I'm Jonathan Kapart and welcome to Kapart.

When Ava Duverne's movie, Origin, premiered at the Venice Film Festival last year,

it received a nine-minute standing ovation.

The movie written and directed by Avvedo Renee is an adaptation of the best-selling book, Cast, The Origins of Our Discontent by Isabel Wilkerson.

The film's power isn't just driven by the subject matter. It's driven by its lead

actress, Angenu Ellis Taylor. In this conversation first recorded for Washington Post Live on February 2nd, Ellis Taylor talks about the making of the film, why she was terrified to portray Isabel Wilkerson someone she calls a genius that has yet to meet and how the personal pain Wilkerson suffered while writing cast is analogous to the ultimate Hollywood adventure.

I just think of her as an Indiana Jones, you know, going around the world on this

intellectual and journalistic quest and these the bolder that's behind her is this, you know, mammoth grief that she's suffering from.

And yet she keeps going because her quest is nothing short of saving us, saving humanity.

So before we dive into the movie and your performance, let's talk about how your

involvement came about. In interviews, Ava has said that she had been interviewing Isabel Wilkerson for two years to prepare for this film.

At what point did Ava approach you and what were those initial conversations like?

Well, I... were those initial conversations like?

Well, I kind of approached her actually. Oh.

I knew that I had heard that she was, that she had adapted was adapting the book. I just thought I knew the book

right by reputation I had not read it, but I just thought it was just this extraordinary

thing that this extraordinary woman was going to do. And when I heard that she was starting to cast it,

I said, I want to be a part of that conversation.

And so I, my sister and myself made a picture that sort of matched Ms. Wilkerson's kind of

by chronic photo that she has of herself. And we sent it to the casting director and the casting director sent it to

Mr. Vonay and then we started talking.

Okay so then you started talking, you get the, you get the role.

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