00:00The name of the movie is Abducted, the Carlina White story, and I play Ann Pettway.
00:13Well, I don't know if you know the story, but Carlina White was abducted as a child,
00:22as a baby, from Harlem Hospital years ago, and she was raised by Ann Pettway,
00:29and I play Ann Pettway.
00:31She raised her as her own child, and when Carlina became a young adult,
00:39she found out that I was not her biological mother,
00:43and she sought out her biological mother,
00:47and it's about what happens to these people when all that hits the fan.
00:54Well, the way I try to prepare with anything is find my point of entry,
00:58find my point of connection with the character,
01:02and you can't judge whoever you play.
01:05You cannot judge it because then you'll get in your head,
01:08and you need to be in your heart, you need to be in your soul,
01:10you need to be in your body when you play someone else,
01:13especially someone who's living and breathing,
01:16because you have to honor them no matter what they did.
01:19So that's the first thing that I did,
01:21and what people need to know about Miss Pettway
01:25is that she was a woman in painting.
01:27It just really, it just, I didn't audition or anything like that,
01:31you know, Vanya Curtis-Hall as director.
01:35Kiki Palmer had me laughing all of the time,
01:40because she is just, first of all, she's a total movie buff.
01:44She can recite, like, full, like, passages
01:47from, like, the most random of movies,
01:50so that's one thing about her.
01:52And then Sherry Shepard is a comedian,
01:54and she is a comedian.
01:56So she would just bring that,
01:58both of them would just bring that, you know, with them,
02:01but the great thing about it is I think people are going to be very surprised
02:04when they see Sherry in this role.
02:07So she was, she's very good.
02:10I have so much respect for people who do it and do it well,
02:14you know, like Ruby Dee, I have, like, people like Ruby Dee,
02:18people like Denzel Washington, people like Ethel Waters, you know,
02:22and contemporary heroes of mine like Taraji Henson,
02:25and, you know, I could go on for days, you know,
02:28and I feel like they have such a respect and craft with what they do,
02:33and I want to honor that.
02:34I want to live up to that.
02:36I just finished a movie in Connecticut called The Volunteer,
02:41and I did it with Hill Harper and Evan Moss Bacharach,
02:45and it's about a woman who is going through a crisis,
02:48also a woman going in a crisis in her life,
02:51but she's a woman with very different circumstances from Anne Pettway.
02:54She's a woman of wealth, she's a woman of means,
02:57and in the midst of this crisis,
02:59she falls in love with a homeless man,
03:02and it's about what happens to her family and her life
03:07and this man's life when that happens.
03:11So that's what's next.
03:12My name is Anjanue Ellis,
03:14and you are watching Essence TV.
03:16My name is Anjanue Ellis,
03:18and you are watching Essence TV.
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