First-Time Nominee Spotlight: Aunjanue Ellis
With the Oscars right around the corner, this installment of First-Time Nominee Spotlight is dedicated to someone who was also recently awarded Outstanding Performer of the Year at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Aunjanue Ellis’ already received nods for her performance as Oracene Price in King Richard from the Critics Choice Awards, the Golden Globes, and the BAFTAs. Now with the added accolade of a nomination from the prestigious Academy Awards — and ahead of this year’s ceremony — we’re taking a look at the journey that led to the long-working actor getting recognition for what she calls “the biggest job I’ve ever had in my life.”
Ellis was born in San Francisco but raised in Mississippi, and she shared during a Deadline interview that the farm on which she grew up had been in the family for a century. Her grandfather was a preacher, and the actor experienced performing at a young age in connection to that role. “If you are raised in the church in the South and you are under the age of 13, you are a thespian,” Ellis stated with a laugh while accepting her award for Outstanding Performer of the Year. “You are going to have to be in the Christmas play and the Easter play and the Valentine’s [Day] play.”
But according to an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Ellis didn’t grow up intending to become an actor. While attending Tougaloo College, she was noticed by a guest-lecturing professor from Brown University named Jim Barnhill. “He saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself,” she recalled. Ellis transferred to Brown and upon graduating, Barnhill encouraged the budding actor to continue her training at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
The name comes with some weight, but Ellis told Variety that her real education came through experience. “I didn’t learn how to act in graduate school — I learned how to act on sets,” she asserted. “That’s where my true MFA came from.” The actor steadily gathered credits over the years, appearing in roles that ranged from minor to supporting. “I have worked for a long time and really kind of worked in anonymity and a little bit of oblivion,” she shared during an interview with The Playlist.
But regardless of the screen time, Ellis turned out strong performances in films like George Tillman Jr.’s Men of Honor, Taylor Hackford’s Ray, Tony Scott’s The Taking of Pelham 123, Tate Taylor’s The Help, and Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk. She’s also steadily worked in TV, from playing Madeleine Hightower on CBS’ The Mentalist to Aminata Diallo on BET’s The Book of Negroes to Miranda Shaw on ABC’s Quantico. The long-working actor began experiencing widespread recognition in recent years, garnering critical acclaim and Emmy nominations for her performances as Sharonne Salaam in Ava DuVernay’s 2019 limited series When They See Us and Hippolyta Freeman in Misha Green’s 2020 HBO series Lovecraft Country.
Then came King Richard, Reinaldo Marcus Green’s biopic that centers on the father of Venus and Serena Williams. And while the film’s primary focus is Richard Williams (Smith), Ellis’ performance as Oracene Price — Richard’s wife at the time — tells the little-known story of the tennis superstars’ mother. When speaking to The New York Times, the actor referenced Price’s dedication to helping her children succeed, teaching herself how to play tennis so that she could coach them while working two different jobs to make ends meet. “I wanted people to know who Ms. Oracene Price was and is,” Ellis remarked. “That is what drove me. I’m speaking for this woman.”
The resulting performance received much critical praise, with one review calling Ellis “the movie’s secret weapon.” And while it launched the 53-year-old actor to Oscar-nominated notoriety — after years of putting in the work to get there — Ellis’ focus during a recent GoldDerby interview was on the real Price being recognized. “The way I see it, my getting this nomination feels to me like Ms. Oracene is getting nominated, because she’s always been in the stands cheering for her daughters,” the actor asserted. “Now, people are cheering for her, and that’s what’s so special to me.”
Come March 27, you can find out if the actor becomes a first-time winner, as well, by taking home Best Supporting Actress at this year’s Academy Awards. But in the meantime, we certainly think she’s earned her place in the spotlight.
