JOY IN DIVERSITY
Settling for nothing but an iconic creation, director Ava DuVernay has taken a more hands-on approach to casting
THE film adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s novel A Wrinkle in Time has proven one thing: female directors are tired of Hollywood’s longstanding gender exclusivity.
Since 1929, only five female directors have been nominated for a Best Director Academy Award, and for women of colour, that number is zero.
The film’s director Ava DuVernay is the first woman of colour to direct a movie that exceeds a budget of $100 million dollars.
DuVernay, with her decision to accept the role, is a major catalyst behind Disney’s growing campaign for gender and racial diversity.
“Women directors, we’re not getting people calling us up saying, ‘hey let’s talk about this $100 million sci-fi epic,’” DuVernay said.
The opportunity to direct a movie of such a high caliber struck DuVernay as a chance to generate more conversations about gender equality.
Given full range to design how the planets, characters, and themes would be illustrated were enough to encourage DuVernay to accept the role.
The novel calls for a young female protagonist, something rare in the current film industry, but DuVernay knew exactly how she wanted to handle the challenge of finding someone suitable – 14-year-old actor Storm Reid.
Reid, who is of African and caucasian descent, will portray Wrinkle’s main character Meg who embarks on a quest to find her missing father
“I wasn’t just casting for actors,” DuVernay said.
“I was casting for leaders – icons.”
Joining Reid in the cast is Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, and Mindy Kaling who will be acting as guardian angels.
Selected by DuVernay herself, the cast comprises people of all genders, colours, and religions; it will be one of the most diverse casts to ever appear in a Disney movie.
The themes supported by L’Engle’s novel transcend to audiences today, a reason why the film adaptation has generated so much attention.
The book explores what it means to be a beacon of light in a world of darkness as well as thinking independently when faced with conformity.
Today’s political and social media climate has led the book to be as significant now as it was in 1962.
Although Wrinkle has been banned for its portrayal of good and evil, the movie adaptation has encouraged publishers to reproduce print versions of the novel for a generation better equipped to handle such themes.
Puffin Books has published a film tie-in edition of the novel on the cusp of the movie’s release with a foreword by DuVernay herself.
Wrinkle will be hitting Australian theatres on March 22.