Actor Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (The Color Purple, King Richard) has amassed numerous accolades over her career so far, including Academy Awards and Emmy nominations, and dabbled with horror with her turn as Hippolyta Freeman in “The Lovecraft Country.” Netflix’s The Deliverance marks Ellis-Taylor’s first horror movie credit.
Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor plays Reverend Bernice James in the possession horror movie, helmed by Lee Daniels (Precious, The Butler), out now in select theaters before arriving in Netflix on August 30. As her character’s profession implies, Bernice acts as the audience’s guide into the film’s faith-based horrors, a Father Merrin-type to stand guard on the frontlines against evil.
While the actor is a horror fan, it wasn’t the new spin on possession horror that drew her to the project; it was the opportunity to work with the director.
“I have to say, I wasn’t very discriminant,” Ellis-Taylor admits. “I just wanted to be in a Lee Daniels movie, honestly. But yo, I mean, my mother, I grew up in a movie theater, really. My mother took me to see all of these great classic horror films. There wasn’t a Stephen King adaptation that we missed. I grew up reading Stephen King. It was one of the first big books that I read as a teenager. So, I cut my teeth on this stuff. I love horror.
“But the thing about horror is that women- black women- particularly don’t necessarily take this kind of space in these stories. I just love the idea that Lee Daniels wanted to tell a story that was all about women, all about black women saving themselves, coming to their own rescue.”
The Deliverance. (L to R) Aunjanue Ellis as Reverend james and Andra Day as Ebony in The Deliverance. Cr. Matt Miller/Netflix ©2024
For her role, Ellis-Taylor trained under Apostle Louis Dickens for a few months to learn the nuances of deliverance ministry and the cleansing of demons. Not only did the experience help her performance, but she forged a friendship with her tutor.
Ellis-Taylor explains, “Well, I come from, I’m a church girl through and through, raised in the Baptist church and still go to church often. But The Deliverance Apostle experience is not mine. I wasn’t raised that way. Grew up in a tradition of strong faith, but I was not raised in that, in the Deliverance, casting out demons tradition. He just poured into me, and he was so specific with me. I didn’t speak in tongues, so he worked with me… I think I carried a lot in my heart, but having the tools to convey it on screen, I ain’t had that. When I tell you the details and the thoroughness that he did when he was working with me, I cannot say enough about him. He is actually still a friend now. He was so wonderful to me.”
Reverence Bernice James spends a large portion of the runtime separate from the protagonists, working discreetly to track the source of evil. While Apostle Louis Dickens guided Ellis-Taylor through the more technical aspects of her character, the actor credits director Lee Daniel for helping her hone her performance, particularly when it comes to navigating her character’s separate world and backstory.
Ellis-Taylor walks us through her process: “I think you have to find the place of connection in it, the places that make sense to you personally, so it doesn’t feel like, ‘I’m trying to give you a backstory.’ I think Lee’s direction helps a lot in that. And it did, at least for me, because we would do a take, and he’d say, ‘Come to the monitor.’ He’d have me look at it, and he’d say, ‘Okay, you see what you’re doing right there? You see this thing you’re doing right there? Don’t do that. That doesn’t work. And you can go deeper, so go deeper.’ He did that all the time. All the time. That lends itself towards, by the end of the day, you’re just so beaten down by that. I mean beaten down in the best way because all of the things, all the artifice is gone.”
The Deliverance. (L to R) Andra Day as Ebony and Aunjanue Ellis as Reverend James in The Deliverance. Cr. Matt Miller/Netflix © 2024
Being that this was Ellis-Taylor’s first horror feature, was the overall experience rewarding enough to warrant a return to the genre in the future?
The actor doesn’t hesitate to answer, “I’m into it. I’m into it. I had a blast. I had a blast. They were shaking the walls and stuff, but we had to pretend like we were falling down. It was so much fun. I had a good time. I had a really good time. It stretches the realm of imagination, and I mean, I think that’s what acting is. That’s what childhood was for me, creating.
“It was world-building, right? World-building. I love going to work and getting to do that.”
The post ‘The Deliverance’ – Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor Discusses Her First Horror Movie Role [Interview] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.
