma). She was the first with a film up for a Best Documentary Feature Academy Award (for 2016’s 13th, about racial inequality in America’s prison system). Now, with A Wrinkle In Time, she is the first to helm a live action film with a budget of over $100 million.
It was also the film that saw her call up a good friend. One who most people don’t have on speed dial. Oprah. Their relationship began after Oprah saw Ava’s 2012 film Middle Of Nowhere and tweeted her. ‘It was crazy, I dropped the phone,’ she says, eyes wide even now. ‘She said, “Good job, sister.”’ Their bond tied tight with a knot when Oprah invited Ava to brunch at her house. ‘I took her these flowers – I spent extra, went to the biggest place in Hollywood,’ she laughs. ‘I get there, look behind her and there’s like an acre of flowers. Mine look like dead tulips compared. She was very gracious, even though she was standing in a field of flowers; carefully cultivated from all over the world… Like the botanical frigging gardens!'
Ava’s accomplishments are all the more mind-