Lovecraft Country star Aunjanue Ellis has finally spoken about her disappointment over not being nominated for her role as Dr. Mattie Moss Clark in Lifetime’s The Clark Sisters: First Ladies of Gospel. Ellis was one of the frontrunners for the Best Actress in a Limited Series or Television Movie category along with Kerry Washington (Little Fires Everywhere) and Regina King (Watchmen). However, she was not nominated.

While she wanted to make it clear in a recent interview with Essence that she is happy for those nominated, she added, “I would be dishonest if I didn’t say that I didn’t want [to be nominated].”

“The reason why I wanted it is because I wanted it for The Clark Sisters. I wanted to be able to give them the shine that they deserve,” she said. “Because we can sing and dance, we make it look easy. Black women make it look easy and the rest of the world takes it for granted. When it’s done by other folks, we talk about the genius of someone, we talk about their work, we canonize them, we say these are the best of their generation. But we don’t talk about our work in those terms.”

Ellis said the Clark Sisters are the “embodiment” of that type of genius. “They are as significant as their Bob Dylan, as their Bruce Springsteen,” she said.

“If there is disappointment–and there is disappointment, I’m just going to be honest, and I think it’s right to be transparent about that–it’s because I wanted to honor them with that.,” she said. “And that not happening was disappointing to me because I could not give them that.”

 

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Photo: Lifetime