Over a sweltering hot weekend, Chicago was bustling with crowds heading to Lollapalooza or the NABJ Convention. But on the 7th floor of a building in River North, author Edward Kelsey Moore and director and screenwriter Tina Mabry sat overlooking the busy street, filling the room’s peaceful quiet with laughter and discussion. This warm energy is embedded in their joint project, The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat coming to Hulu at the end of August. The tale follows three friends from Plainview, Indiana who have been friends since their high school days in the 60s. They are known around the neighborhood as “The Supremes.” As the plot oscillates from past to present, the three women endure moments of career accomplishments, relationship changes, and unimaginable moments of personal hardship, yet what remains constant is that they will meet in their favorite booth at Earl’s Diner and engage in gossip, conversation, and sisterhood.
Real women are at the core of this narrative—a spotlight for stories untold. The plot broaches prevalent topics like interracial relationships, police brutality, infidelity, and loss. Nevertheless, humor and heaviness are perfectly intertwined making these difficult topics digestible and relatable. The audience goes through this journey with the characters with laughter, tears, or laughter through those tears.
The bestselling novel, The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat, was initially published in 2013 by Moore. Moore was raised in Indiana by strong and humorous women. While others his age were playing outside, Moore was absorbed in the conversations of the women in his family. His depictions of conversations among women in his writing feel authentic because, to him, they are.
“As a novelist, what I’m trying to do is just let my characters be who they are. And get out of the way as much as I can. Your voice is going to come out as a novelist, but I want the reader to feel that with every page they’re getting to know these people a little better. And I noticed when I was a kid, that especially the women who had the hardest lives were the funniest people I knew”, Moore said.
“The women who had the hardest lives were the funniest people I knew.”
Edward Kelsey moore
During the process of adapting the book into a screenplay with Cee Marcellus, Mabry shares how she achieves that balance of emotion. What viewers see in the film is how sadness and laughter go hand-in-hand. It’s only natural for those characters to break up the tension.
Mabry explained that in heavy moments, “It also a release of a very bated breath that our audience has that you finally get to exhale. And I think it’s just one of those examples where we have multiple scenes where you laugh through tears, but I think that’s very indicative of how life is.”
Part of that authenticity stems from the collaboration process between actor and director. Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor plays Odette Henry, Sanaa Lathan as Barbara Jean Maxberry, and Uzo Aduba as Clarice Baker. Moore and Mabry’s writing displays undeniable excellence. The way the actors elevate these lines with new details and nuances in their performances is evidence of their extreme skill and talent. They become architects of that outward exhale when they improvise a sharp movement or comical look that sends the audience into a fit of hysterics.
For Mabry, “Sometimes you’ve got to laugh to keep from crying. You have to make sure that you can find and come out with joy through pain. I think this story is a prime example of that. I’m getting a chance to peek into what reality is for these women, which easily mimics their own. And I think that’s the humanity that transcends in this work. And that all started with Ed on the page.”
As an example of these unexpected moments of humor, Moore tells an indicative story about his grandmother’s funeral. One of his aunts sat next to him in a limo and complained about how the car rode too low.
“Because she said, should have known we were some heavy-duty women in this family. And that is what I remember from my grandmother’s funeral. I know I was sad, but most of the time, I just remember her talking. These heavy-duty women, and cracking everybody up,” Moore said.
Mabry jumped in with a similar heartwarming story from her mom’s funeral. “It was the choir. That woman hit the wrong notes in the solo, and everybody just laughed. I think it’s a key element of Blackness. It’s a survival mechanism.”
As a professional cellist, Moore’s other passion is music. He has noted in interviews his unique process of approaching writing as he would a symphony. There are themes, variations, conflicts, and resolutions. Adapting this musical flow into condensed form is seemingly a challenging prospect. Nevertheless, Moore sees the film and novel as existing in a codependent relationship.
“Films in general have influenced the way that I write. I’m a movie fan. I love movies. And a well-written movie just has all of those things that you want in a novel. There is tension, release, and conflict. So the structure of a movie certainly influences me and I don’t know yet if the Supremes movie will influence [my future writing]. I’m sure it will, but I won’t recognize it”, said Moore.
As far as how his book shows up on screen, “I don’t think I have a choice, frankly. I think we are who we are. And all the elements that build us come out in our writing and all of our work. What you want as an artist is for these things to come out.”
Though The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat is Mabry and Moore’s first project together, their paths crossed years back in an unexpected way. They claim the “universe put us together” ever since he watched Mississippi Damned, Mabry’s breakthrough project that won the Chicago Film Festival’s Best Screenplay.
