Exclusive: Anika Noni Rose talks The Watsons Go to Birmingham, Half a Yellow SunPosted by Wilson Morales
September 18, 2013
Premiering on September 20, 2013 on the Hallmark Channel is The Watsons Go to Birmingham, which is based on Christopher Paul Curtis‘ novel and stars Anika Noni Rose, Wood Harris, David Alan Grier, Skai Jackson, LaTanya Richardson, Bryce Jenkins, and Harrison Knight.
Written and co-produced by Tonya Lewis Lee and directed by Kenny Leon, the story around a nine-year-old boy whose family experiences one of the most chilling moments in America’s history: the burning of the Sixteenth Avenue Baptist Church, in Birmingham, Ala., during the summer of 1963, that led to the historic March On Washington.
For Rose, known for her Tony Award-winning performance in the Broadway production of Caroline, or Change, her co-starring roles in the films Dreamgirls, voicing Princess Tiana in Disney’s The Princess and the Frog, playing a mom was something new for the Connecticut native. Rose will next be seen co-starring with Thandie Newton in the Nigerian drama, Half of a Yellow Sun and will return to the stage under the direction of Kenny Leon in the Broadway revival of ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ with Denzel Washington, Sophie Okonedo, and Diahann Carroll.
In speaking with Blackfilm.com, Rose talks about her characters in ‘Watsons’ and ‘Yellow Sun.’
How would you best describe Wilona?
Anika Noni Rose: Wilona is a young mother of three who’s sort of a fish out of water in that she left her hometown and moved north to be with her husband. She is a wonderful mother, she loves her children deeply. She’s fun and she’s very knowledgeable, she knows her children very well, she realizes they need more than what they’re getting in Michigan and it’s time to go home.
What was the attraction to doing this film?
Rose: I liked the story, it’s such an American story so beautifully told in such a way that you can laugh a lot, there’s fun to be had. There’s a lot of tenderness and warmth in the story but you also get to learn while you’re watching it without it being a heavy drudge of a lesson. You learn something about our country that maybe they’re too young to know or have forgotten. It’s done in such a way that is quite beautiful.
Had you read the novel? If not how much history did you know of the story?
Rose: Of the era? I’m very familiar with it because that’s my parents’ era. My grandmother was the Wilona who brought her kids home to visit despite everything that was going on. It’s not something that was foreign to me.
You’re working with Tonya Lewis Lee, who wrote the film and co-produced it with Nikki Silver. What was it like working with them and did they want you to do anything different with the character from what was in the book?
Rose: No, they didn’t ask me to do anything different character-wise and it was lovely working with Nikki and Tonya because they’re both mothers themselves and were so invested in this project. This really was a labor of love for them. It was a very positive experience on set and I really enjoyed them on set. I like them as people outside of what they’re doing professionally. It’s really special when you can like someone as a person and respect them for their work.
What’s it like playing a mother of three?
Rose: I had to wrap my mind around that one! (laughs) it was new. I really like kids, I enjoy them, and I really like these kids. Harrison [Knight] plays my oldest son and he’s not a kid, so we made friends and we enjoyed each other. He’s really talented and very good! The little ones I enjoyed so much, they’re so funny and silly, yet so absolutely professional. That’s a really enjoyable juxtaposition to be with kids that can run and scream and play and I can tickle and pinch, and when the director yells “action” they’re on it. They know their lines, they’re on their marks, they do their job. They’re really amazing children. I have to give credit to their parents for allowing them to be children, so many show parents do not allow their children to do so. I didn’t have to pretend to enjoy them.
Can you talk about working with a cast that includes Wood Harris, David Alan Grier, and LaTanya Richardson?
Rose: I think we just really enjoyed each other, to be perfectly honest. This is my first time working with Wood and LaTanya. LaTanya is somebody who took me under her wing the first time she saw me at an event in Hollywood. She has been warm and giving to me and I’m really thankful to that. The business side of this is not really cute, so it’s helpful to have people pave the way, take you under their arm and hug you there. It was wonderful to work with her in such an intimate, familial fashion.
What was the message you want people to get out of this when they see it?
Rose: I don’t know what people are going to get out of it. I hope that they are able to watch it with their own families whether that includes children or not. I hope they recognize themselves within this family as a unit, they are a young family. Wilona is growing along with her children, they’re growing up together. I think the history of this country is so important that we should not dilute it or clean it up but show it so it can be seen and learned. The truth of the matter, and not make that be something that is a negative or a drawback. Sometimes people put a negative spin on the history of the country that’s not someone sitting around the sewing circle putting stars on the flag. That’s lovely but out the window people were dying. It’s important for us to look at history and take it for what it is and not allow ourselves to move forward in a way that we forget what happened that enabled us to do what we do. In a way that when the Mover’s Rights Act comes up and people talk about dismantling it they realize just how important that is that people fought and died for.
Can you talk about working with Kenny Leon? You’re going to be working again on “Raisin in the Sun” but what’s it like working from this experience?
Rose: We had a great time! It was easy working with him. It was really lovely watching him work with the kids because he really spoke to them like they were thinking and comprehending human beings, which they are, They’re extraordinarily smart, but some people don’t understand that about kids. They think because they’re young and little they can’t comprehend the same way when in fact all the synapses are firing. I really admired the way he worked with them.
People are excited to see “Raisin in the Sun”. Are you playing the sister?
Rose: I’m playing Beneatha.
What’s the role you play in “Half of a Yellow Sun“?
Rose: I play Kainene. She’s a fraternal twin of Thandie Newton who plays Olanna. We play upper class rich Nigerians in late ’60s/early ’70s, a similar time period as Vietnam. There was a war going on called the Biafran War which a lot of Americans don’t know about because of Vietnam. Chiwetel Ejiofor and Thandie’s characters are married and I’m hooked up with a British guy and it’s about how the war effects relationships between the sisters, our family, how it tears apart and pulls together. It too is a love story between sisters and lovers and Nigerians and Nigeria.
How was shooting that film? Did you learn the language?
Rose: I didn’t learn the language because I was a British educated person, so there was not much that this character had to do within that language. I spent a lot of time with a lot of people of the area, made some good friends and really enjoyed being there. It was a very intense shoot in Calabar, Nigeria. It was an amazing experience.
What is it you’re looking to do as opposed to something that comes across your way?
Rose: I want to move more into producing, not just pieces for myself but for people that I know who I feel are very good at what they do. I want to do some action movies, that’s something that I’ve always wanted to do. Superhero, supervillain, always fun. I’m looking forward to branching out and doing more lead work. I actually love doing supporting work. There’s amazing work to be done, but I’m looking forward to more lead roles. I guess I’m looking forward to everything! (laughs)
