Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor on Origin, Will Smith and how The Color Purple failed Black lesbians: ‘It’s not just a story about sisterhood’

Two years ago, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor won a long-deserved Oscar nomination for playing Venus and Serena Williams’s mother in the biopic King Richard. Starring opposite Will Smith – who played the sisters’ fierce tennis coach and dad Richard Williams – Ellis-Taylor’s refined portrayal of the family’s matriarch gave her the mainstream recognition that had been just out of reach across her decades in the business. But the other rewards were – almost – not so sweet.

“When I did , I was not paid well,” Ellis-Taylor says flatly over Zoom, folding her lips together in a straight line. “I was not paid respectfully.” Silence, however, was not an option. “I spoke up about it, directly, to Will Smith. And as a result, he not only doubled my pay, but doubled the pay of everybody on the cast. And he took money