Recently, a new movie about Emmett Till premièred at the New York Film Festival. Jalyn Hall, the 15-year-old actor who plays Till, said his aunts “were bawling their eyes out” during the film. “That’s how you know your job was well done,” he said.
Making a film about Till is an obviously delicate endeavor. When Hall auditioned for the role, the filmmakers wouldn’t let on what the project was. He was given a few scenes to read—Emmett goofing with his cousins—but identifying details had been removed. “The character probably had the name Darrell or something,” Hall said. He connected with “Darrell” right away, with the role’s playfulness and openhearted naïveté.
Hall was not quite Till’s age when he started shooting last year, in Georgia. The filmmakers introduced him to relatives of Emmett’s. “I just learned what a great boy he was. He loved to sing. He loved to dance. He loved his mother. He was curious,” he said. “You never really think of him as the kid he was.”
Making viewers do precisely that was Hall’s job. He has been working steadily since he was eight and is a regular on the CW drama “All American.” Acting was his idea. “If anything, I pushed my mom into it,” he said. “When I was four, I had that little moment where I was, like, ‘Oh, I want to be in the TV,’ but I was looking behind the TV to see how they got in there.” He told his mom about this newfound ambition. “She was, like, ‘Yeah, sure.’ You know four-year-olds, they want to do everything.
The Film Festival screening was the first time he saw “Till” with an audience. “My aunties came down to the city to support me, and they were bawling their eyes out,” he said. “They were, like, ‘We ran out of tissues!’ ” He laughed, but only a little. “That’s how you know your job was well done.” ♦New Yorker Favorites
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