Coming out this week from A24 is Trey Edward Shults’ Waves, which stars Emmy-winner Sterling K. Brown, Tony Award winner Renée Elise Goldsberry, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Oscar-nominee Lucas Hedges, Taylor Russell, and Euphoria’s Alexa Demie.
Written by Shults, the film is set in South Florida, and traces the epic emotional journey of a suburban African-American family— led by a well-intentioned but domineering father—as they navigate love, forgiveness and coming together in the aftermath of a loss.
The future is bright for Tyler (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), who seems to have everything he needs: a wealthy family to support him, a spot on the high-school wrestling team, and a girlfriend (Alexa Demie) he’s head over heels in love with. Committed to greatness and under intense scrutiny from his father (Sterling K. Brown), Tyler spends his mornings and nights training. But when pushed to the limit, cracks in the perfect façade of Tyler’s existence start to show, and the stage is set for a true American tragedy.
For the Goldsberry, who won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for originating the role of Angelica Schuyler in the Broadway musical Hamilton, this is a big role for her on the big screen. Having appeared as Evangeline Williamson on One Life to Live and a recurring role on The Good Wife as well as numerous guest appearances on various TV shows, it’s good to see her talent added to this film and story.
Blackfilm.com spoke exclusively with Goldsberry as she talks about joining this film and what she brought to her character.
What was the attractive saying yes to this role?
Renée Elise Goldsberry: I heard wonderful things about the filmmaker, Trey Edward Shults. His first movie ‘Krisha’ was such so groundbreaking and so special. Everybody just knew he was one to watch. The two things I knew about it before I even saw the script where him and then that would be opposite Sterling K. Brown, and I hadn’t met him. He says I did meet him before because he came to see Hamilton and I said hello. I didn’t know that we had met before. I was just a huge fan and just thought it would be a great opportunity to work with a wonderful actor. I I joined the cast and immediately discovered that I was I was right on both accounts. They’re, both the director and and my leading man, are truly special talented people.
How would you best describe your character?
Renée Elise Goldsberry: Catherine is a therapist and she is a mother in the family. I say therapists first because I think it’s ironic that she be defined by that perfection and somehow miss some pretty strong cues that there was a crisis coming. The apple of her eye in this movie is her first son. She’s a woman who got a package deal with this family, a beautiful husband and two beautiful young children who had been through tragedy in their life. She came in a bit of a savior to the family. She learns that she can not save the family and she herself thinks she is also responsible for the tragedy that happens in this movie. She has to make a decision as a stepmother in this family if she’s going to stay in this marriage and she’s going to continue to be a mother to these children and through a lot of pain and identity crisis, she makes the beautiful choice of staying.
What part of Catherine is you?
Renée Elise Goldsberry: I think there’s a lot of me and every character that I do. That’s the kind of actress I am. I’m always looking for the part of me that makes this person human and real and makes me the person that she played in this role. I love the fact that I have never played so many different sorts of women and I’ve never found anybody that I don’t identify with. That I don’t see through all of vulnerability as somebody strong and potentially powerful and most importantly, crucial to see on screen or on TV on the stage.
I’m increasingly aware that I feel like an ambassador for women and for women of color. And now as I get older for women of color of a certain age, I feel like an ambassador for the ways that we’re depicted in our culture and in our in our entertainment and in the arts. Mostly important that we are there. I think it’s easy to disregard us I think sometimes. I think that’s our greatest fear as women that we will start to disappear. I love the fact that in the story of a family, she is present and she is responsible for the good things and the bad things that happened in this family. I want us to be I want us to be on screen. I want our power to be to be known and I get the great joy of finding whatever in me there is to bring these women to life.
Can you talk about working with Sterling, Kelvin and Taylor?
