Whoopi Goldberg To Star In & Produce Film About Emmett Till’s Mother

Whoopi Goldberg

Whoopi Goldberg To Star In & Produce Film About Emmett Till’s Mother

Whoopi Goldberg is getting back in her acting bag and will star in an upcoming film about Emmett Till’s mother. According to reports, the movie entitled ‘Till’ will depict the decision of Emmett Till’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, to have an open-casket funeral in order to show the graphic tragedy of her son’s murder. Whoopi Goldberg will play Till’s grandmother, Alma Carthan. Actress Danielle Deadwyler will star alongside Goldberg and portray Till’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley. The 39-year-old actress is well-known for her role as LaQuita Maxwell in Tyler Perry’s soap opera, The Haves and the Have Nots.

Whoopi Goldberg will also serve as one of the producers for the film project, for MGM’s Orion Pictures. While speaking on the upcoming film, the Academy-Award-winning actress said,

“We have waited a very long time to bring this historically necessary important film to people. And as we watch the repression of American History when it comes to people of color it makes it even that more important. I couldn’t be with better people…”

Whoopi Goldberg

Danielle Deadwyler spoke on the film as well and said,

“It is a gift to learn the legacy and intimacies of our ancestors, those familial and communal, as is the life of Mamie Till-Mobley, a public leader and mother of the movement.”

She added,

“I am charged with humility and great will to embody her life at such an integral moment of personal tragedy and political rebellion, a boon to the civil rights movement, and to represent the joy in the love and life shared between Mamie Till and her beloved Emmett Till. I am grateful for the women who support me as the one to carry the labor of this embodiment and as an inheritor of such a lineage. Much gratitude for Chinonye Chukwu, Barbara Broccoli, Whoopi Goldberg, Alana Mayo, and Pam Abdy, amongst many others, for the undertaking we seek to uplift and transfigure with this film.”

The movie will be directed by Nigerian-American film director Chinonye Chukwu. Chukwu spoke on the film’s stars and said,

“I’m thrilled to be working with Danielle, a powerhouse of an actor, who will bring a brilliant complexity and groundedness to her portrayal of Mamie. And it is a dream come true to be working with the legendary Whoopi Goldberg, especially in telling this story.”

Chinonye Chukwu

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