Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with The Subject’s Aunjanue Ellis

Award-winning actress Aunjanue Ellis has captivated audiences with the dynamic characters she’s brought to life in projects including Quantico, If Beale Street Could Talk, Lovecraft Country.

This fall, she stars opposite Jason Biggs and Nile Bullock in the gripping and timely drama The Subject.

Pop Culturalist had the pleasure of speaking with Aunjanue about The Subject, the film’s timely message, and what she hopes audiences take away after they see the film.

PC: Tell us about The Subject and your character in the film.
Aunjanue: I play a woman named Leslie whose son Malcolm (Nile Bullock) is killed as a result of a violent act. At the time, he was the subject of a documentary being filmed by a man named Phil (Jason Biggs). Leslie feels that Phil should have done more to disrupt the death of her son, so it’s about this man (the documentarian Phil) and the mother of Malcolm coming together with their grief. That confrontation is what happens at the end. But it’s also about how Phil deals with the choice that he made to not help Malcolm when he should have.

PC: You’ve done it all throughout your career. What was it about this particular script that stood out to you?
Aunjanue: Our screenwriter Chisa Hutchinson’s words. The character that I’m playing is a Black mother who is grieving because her son has been killed. We see that character a lot on television because it reflects the world that we live in, but because we see it so often it’s a role that can get dismissed because it can be tropey. It’s a bit of an archetype. If you don’t do it right, it can be a stereotype, but Chisa provides such great language for Leslie, for Phil, for all these characters. It’s fresh and new. It feels like something that this woman lives. That’s what made me want to be a part of it.

PC: You’re not only starring in the project, but you’re also an executive producer. At what point in the creative process, did you realize you wanted to step into that role? Was it a challenge to wear multiple hats?
Aunjanue: They actually offered that to me. A lot of times these things are vanity signatures. I’m telling you that it happens. They’re like, “You want to be a producer? We’ll put you here. We’ll make you a producer.” But this wasn’t one of those things. I really worked with Chisa, Lanie [Zipoy], and Jason to make this something that we all wanted the world to see. That last scene that you saw, we really put a hammer and nail and carving knives into it. We wanted to create a scene that would leave the audience feeling like they had work to do. It isn’t just the work that we did—after the movie, they would have to do the work. It was great to be a part of that.

PC: Like you were saying earlier, the film builds up to this intense confrontation between Phil and Leslie. As an actress, how did you prepare for that scene?
Aunjanue: I had to get those words backwards and forwards and forwards and backwards again in my head because there were a lot of words. I know that sounds really “sophomore,” but it was a lot of words. I had to make sure that I knew them. Then what came after that was the working relationship that I had with Lanie, Chisa, and Jason. Jason was so, so open and generous with who he is—not just as an actor but who he is as a human being. We developed this communication between us that went beyond the words that we had to say. You do your preparation, but the great gift of it is when you work with someone like him and it doesn’t feel like work.

PC: That’s the perfect segue to this next question. I imagine when you’re approaching a scene like that, it involves a lot of trust. How did you and Jason build that?
Aunjanue: Jason was key to that because he made me feel welcome. He’s the leader of the film. He made me feel that I could try things. I had to slap him in the film. He was like, “Hit me, girl.” [laughs] He was so open, generous, and adventurous. He’s a risk-taker. As soon as they said, “Cut,” he was cracking me up. He was a lovely guy. I know people lie about that stuff all the time in these situations, but I’m not lying about him. I’m not.

PC: There are so many timely and relevant themes within the film. Was there one in particular that hit home for you?
Aunjanue: The closing moments in the film. I don’t want to give it away, but it has to do with the idea that somehow the situation that we presented in the film can be solved. That would have been dishonest. For me, it was important to show that.

What has stayed with me is the notion of the work that we all have to do in terms of how we handle race. We have to acknowledge that it’s a problem and that the work is continuous. To present the idea that if we do A, B, C that that’s going to solve things, that’s just dishonest. It’s not sustainable. We see that because we see the same problems happening all the time. They don’t go away. We think it’s solved and then they bloom back up again. For me, what’s so unsatisfying—but actually satisfying as well—are those moments in the film where we aren’t trying to solve the problem, we’re just trying to say that this is what the problem is and that we have to deal with it.

To keep up with Aunjanue, follow her on Twitter.