Contrary to popular opinion, Black women are not invisible. Actress Ayo Edebiri had to remind a reporter of that on Sunday at the Toronto Film Festival. Following the screening of their film After the Hunt, she joined Julia Roberts, Andrew Garfield, and her costars for a press conference, and she had to teach a reporter a few things.
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The Question That Started It All
According to Deadline, an Italian journalist named Federica Polidoro asked this question: “What was lost during the politically correct era? And what can we expect in Hollywood? Now that the Me Too and the Black Lives Matter Movement are done [according to her] done?
Garfield was stunned into silence. Edebiri started absorbing the unexpected macroaggressions. Roberts, the Oscar-winning actress, stepped in and said, “I’m sorry, with your glasses. I’m not sure who you are talking to.”
That’s when Polidoro said “Andrew and Julia,” specifically leaving Ayo out. Then she repeated the entire question…again. The duo looked at one another. Garfield was clearly not touching that question.
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I Am Going to Answer Anyway
Before Edebiri replied, she mentioned that she was curious as to why she wasn’t included in the discussion. Was it purposeful? Crickets. She received no response at all from Polidoro, as if she were not sitting there.
But the award-winning actress, primarily known for the Hulu series The Bear, said, “I don’t think it’s done. It’s not done at all. I think maybe hashtags might not be used as much, but I do think that there‘s work being done by activists, by people, every day, that’s beautiful, important work that’s not finished, that’s really, really active for a reason, for a reason, because this world is really charged,” she continued.
“Maybe there’s not mainstream coverage in the way that there might have been daily headlines in the way that it might have been eight or so years ago, but I don’t think that means that the work is done. That’s what I would say.”
Garfield and Roberts agreed that although coverage is not as constant on both fronts as it once was, #MeToo, started by Tarana Burke, and #BlackLivesMatter are not over.
Some Journalists (Still) Just Don’t Understand
Reactions on social media to this interview have been swift. Some have gone to Polidoro’s social accounts to leave a few comments of their own. It prompted a statement that doesn’t make things any better for her. She mentions her long journalistic record, but never explains her erasure of Edebiri.
Reminds us of a specific person talking to a qualified reporter recently, as if she didn’t belong.
But Edebiri Will Be Moving On to Her Next Big Thing
Next spring, the 29-year-old Edebiri is coming to Broadway. She will be starring opposite Don Cheadle in a revival of Proof. This is a Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play by David Auburn about struggling with mathematical genius and mental illness. Edebiri will be doing the teeth gnashing after caring with her seriously ill father (Cheadle), who battled an illness related to his psychological well-being.
The title of the play comes from someone discovering some mathematical formula that is “proof” of some theory, and I suspect Edebiri will have her own tour de force every night.
So she can’t get too distracted by this dustup.
And every time someone says a Black woman handles some slight with “grace,” I think about the connection between suppressed rage and autoimmune diseases. It can’t cost us our health. But that’s a story for another day,
