Graham sat down with Irish actress Ruth Negga to talk about her Oscar-nominated role in Jeff Nichols’ Loving.
The film is based on the landmark civil rights case Loving v. Virginia, which was brought by Mildred Loving (Negga), a black woman, and Richard Loving (Joel Edgerton), a white man, who had been sentenced to a year in prison in Virginia for marrying each other. Their marriage violated the state’s anti-miscegenation statute, the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which prohibited marriage between people classified as “white” and people classified as “colored”. The Supreme Court’s unanimous decision held this prohibition was unconstitutional and ended all race-based legal restrictions on marriage in the United States.
In addition to Negga and Edgerton, the film features Nichols’ regular Michael Shannon, Nick Kroll (The League), Marton Csokas (The Equaliser), Jon Bass (Big Time in Hollywood, FL) and Bill Camp (Black Mass).
Negga will compete for Best Actress at the 89th Academy Awards against Isabelle Huppert for Elle, Natalie Portman for Jackie, Emma Stone for La La Land, and Meryl Streep for Florence Foster Jenkins.
Loving is out in Ireland and the UK on February 3rd.