Essence_USA__February_2018

“I’m here to do something specific,” the Queen Sugar helmer says, explaining
that she’s only interested in telling inclusive stories that highlight people of color.
However, at first Wrinkle didn’t seem to fit her mission. “I would have never
thought of myself for this. I would’ve never thought about it, looked at it; I’d
never read the book,” the director explains. Despite DuVernay’s initial hesitation
about adapting L’Engle’s story for the big screen, Tendo Nagenda, executive
vice-president of production at Walt Disney Studios, insisted DuVernay keep an
open mind and just read the novel. When she did, everything changed.
“I read it, and of course, as any reader, you put yourself in the book. You see
people that you know inhabiting the world,” DuVernay says. “So when I went in
to talk to him about it, I said, ‘This is how I see it. I see this as being multicultural,
even down to the main character.’ I’m
like, ‘She’s gotta be brown.’ ”
Disney didn’t even flinch at
DuVernay’s reimagining of L’Engle’s
narrative; in fact, the director said
they expected her to create a film
full of characters from diverse backgrounds.
Though the studio was on
board with her intention to make
Wrinkle look like the real world,
Nagenda challenged DuVernay to
go even further. “He said, ‘Beyond
the people, imagine the world, Ava.
You get to create worlds, create
whole planets,’ ” she recalls.
Storm Reid wears a
Gucci dress, David
Yurman earrings and
Via Spiga “Faxon”
sandals. Ring,
stylist’s own.
Stylist, Jason
Bolden/Tack Artist
Group. Hair, Lacy
Redway for Nexxus/
The Wall Group.
Makeup, Mylah
Morales for Dior/
Vision Nation
Artists. Manicure,
Nettie Davis/
kenbarboza.com.
Set design, Walter
Barnett/Opus
Beauty.
Before Wrinkle DuVernay
had not worked on a
project employing a
lot of visual effects.
Though she’d used
them on a smaller scale
to increase the size of a
crowd or edit out something in the
frame on Selma and Queen Sugar, for
instance, the world building in this intergalactic
film called for the director to
learn an entirely new language.
“The visual effects were taken up
to another level. We were creating
things from scratch,” she says. “The
first meetings I went into, I was like,
I’m just gon’ sit here because I really
don’t understand what those five
wordstheyjustsaidare.ButI’llknow
by the next meeting. I wouldn’t go out
and go learn them on my own; I’d say,
‘Teach me that. What is that? What’d
you just say?’ I don’t have any problems
with saying, ‘I want to learn,’ and
just being a quick study.”
“I just watched The Wizard of Oz
again last year with one of my godchildren
who was seeing it for the first
time, and the magic of that is exactly
what Wrinkle is going to be for another
generation,” Winfrey says. According
to the OWN founder, whose blessing
often means certain success, Reid,
now 14, will be a bright light for young
people. “Sometimes I’d be watching
her on set and would really tear up
at her performance because she will
82 ESSENCE.COM FEBRUARY 2018