We lost an enormous in September. King. Lion of stage and screen. James Earl Jones touched not only the history of cinema, but all those that will proceed to rejoice it, including fellow director André Holland. Stopping by the Criterion closet, Holland took just a few moments to rejoice the gifts Jones had given him and others.
“See this man over here, James Earl Jones?” Holland said, pointing to Jones’ face on the cover of Criterion’s Claudine. “He’s my hero. Amazing, amazing actor. And Carroll’s Diahanna. I mean, come on. She was just every little thing. It’s such a ravishing movie, so complex, beautiful and sexy. I assumed to myself, “Oh my God.” Who are these two? I’m sad we now not have James Earl, but he left quite a legacy.
Reflecting on his relationship with Jones, Holland recalled his time on stage a few years ago in “Othello,” a job Jones took on again and again. In preparing for the role, Holland found an irreplaceable research tool in Jones’s journals from each performance.
“I found this book that was a journal or a collection of entries in his journal about him playing Othello about five or six times,” Holland said. “So when I was working on this role, I had to look at every moment of him playing it and how he made certain decisions about certain things and… I don’t know, I just felt so close to him after reading it and appreciating him even more brilliance. He’s an amazing person.”
In addition to “Claudine,” Holland also recorded John Sayles’ “Matewan,” in which Jones appears in a supporting role. Also paying tribute to the late Sidney Poitier, Holland’s final alternative was the film adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry’s novel “A Raisin in the Sun.”
“One of my really good friends, Imani Perry, wrote a book called ‘Looking for Lorraine’ about Lorraine Hansberry, so after talking to her about her book and after reading it, I went back and watched the movie multiple times and it’s so powerful,” Holland said . “I mean, as art, as film. Lorraine as a author, as a thinker. And after all the great Sidney Poitier. “It’s a play… one of the plays that inspired me to become an actor and it’s a role I really, really, really want to play one day.”
You can watch Holland’s full visit to the Criterion Closet below.
