HOLLYWOOD -- As Hollywood heads into the chatter of awards season, the new movie, "Till," is getting a lot of attention. It's a film Whoopi Goldberg wanted to see get made for more than 20 years. Now, she is a part of it, playing Emmett Till's grandmother. She's also one of the film's producers.
"Till" tells the true story of how Mamie Till-Mobley handled the brutal killing of her teenage son when he went to visit his cousins in the south. Danielle Deadwyler stars as the forceful Mamie, who dared to want justice for Emmett. To Goldberg, Deadwyler's performance is a revelation.
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"Yes, she is. Tell everybody. Tell everybody!" said Goldberg. "You don't get to see this very often when it's just like, 'Wow!' Like a nova. She is magnificent."
Mamie insisted her 14 year old son have an open casket funeral, showing how he looked after being severely beaten and then shot in the head, allegedly for whistling at a white woman.
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"And what you can't forget is this is the face of systemic racism," said Goldberg. "And when we pull out, we can look to the side and we see Trayvon Martin and we see George Floyd. But when we look to the other side, we also see the death of Trans folks; we how LGBTQ people are being dealt with, how Asian people are being dealt. This is what this is: the face of systemic racism. This is what it looks like. Let's do something about it."
"Till" is in selected theatres now. It goes into wide release October 28th.