Moore explained, “When I saw Mississippi Damned, again, I had not written the novel. And I had written very, very little at that time. I had written short stories only at that time. But what I was into was storytelling. And I saw that movie and I thought, ‘Oh, my goodness. This young woman knows how to tell a story.’ And it just, I thought, and I said to my partner, ‘I can’t wait to see what she does next.’”
Mabry has made her name known as an accomplished director and screenwriter, though she shares that her success was a simple journey. In her experience, she expresses how there is no formula or time limit for becoming a player in an industry. Mabry graduated USC from graduate school and film school at 25. She tried her hand at children, action, and drama, covering every genre to tell diverse stories and open the audience to a lens they have not looked through before.
At one point in time, Mabry admitted, “I really wanted to quit. I was approaching 40 at some point. And I was teaching at three universities and teaching at a school wage of nothing. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. And as I’m sitting knowing I’ve made Mississippi Damned, I’ve done everything I can. I don’t have an agent. I don’t have a manager. I don’t have an entertainment attorney. What am I going to do? I wanted to give up. But it took friends around me to say you’re a good writer. You’re a good director. Don’t quit. “
When she wanted to give up, a switch went off the moment she received a call from American filmmaker and screenwriter Ava Duvernay, offering her the position to be a writer, producer, and director for season one of drama show Queen Sugar, an Oprah Winfrey Network production. Only two weeks after accepting this opportunity, Mabry received a call from Gina Prince-Bythewood about getting involved in the crime drama series, Shots Fired.
Mabry’s projects are reflective of her own journey. Hollywood is a male-dominated industry that typically lacks opportunities for minority women. Off the screen, the number of minority directors is dismal. On the screen, Black women are often either made to be invisible or tokenized. Women like the characters in The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat are relatable because they are bright and ambitious, yet they lack opportunity. The movie reflects how in real life sisterhood and friendship are how women persevere through those barriers.
“We are women in America and women in this world,” Mabry said. “There’s an innate better quicksand ready for you if you choose to step in it and stay in it. We do have to encounter that quicksand. There should be other people that are there to help pull you out. Hence, it is important to have a community and be able to look out for one another because no man is an island unto himself.”
“There’s an innate better quicksand ready for you if you choose to step in it and stay in it… There should be other people that are there to help pull you out… No man is an island unto himself.”
Tina Mabry
In the story, Odette, Clarice, and Barbara Jean face what must feel like inescapable battles, yet they’re always lifting each other up. Support is unwavering if they don’t fully agree with someone’s choices like Clarice choosing to marry and start a family instead of going to music school. Odette and Barbara Jean do not agree with her decision, yet they ultimately support her freedom to dictate her life and choices.
For Mabry, persevering through her career was a difficult yet necessary course of action. “Anything you love is always one of the most difficult things you go through. I’m not going to stop because I don’t have the luxury to stop. This is what my spirit tells me as an artist that I should be doing.”
Uplifting and advocating for others is paramount to the film. It is also central to the environments that Mabry chooses to foster for the sets she works on. In the long run, success is collective.
“I want the people who work for me to have the access that I always craved and couldn’t get,” Mabry said. She explained that she doesn’t mind when people shadow her work and that helping others is her responsibility.
“Luck happens. But luck is the residue of hard work,” Mabry said. “I also work my butt off. But we can keep that opportunity of making sure to give the people behind you access who push themselves forward.”
Mabry participates in mentorship programs like Film Independent and Women in Film to help aspiring artists navigate the field artistically, financially, and politically. Mabry’s advice for those navigating their careers is to maintain that sense of self and community advocacy and “remember there are no small opportunities. It’s what you make out of it.”
The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat is a tale of three fighters who reflect this confidence in different ways. Clarice shows how it is never too late to pursue your goals and prioritize yourself. Barbara Jean is a role model for all those who feel beaten down. She has flaws, yes, but she perseveres and finds a path toward healing. And finally, Odette is brave not because she is fearless, but because she acts despite those fears. She stands up for Barbara Jean within minutes of meeting her and shares her raw and honest opinions with those around her because she knows the impact of her truth. She accepts that certain things are out of her control but does not let that determine her fate.
Each character’s armor is different, yet they operate as mirrors of real women. They use humor to help cope with tragedy and use friendship to lift them up when the burden is too much to carry on their own.
“Be confident in how you stand,” Mabry concludes. “It’s not cockiness. It’s believing in yourself. And you have the right and the privilege and responsibility to go ahead and walk that path.”
The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat will be released on Hulu on August 23rd, 2024.
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