It may have taken longer than initially hoped, but Till is here and it’s hard to imagine a stronger movie about Mamie Till-Mobley’s determination to seek justice for her son, sparking significant change in the process.

Directed by Chinonye Chukwu, Till puts the focus on Danielle Deadwyler’s Mamie, the mother of Emmett Till (Jalyn Hall), a 14-year-old boy who was lynched while visiting his cousins in Mississippi in 1955 for whistling at a white woman. Mamie’s deep grief evolves into defiance, and she makes the decision to show the world what happened to her son by having an open casket viewing. That choice helped ignite the Civil Rights Movement and turned Mamie into a hugely influential voice in the fight for social justice.

With Till now playing in theaters nationwide, I got the chance to chat with Whoopi Goldberg who plays Alma, Emmett’s grandmother, and serves as a producer on the film. She began by emphasizing something that’s stayed consistent for her when committing to projects since day one of her journey in this business.

“I've only [ever] wanted to do stuff I'm interested in and stuff that I thought was interesting. It doesn't necessarily have to be interesting to other people. It only has to really interest me, that's always been the same. So getting to do this was a gift because this was not my plan.”

Goldberg’s been attached to Till as a producer for some time, but her role in front of the camera changed over the years. She explained, “At one point I was going to act, but it was years and years and years ago. By the time we got it, I've evolved into grandma.”

While one might expect a project to change to some degree when it takes many years to get off the ground, in the case of Till, the heart of the story stayed consistent. Goldberg explained:

“The story has always been very crystal clear because, of course, we had Keith [Beauchamp], who really is the bones of the project because this is something that he's been part of forever. He made the documentary that reopened the case. This has been something he's been trying to do and he was trying to do it before Mrs. Mobley passed, and unfortunately, we weren't able to get it done. But this relationship of mother and son was always a priority. This was when Barbara Broccoli and Fred Zollo and I and Keith sat down, that was always the piece that we felt people needed to get. They needed to understand these are normal people. These are people who lived in Chicago, like your grandmother, your cousin, your uncle. And when Chinonye came in as director, she said, ‘I really want to focus on that relationship.’ And we were like, ‘Great! That's what we want. Do your thing.’ And then Orion was like, ‘What do you want to do?’ And we said, ‘This is what we're doing.’ They said, ‘Do your thing.’ And so everybody did their thing and here it is.”

A very smart move on Orion’s part because Goldberg, Chukwu, and the team delivered high-quality work that could and should go on to get the praise it deserves and reach the widest possible audience throughout awards season.

If you’d like to hear more from Goldberg on her experience making the film, you can catch our full conversation in the video interview at the top of this article!