Renée Elise Goldsberry: I didn’t know any of them before this film. It’s the tribe that’s so great about being an actor. It’s the people you get to rub shoulders with and really truly intimately get to know and work with. I met all three of them, really truly met them, the night before shooting, Trey took us all out to dinner. We all met at this really dark, really great place in in Florida that has really good burgers and a lot of fries. We just sat in this outdoor booth in all of this humidity in the summer and met each other for the first time then and laughed and talked. I just got to see that these beautiful young people are going to be my children. I got to hear Taylor talk about the character and what she was thinking and just realized how intelligent she is and quite honestly how much work I had to do because she was way ahead of me in terms of the amount of time she’d been thinking and plotting and planning about backstory and who she is and things that her character would need and things that are character would know.
I got to see Kelvin and just to see that behind this exterior of a very innocent, unassuming young man is a beast. If you look in his eyes, he’s calculating at all times. Just the level of risk that he can take and I’m grateful that he’s doing it because this character was it was a huge risk. He took that jump and he flies. It’s really inspiring with all of the young people in this movie, Lucas hedges and Alexa Demie there. They’re also brave and fearless. Sometimes I wonder, what I would have done with these opportunities at that age. I marvel at the grace at which they handle it.
Is there a message from watching this movie because it is a family affair?
Renée Elise Goldsberry: It’s interesting. One of the things that I’m so grateful for any positive reviews and any buzz about this movie is that it makes me be able to say, “You heard there is a buzz. Just go see it.” I don’t want to give anything away. I’ve really enjoyed watching these film festival audiences know so little and go on a ride and not know where it’s going and have to survive that and then come out on the other end really moved and changed.
I’m interested in seeing how people, as they hear more about what’s going on in the movie, decide what kind of date night on are going to watch this on and how it plays out. What I love is like any really great piece of art, different demographics, different screenings. So far haven’t found an audience that didn’t understand the message, which definitely means it’s universal. Which makes me feel that the only kind of thing we need to watch for just how old you need to be. How young of a child could come watch this movie? Because outside of that, I don’t think there’s any restrictions. I don’t think there’s any person that will see and understand who these young people are, who this family is, and understand the importance of the messages of forgiveness and resilience. That’s exciting to me.
What goes into the projects that you say yes to whether it be theater, movies or television?
Renée Elise Goldsberry: That’s a great question. I do feel like I’m an ambassador, meaning that I have to be responsible about what role I’m playing. Without sometimes feeling that I have all the power to make those choices. I’m not the storyteller. I’m not exactly sure where it’s going to go. But I want to feel like people, women, black women, black people, anybody regardless what your demo you check, if you’re going to come see something that does not undermine your moral character, I want to see positive themes. It can be a very dark movie, as long as we’re not glorifying things that really undermine our humanity. That’s what I care greatly about that. I care greatly about how women are treated in movies. I care greatly about how women of color are treated and handled. I want to make sure that they’re seen. I want to make sure that they are recognized as beautiful. I want to make sure they’re a prize in film.
In TV and on the stage. I’m very particular about that. I’m really concerned spiritually with what message as a Christian. I’m always worried about what are we saying, what is the theme of this movie? Maybe not so much what my character is doing, but what’s the takeaway? What is the message? That’s that’s challenge and and those are questions I’m asking when I have an opportunity to evaluate taking a specific job. I make mistakes. Sometimes I don’t have enough information. Sometimes I’m attracted by things that I miss other things and I’m always praying that somehow or another we will get it right and right doesn’t necessarily mean that it makes a million dollars and wins a lot of awards. But that it is a force of good in the world. That’s what I’m always praying for. With Waves, the script had a young black character committing an act I thought was risky. I didn’t know as a mother of a young son I would want to see this cast in this way. I was concerned that the hero in this movie about a black family was not a black young person, a young man. That’s what I was worried about. What I’m excited when I watch this movie is that I learned something. As long as I’ve been fighting that battle and as much as I think I know about how to fight that battle, I learned something with this movie because the hero in this film is not one one man or another man regardless of the color. I think the hero in this movie is a young woman of color and I totally would have missed that.
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