The actress spoke with ET about the upcoming biopic, premiering in select theaters on Oct. 14 and playing everywhere on Oct. 28.
The tragedy of Emmet Till is a well-known point in American history. The 1955 lynching of the Black 14-year-old boy after he was accused of offending a white woman, Carolyn Bryant, in her family's grocery store, became the catalyst for the next phase of the civil rights movement -- cementing Emmet's place in history for the rest of time. And yet, it's taken several decades to tell that story on the big screen.
"I was glad that somebody said, 'Yes, we'll give you the money,' because we've been asking a long time," Whoopi Goldberg said when ET's Kevin Frazier asked about her experience as a producer and cast member of the upcoming biopic Till. "We tried to fund it ourselves, we've tried to do a lot to get this story out there because... this should be the 10th of the stories on this subject [and] about this family. There should be hundreds of stories that tell this: for little kids, for [all ages]. This is the first feature film, ever. And it is trying to get people to recognize why we have to protect this. We have to protect this story."
Till tells the story of Emmett's death through the perspective of his mother, civil rights icon Mamie Till Mobley, played by Danielle Deadwyler. The film follows Mamie as she fights for justice after her son's murder while visiting his cousins in Mississippi.
The film utilizes 27 years' worth of research by filmmaker Keith Beauchamp, whose documentary The Untold Story of Emmett Till in part led to the U.S. Department of Justice reopening the case in 2004. Film director Chinonye Chukwu's screenplay is based on a draft she co-wrote with Beauchamp and producer Michael Reilly.
Simeon Wright, Emmett's cousin and an eyewitness of the event served as a consultant to the project until he died in 2017.
For Whoopi, Emmett's story being known isn't enough -- it needs to be seen and understood.
"You've heard hints of the story, people have mentioned it in passing, but you don't really understand why it's important. This was the beginning of something," she shared. "And when we talk about systemic racism, when we talk about the things that we are all facing -- I mean we're all facing it, everybody is at each other's throats, and we've made it okay. This is what happens when you make it okay to do."
The 66-year-old EGOT winner -- who portrays Emmett's grandmother, Alma Carthan, in Till -- pointed out how lives are still being brutally ended because of rampantly unchecked racism, recalling the murder of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old unarmed black teen shot to death by George Zimmerman in 2012.
"It's important because once this happens to our set of kids, then it happens to the next set of kids, and then it happens to the next set of kids," Whoopi added. "So, I wanted people to see the start of people saying enough is enough because that's when it began."
The View co-host credited the film's strength to director Chukwu and Beauchamp, noting that finally getting the movie to screens was "important" to the latter because "he's been at the forefront of this forever."
"He's been trying for a long time to get people to recognize this as a big part of American history that we need to address," Whoopi explained. "Now, we may not be able to fix it, but you damn sure can't ignore it now. This is, for us, I think our Diary of Anne Frank [The Diary of a Young Girl]. This tells everyone what happened. It's not a made-up story, it's just the facts. This is what went down, and this is how it went down, and this is why it went down. Is this okay with you?"
As one of the producers behind the film, Whoopi shared that she's looking forward to bringing more untold stories of Black history makers to the big screen. "I'm relieved because it would be terrible if we were in year 15, still trying to get this done. We've seen so many stories that haven't been able to get told correctly, or at all," she said. "And now I'm greedy, so I'm looking for other stuff. I want to do Stagecoach Mary, or several other of the brilliant musicians of the 20s, [such as Ada "Bricktop" Smith]."
"I just want these stories out there because we should know them. We should know them," she added.
Till premieres in select theaters on Oct. 14 and will play everywhere on Oct. 28.
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