My name is Ramell Ross. I'm the co-writer and director of “Nickel Boys.” “Young man! Young man. Do – do you know a student named Elwood Curtis?” Hattie, who is played by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, visits her grandson, Elwood, who is played by Ethan Herisse at the Nickel Academy, during which he mistakenly is sent. She hits Turner, who is Elwood's friend, and Turner is played by Brandon Wilson, and Turner is the camera because the film is shot in the point of view, our camera operator in this case, Sam Ellison, acts as Turner's eyes And so you can participate in Turner's reality by seeing with him, seeing next to him. And so when she comes to give Turner a hug, which she does because she says she can't hug Elwood, she essentially comes into close contact with Sam, and Sam makes a camera that mimics as closely as possible where the head would go and where the gaze, the eyes would go in relation to that closeness. And with that process, Hattie as Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, isn't able to have that intimate connection that happens when you have a scene partner. “What's your name?” “It's Turner, ma'am.” “Oh, Turner. Well, I'm glad I have someone to rely on here, Turner. When was the last time you had family to visit you?” “Oh, um, well.” 'You know? I came all the way this way. And I can't hug Ellwood, so I guess you'll have to do it. And it's interesting for Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, who has so much experience, to be put into this process where he has to look and act directly at the lens. “What are they feeding you all? You can't get a bigger hug than that. You know, I'm going to remember that next time, Turner. Hug me again. Which means she has a sense of loneliness and an inability, again, to have that human touch and that eye contact that actors rely on so much. And so Aunjanue ends up, she says, in retrospect, kind of turning that loneliness and that isolation into the character Hattie, who feels very similarly, is in the middle of this place without her grandson and has no one to turn to “And I think it really pays dividends in the performance.”