- Title: 'Nickel Boys' film uses first-person POV to deal with dark subject matter
- Date: 18th October 2024
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (OCTOBER 14, 2024) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTORS, BRANDON WILSON (SCREEN LEFT) AND ETHAN HERISSE, SAYING: HERISSE I mean, even for me, without this movie, I wouldn't have known about it. And so it's one of those things that when you do learn about it, you wonder why doesn't everyone. Why isn't this something that is talked about mor
- Embargoed: 1st November 2024 10:05
- Keywords: Brandon Wilson Colson Whitehead Ethan Herisse Nickel Boys Nickel Boys film Nickel Boys movie RaMell Ross The Nickel Boys
- Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM AND VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
- City: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM AND VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
- Country: UK
- Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Europe,Film
- Reuters ID: LVA00B193315102024RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Filmmaker and artist RaMell Ross says he wanted his adaptation of Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "The Nickel Boys" to offer audiences a new experience that avoids familiar tropes in its depiction of the book's harrowing subject matter.
His solution was to make the movie entirely from a first-person point of view.
Set in 1960's Florida, "Nickel Boys" tells the story of Elwood (Ethan Herisse), a bright Black youngster, who following a mix-up, gets sent to an abusive reform school deep in the Jim Crow-era South. Amidst the horrors he experiences and witnesses at the Nickel Academy, Elwood finds solace in another Black teen, Turner (Brandon Wilson), and the two form a tight bond.
"The first-person approach was the first thing that came to mind. It seemed quite natural," Ross, who co-wrote the film's screenplay, told Reuters in an interview.
"As Colson Whitehead has said, he wrote the book with him being Turner and him being Elwood and the conversation being amongst themselves. I think a lot of Black folks can see their children as either of those two," Ross said, adding that he rooted the movie in imagery inspired by his own past and personal experiences.
"They're all my memories, almost all the images are just contrived or reconfigured from things I've seen on the street or just my imagination," he said.
Ross's vision meant his leading actors either had camera rigs attached to their bodies or positioned themselves within the film crews for shared scenes.
"We've kind of explored this idea that there was a lot of physical restraint, and I think that very much unconsciously would feed into this feeling that both of these boys are experiencing of being trapped in this world of Nickel and being stifled," said Wilson.
Taking on the part of Elwood and learning about the reformatories was an eye-opening process for Los Angeles-born Herisse, 24.
"Without this movie, I wouldn't have known about it. And so it's one of those things that when you do learn about it, you wonder why doesn't everyone," he said.
"It feels really great to kind of come from that place of not knowing as well and then feeling distraught and upset and then being able to be a part of something that spreads the information and brings the truth to light," said Herisse.
"Nickel Boys" marks the feature film debut for Ross, 42, whose 2018 documentary "Hale County This Morning, This Evening" was nominated for an Oscar. The movie has also earned award buzz since its launch at autumn film festivals.
"I'm still in awe at the film being received as well as it has been," said Ross. "I'm really excited for everyone who's been a part of the film to get their fair share of praise. It's such a big project and so many people's hands went into basically everything."
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