Ava DuVernay Covers InStyle’s Magazine

Ava DuVernay is on InStyle’s March issue subcover. The universally celebrated director who frames her actors with an inquiring and empathetic eye has built a formidable career training her eye on others. Now, Ava DuVernay celebrates the beauty of becoming herself.

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On her greatest motivator: “It’s magic that I can conjure emotion through my work. The design and the writing and the direction can make you feel something. I pick what I want to get out of the scene, and through music, color, performance, and words, I’m able to manufacture and change how you think. I can be in your head, and I love it. I’m always looking at, ‘How can I manufacture emotion here in its highest form?’ Whether it’s making you cry with ‘When They See Us’ or making you think and be upset with ’13th’ or making you feel dazzled with ‘A Wrinkle in Time,’ I’m always trying to drive that home.”

On what she still has to learn: “Oh, goodness. So much. I’ve gotten a bit stagnant in my relationships with people, the way that I’ve organized my life. We need to keep meeting new people, challenging relationships, moving out of relationships that don’t serve us anymore. There’s that line people say, ‘No new friends.’ But there can be. I can’t mature in my work if I don’t open my life a bit more. I didn’t have kids by choice, and I’m not married by choice. I was able to embrace my career later in life, in my 30s. So I’m going to do what feels good to me, and I’m going to have fun.”

On social media: “I think the beauty of those platforms is that they give everyone a voice. During the [2020 presidential] election, I was in a heightened state of emotion. After that, I felt burned out on social. But it comes in spurts. I find myself wanting to be quiet more than I want to talk. Just the other day I tweeted, ‘One of my favorite things about my job is requests.’ I get requests like a DJ, people requesting that I make films every day. I’ve driven down the street with people calling out to me, ‘Hey, I love Selma. You need to make something on such and such.’ I love that people think I can make whatever they want to see.”

The interview will be featured in InStyle’s March issue hitting newsstands on February 11^th.

[Photo Credit: Chrisean Rose/InStyle Magazine]

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