nicole beharie
you know how maggie gyllenhaal almost single-handedly ruins the dark knight because there’s no way in hell that the audience can believe that the two most handsome and powerful men in the city of gotham would both be madly in love with someone so, for a lack of a better term, plain?
well, in american violet, nicole beharie has the complete opposite effect. i couldn’t completely buy the movie –a factual account of a racially charged texas court case– because i had trouble believing that someone who looked, walked, and carried herself like her could be a 24-year-old single mother of four in a drug-infested texas housing project. she was just “too” (pretty, confident, etc) everything to be truly convincing.
when you add this to the fact that i’d never seen or heard of her before american violet, you can understand why she distracted me the entire movie
i googled her later that night and learned that she’s a 25-year-old juilliard grad who played a supporting role in the express.
also, while doing some background for this entry, i read that she was recently involved in a bit of a controversy. apparently, her role in american violet earned her the AAFCA’s (african-american film critics association) best actress award. but, after hearing about a voting discrepancy (she was given the award despite the fact that precious star gabby sidibe actually finished first on the majority of the ballots), she gave back the award.
anyway, nicole beharie is just one example of the numerous super sistas who are doing their thing on a national scale, despite the fact that they’re not household names…yet.
here’s four more: Continue reading
Back in the early days of VSB, we used to do this Friday Fun thing where The Champ and I would basically come up with some random yet entertaining way to pass the Friday.