By Javacia HarrIs Bowser | For The Birmingham Times
André Holland’s leading role as Tarrell in the film “Exhibiting Forgiveness” is one of the hardest things he’s ever done, he said. The film follows Tarrell, a Black artist on the path to success whose journey is derailed by an unexpected visit from his estranged father — a recovering addict who’s desperate to reconcile. The film, which opens in theaters nationwide today (October 18), was written and directed by artist Titus Kaphar and is loosely based on Kaphar’s life.
To play the part authentically, Holland, a Bessemer native, had to learn how to paint. “I knew the painting would be a challenge because I’m not an artist by any stretch of imagination and I’m a bit colorblind too,” Holland said. “But I wanted to do it justice.”
So, he worked with Kaphar to prepare. But Holland knew the most daunting part of the role would be the toll it would take emotionally. “The emotional life of the character proved to be the most challenging part because it’s relentless,” said the critically acclaimed actor. “There’s not really a lot of levity or joy, especially with my character. It’s just things that get worse and worse and worse. So finding the courage and the vulnerability to go into those places and then staying in that place for the whole shoot was the most challenging part.”
But Kaphar was confident Holland was up to the task. “Everything I’ve ever seen him in has been elevated by his presence,” Kaphar said of Holland, whose credits include “Moonlight,” “42” and “Selma.”
“He has a way of bringing the best out of his scene partner and most importantly when André is on screen, we believe him,” Kaphar said.
After premiering at Sundance Film Festival in January 2024 to rave reviews, the film was acquired by Roadside Attractions for distribution. Holland considers the film a major milestone in his career.
“There have been a lot of cases, earlier in my career, where I’ve been very close to getting things that I really wanted and I felt like I was ready to do but it wasn’t my time,” Holland said. “I have felt for a long time that I’m capable of more than I’ve been given the opportunity to do. So I feel like I’ve been preparing and ready and waiting and sometimes getting frustrated, wondering when I’m going to get a chance to really do what I feel like I’m here to do.”
With “Exhibiting Forgiveness,” Holland feels he’s finally getting that chance.
“This movie came along, and I was like, yeah, that’s something I know I can do,” Holland, 44, said. “But a lot times in this business, if you haven’t done it, people don’t think you can do it. But, fortunately, Titus was willing to go to battle for me.”
And Kaphar believes it was a battle worth fighting. “This was a role that required an incredible amount of emotional range,” Kaphar said. “André delivers in every scene.””
An Actor’s Curiosity
Mary Holland knew that “Exhibiting Forgiveness” would be an emotionally challenging role for her son, critically acclaimed actor André Holland, because so much of the film centers on father-son relationships and Holland’s father Donald passed away in 2022.
“We were as close as 19 is to 20,” Holland said of his father.
The film follows Tarrell, a Black artist on the path to success whose journey is derailed by an unexpected visit from his estranged father — a recovering addict who’s desperate to reconcile.
But as Mary Holland watched her son on screen in the film, she took comfort in knowing that the character Tarrell’s life experiences did not reflect André’s.
“I knew that his reality was totally different from what his character had experienced because he was from a loving family,” Mary Holland said. “His father was totally devoted to him and to the family, and we were all very close. He came from a place of a lot of love, a lot of attention, and so he is very loving and very caring about his entire village.”
Holland, 44, his older sister Maketha and his younger sister Natalie were involved in a host of extracurricular activities when they were growing up.
Getting a good academic education was top priority too. While Holland was a student at McAdory Middle School he took a scholastic aptitude test that determined he was a gifted learner. So his parents enrolled him in the Shades Valley Resource Learning Center, an enrichment program for gifted students in Jefferson County Schools. The program was located in the former Rosedale School in Homewood.
Since the Hollands lived in McCalla at the time and there was no school bus for the program, Mary Holland would drop off her son each morning at a Burger King in Hueytown where he’d catch a bus to Shades Valley RLC (which was later replaced by the Jefferson County International Baccalaureate at Shades Valley High School on Old Leeds Road).
“Then he’d get the bus back to Burger King, and I’d tell him, ‘When you get there. get something to eat and start on your homework and when I get off work, I’ll pick you up,’” Mary Holland, who worked as a business planner at U.S. Steel for 36 years, explained.
A Good Citizen
Growing up in and around Bessemer, Andre learned how to be a good citizen, he said.
“I grew to understand what it means to be a member of the community,” Andre added. “If my bike had a flat, I knew I could take it to my uncle to fix it. If we wanted some collard greens, I knew who had some greens, but I’m going to take them some peas from our garden.”
Andre believes that people are more willing to work with you when you’re good person that other artists want to be around.
Because he grew up with parents who encouraged discovery and were always eager to introduce him to something new, Andre was raised to be curious too.
“The biggest tool that you have as an actor is being curious,” he said. “If you’re curious about the world then you learn things, and then you figure out, ‘How can this inform what it is I’m trying to do?’”
“Exhibiting Forgiveness” — starring André Holland, Andra Day, John Earl Jelks and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor and directed by Titus Kaphar – opens in theaters nationwide today (October 18)
Updated at 10:14 a.m. on Oct. 18, 2024 to correct title.
