Lawson sees women of color taking agency over their stories | News, Sports, Jobs

Jayme Lawson speaks to the audience at the Maui Film Festival on Sunday evening after receiving the festival’s Rising Star award. Jeff Vespa / Shutterstock photos

Honored with the Rising Star award at the Maui Film Festival on Sunday evening, 24-year-old actress Jayme Lawson is about to see her popularity soar with the release of two groundbreaking cultural works — the action epic “The Woman King,” which has been described as a Black female “Braveheart,” and “Till,” about Black teen Emmett Louis Till, who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955. 

Accepting the award that “honors an artist for abundant creativity to support honest and life-changing art,” Lawson reported, “this is one of the few festivals that puts the spotlight on the work and the artists, and it’s a breath of fresh air. This is my first time on Maui and in Hawaii and it’s pretty awesome.”

Opening in September, “The Woman King” stars Viola Davis as General Nanisca of the Agojie (also known as Dahomey Amazons), an army of women warriors upwards of 6,000 strong who battled European colonization, defending the West African kingdom of Dahomey in present-day Benin during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.

Being part of this unique project “means something so deep for me,” Lawson said. “One, to be part of a film that is predominantly a female cast and female led and that it is Black women led, and the director and everyone involved. It was my first time in South Africa where we filmed. I’m the most excited for it to come out. I’ve watched the trailer so many times I’ve got teary-eyed.”

Before she began filming, Lawson said she was unaware of the existence of these legendary African warriors. “I had no idea, so to find out all their history — these were bad-ass women.”

Actress Jayme Lawson poses for a photo after receiving the Rising Star award on Sunday evening, the Maui Film Festival’s final night. The 24-year-old Lawson, who will appear with Viola Davis in “The Woman King” in September, shared her excitement about being part of a Black women-led film.

Born in Washington, D.C., Lawson started performing in elementary school when her mother signed her up for a local theater camp. Graduating in 2019 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Juilliard, she was that year’s recipient of Juilliard’s top acting award. She scored her first role as an Angolan immigrant in “Farewell Amor,” which was a Sundance Film Festival favorite in 2020.

After playing a Gotham politician in “The Batman,” she subsequently portrayed a young Michelle Obama in Showtime’s “The First Lady” anthology TV drama, starring alongside industry veterans like Davis, Michelle Pfeiffer and Gillian Anderson.

“I was extremely nervous, but as nervous and scared that I was, I couldn’t not do that (role),” she said. “We’re talking about Michelle Obama. She’s such an idol and still living. It was amazing to introduce her at her youth.”

In “Till,” which will debut in October, Lawson plays civil rights activist and journalist Myrlie Evers-Williams, the wife of murdered activist Medgar Evers. Emmett Louis Till was a 14-year-old African American teenager who was abducted, tortured and lynched in Mississippi, after being accused of whistling at a white woman in her family’s grocery store.

The film highlights the story of his mother, who pursued justice for her son, and the galvanizing moment that helped spur the creation of the civil rights movement. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. called Till’s murder “one of the most brutal and inhuman crimes of the twentieth century,” and in reflecting on her decision not to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala. bus, Rosa Parks reported, “I thought of Emmett Till and when the bus driver ordered me to move to the back, I just couldn’t move.”

“I read the script and I saw how Chinonye (Chukwu, the director) was very intentional and protective of the story,” Lawson said. “It wasn’t exploitative, which is often a concern for me when we’re telling stories that surround Black trauma. They tend to be very exploitative, and she was not about that at all. I hope it reintroduces what happened with Emmett. Shockingly, a lot of people were introduced to the story after George Floyd. I grew up having to know about what happened to Emmett.”

A young rising star, Lawson feels she has an important mission.

“Before, acting was a hobby, and I didn’t know what I wanted to be,” she explained. “Then I found you could have a career as an actor and tie it in to some sort service, being of service. I grew up where service was very important. That’s the driving force behind the work that I do. Young women of color are starting to have agency over their own stories in a way that has never existed before in Hollywood, and that is very exciting for all of us.”

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