On Oprah Winfrey: Alaïa dress, Rebecca de Ravenel “3 Drop Petal” earrings, Neil Lane rings and Sophia Webster “Coco Crystal” pumps. For clothing details, see Where to Buy. Stylist, Annabelle Harron/The Wall Group. Hair, Nicole Mangrum. Makeup, Derrick Rutledge. Set design, Walter Barnett/Opus Beauty. 84 ESSENCE.COM FEBRUARY <strong>2018</strong>
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. —OPRAH WINFREY COURTESY OF SUBJECT The term “#BlackGirlMagic” is thrown around quite a bit these days, but Wrinkle actually personifies it. But even more than that, DuVernay says the epic is her ode to Black women and girls. “I so want Black women to love it and Black girls to love it. I want everybody to love it, but this is a love letter to us,” she says. “This is me trying to make us in a way we haven’t been rendered in film before—as a firmly centered hero in a fantasy about other worlds and as the saviors of the whole universe. Looking at everything we think we’re not, and at the end of the movie we are all of everything.” Reid hopes other youngsters will feel affirmed after watching her character Meg transform from an awkward teen who lacks self-confidence into a powerful heroine whose bravery and love of her family rescues the world. “I just want people to have more confidence when they leave the movie theater and love themselves and know that they are okay,” she says. “Know you are a beautiful Black girl with big curly hair with a big nose, or not—just love yourself and know that you are perfect just the way you are.” Winfrey,whoadmittedtoenjoyingsimplybeinganactress—notaproduceror a network honcho or the boss—during the filming of Wrinkle, says she believes the film can serve as a lesson for the divisive times in which we currently live. “Being abletosoundthealarmto the restofthe planetthatdarknessisspreadingsofast. And how rage leads to violence and violence begets war and war begets catastrophes. It sounds as if we’re talking about what’s happening in our world right now,” she says, noting her role of Mrs. Which is a manifestation of her life’s mission to bring positivity into the world. “I feel like I called that in even when I didn’t know I was calling it and that it was obviously meant to be.” In spite of its positive themes and backing by Disney, it’s hard to deny the pressure is on DuVernay to deliver a blockbuster. Future projects by the director, who’s extremely outspoken about the need for more women and people of color to be given a chance in Hollywood, may be judged unfairly as a result of Wrinkle’s performance. Still, DuVernay, who’s had a string of achievements, including an award-winning TV seriesandanEmmy-winningdocumentary,13th, isn’tstressedabout Wrinkle’s prospects. “I feel pressured with everything I put out,” DuVernay admits. To cope, she says she draws on advice from her father: Worrying is useless energy. “Whenever those feelings come, and of course they come, I just push them away, because it’s not helping me, and I got things to do,” she adds. Like her Wrinkle cohorts, DuVernay has already moved on to the next thing. She’sresearchingandwritingadocumentaryaboutthe CentralPark5whilepreparingforseasonthreeofQueen Sugar; Reid has started working on the feature Only You, which costars David Oyelowo; and Winfrey is busy running her network, sifting through acting roles and adding items to her O, That’s Good! food line. Juggling so many projects means the outstanding director doesn’t have time to agonize over whether her project will be a hit. “Look, some of this stuff’s not going to resonate,andI’mnotgoingtoput all my eggs in the basket of the things that resonate or the things that don’t,” she says. “I’m just going to keep working.” DuVernay also refuses to get hung up on the fact that she’s the first Black female director to experience this level of success and acclaim in Hollywood. “When I’m introduced as the first this, first that…it sounds like Charlie Brown’s mom to me. It doesn’t mean anything to me. It’s not anything I earned,” she says. “I don’t allow myself to take it in like it’s real. I’m trying to have all of us up in there and more. I don’t want to be someplace by myself. I don’t want to be on a pedestal as the first this and that. That’s so wack; that is the old way of thinking.” Still, whether or not Wrinkle is a success, Winfrey says it’s destined to touch audiences. “It’s going to reach the right people,” she says, explaining that while they were filming in New Zealand a native tribe blessed the land they were using. “I just remember looking up and thinking, Oh, wow, this whole movie will be infused with the energy of this. We’re starting in the right space. We’re doing this the absolute right way by honoring the land and the people who were here before us first. So I know it will reach the right people. It will reach the people who are supposed to see it.” And because she’s Oprah, you know she’s right. º Britni Danielle (@BritniDWrites) is a Los Angeles– based writer, editor and whiskey lover who regularly explores the intersections of race, gender and pop culture in her work. FEBRUARY <strong>2018</strong> ESSENCE.COM 85
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