Ava DuVernay Elaborates on Turning Down Black Panther Directing Gig
Though it’s been a while since the decision was made, many are still talking about Ava DuVernay turning down the job to direct Marvel’s Black Panther after it appeared she was a shoe-in for the role. At a keynote session for the 2015 BlogHer Conference, she said the following things about why she opted out:
“For me, it was a process of trying to figure out, are these people I want to go to bed with? Because it’s really a marriage, and for this it would be three years. It’d be three years of not doing other things that are important to me. So it was a question of, is this important enough for me to do?”
She did note however that the reports were true that she did say yes to the role earlier: “At one point, the answer was yes because I thought there was value in putting that kind of imagery into the culture in a worldwide, huge way, in a certain way: excitement, action, fun, all those things, and yet still be focused on a black man as a hero — that would be pretty revolutionary.”
DuVernay continued: “What my name is on means something to me — these are my children. This is my art. This is what will live on after I’m gone. So it’s important to me that that be true to who I was in this moment. And if there’s too much compromise, it really wasn’t going to be an Ava DuVernay film.”
While the film will continue looking for a new director, the release date for Black Panther is set for July 6, 2018.