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Charmaine Bingwa stars alongside Will Smith as his wife Dodienne in Emancipation, which is now available on Apple TV+.
Emancipation follows a slave named Peter (Smith) who has been sold to the Confederate Army to help build a railroad. Peter, desperate to get back to his family, runs away and fights through the challenges and creatures he comes across in the swamps of Louisiana to escape the plantation owners that are out to kill him. His family, including his wife Dodienne and his children, stayed behind at the plantation, and his love for them and his faith in God are what keep him going throughout his tortuous journey.
The film is loosely based on the real-life story of Gordon, a former slave whose photographs of his bare back, heavily scarred from multiple whippings, have become historical and known as “Whipped Peter.” The photographs were published worldwide in 1863, giving the abolitionist movement proof of the cruelty of slavery that was happening in the United States.
Because it was set in the time period of slavery, the film has its fair share of impactful and painful scenes. Movie fans have had valid criticism over the years regarding films that center around slaves, saying they are trauma porn or Blaxploitation that profits off of the pain Black people have lived through. Smith himself has made it clear that he purposely steered far away from movies about slavery throughout his career because he didn’t want to see his people portrayed in that way.
While Smith’s character endures most of the suffering in Emancipation, Dodienne goes through her own horrifying experiences while awaiting her husband’s return and protecting her children. The actress believes that showcasing these moments was necessary in order to tell a truthful story. “I think we have to be realistic about what happened at the time. It’s the only way that we can create empathy to understand the depth of the suffering,” Bingwa tells Complex. “It was important to not sugarcoat it and to be true in the retelling.”
Smith believes it is imperative for viewers to watch this film and while it was available in select theaters, he has set up a two-month free trial of Apple TV+ so fans can watch the film, out on Friday, Dec. 9. Complex caught up with his costar, Bingwa, ahead of the film’s release and she talked about the impact of the movie, working with Smith and what she hopes is the message fans will find in Emancipation.
When you first read the script for Emancipation, how did you feel?
I was completely taken by it. I don’t recall feeling so immersed in a story as that one. I mean, the screenwriter, Bill Collage, just wrote something spectacular that I just couldn’t put down and I was so taken with it. I read it twice on the spot.
Wow. And I’m sure it was a long one, too.
Yeah. The scripts, they always tend to make them long, but I was so enthralled with the journey that I just couldn’t put it down.
How do you feel that faith in God and that relationship with God is portrayed in Emancipation?
Yeah, I think it’s so central, as you say, and one of the most powerful things was that a lot of it was shot on an actual plantation and everyone has different religious beliefs, but you definitely felt that something greater than us was happening on that set and was around us. And we tried to imbue the movie with so much of that in every part of it that we could.
And in circumstances like that, you have to reach for something outside of yourself. I mean, that’s the source of their courage. They were really bleak, dire circumstances, and faith in God, faith in general, faith in each other, and hope is what kept them going.
There were some really intense scenes. There was one in particular for your character, without giving too much away, that made me look away from the screen. How do you feel about the importance of including those moments in the film, as graphic as they may be?
Yeah, I know it’s shocking and that moment when the unthinkable kind of occurs to my character, but I think we have to be realistic about what happened at the time. It’s the only way that we can create empathy to understand the depth of the suffering. It was important to not sugarcoat it and to be true in the retelling.
Can you share how it was to work with Will Smith on this? He really transformed himself from the biggest movie star in the world to playing this character that is so rich and so moving.
He totally did. I keep saying that I didn’t recognize him when I first saw him on set because he had just transformed so incredibly physically. But he is great. I mean, he’s iconic, his resume, we all know the films that he’s been in. And he is an incredibly generous actor.
I mean, that was a really tough physical role for him. So he just led by example for us and yeah, his commitment, intense commitment. And we were speaking of, there were some hiccups with the shoot. Like we had hurricanes, we had COVID issues, we had weather warnings. And so he really, his commitment throughout that time period, it was meant to be a shorter shoot and it was extended. So it just really laid a beautiful example for us to all follow in terms of stepping into our characters fully.
What do you hope the audiences get from this movie? And what do you hope as an actress and as a person that they learn about Peter and his story?
I’d want them to know his story, number one, there are so many hidden stories in history that people might not be aware of. And secondly, I want people to realize the power of the human spirit, and that no matter the obstacles, that personal triumph is possible. And I also just want it to be a love letter to our ancestors who sacrificed so much so that we could live different lives today.