“Sinners” star Wunmi Mosaku, who played the beloved, hoodoo conjurer and love to Michael B. Jordan’s Smoke, is emotional and elated following her first ever Oscar nomination. The prestigious recognition was announced Thursday morning and saw the Nigerian-British actress receive the nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
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Speaking to The Root shortly after her recognition, Mosaku described the nomination as “extraordinary” and expressed how she’d always hoped that her career would one day take her to the iconic award show at the legendary Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. She also shared how grateful she was to have earned her first-ever Oscar nomination for her role in a movie like “Sinners.”
“I never think about the role when I’m taking it like ‘this is gonna be the thing that gets me my Oscar nomination. This is gonna be the thing that gets me my BAFTA nomination’—I don’t think about that at all when I’m auditioning,” Mosaku explained to The Root early Thursday morning (Jan. 22). “[But] for Annie to be the role that I get my first nomination with, it feels really—I’m so glad it was ‘Sinners.’ I’m so glad it was Annie, I’m so grateful for this moment. I didn’t anticipate it until people started talking about last September about awards. I just didn’t think about this part.”
Well…we definitely did. In fact, so did several Black women who saw themselves represented through her character. A darker, plus-sized women being treated with respect, loved on passionately and regarded for her wisdom is not something you see onscreen regularly.
So to see Mosaku get recognized through the various other awards she’s garnered by playing Annie—like the Gotham Film Awards and the African-American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) Awards—and now earning an Oscar nomination, it feels like pivotal moment for representation of darker skinned women in film.
Mosaku feels similarly, describing it as a “cherry on top of like a very instrumental and important role in my career as an actor and as a person.”
She went on to reveal how lonely and isolating she felt carrying various expectations and having to fight battles that are unique to the Black woman experience. But, after seeing all the positive feedback about her role from the community after “Sinners” was released, she expressed how healing it was to feel seen and have her feelings affirmed through her performance.
“Hearing Black women say how loved and loveable and appreciated and seen and remembered and valued by seeing me representing them on the screen—I didn’t realize how lonely I had felt in that. It felt really healing to me to hear other women,” Mosaku shared.
She continued: “It felt like everything I had ever felt, all the tribulations and pain, doubt and imposter syndrome. All the times I felt like I was fighting the outside world—I realize that that was all because I was meant to play Annie. I was meant to feel my power and my beauty and my spirituality and my connection. I felt like all those things led up to me playing her.”
Additionally, while Mosaku said that the nomination felt “personal to her,” she’s hopeful that it will somehow feel personal to Black women and that it affirms their own individual beauty and brilliance.
“How I feel right now is obviously a very personal, it feels very personal to me. But I hope that it feels personal to the women who felt seen and loved by Annie…I really hope that it feels affirming and beautiful for them too,” she explained. “I hope that at least the fact that ‘Sinners’ was so recognized that they feel it through that too.”
As far as the rest of her day is concerned, the actress doesn’t have any immediate plans to celebrate as she wasn’t anticipating doing so—only as a means to keep her emotions centered and remain “chill” about the whole thing. (She is, however, expecting her second child and mentioned how excited she was to listen to her baby’s heart beat during a doctor’s appointment later in the day). But she assures The Root that she and her loved ones will definitely figure something out before the day is over.
The 98th annual Oscars will go down Sunday, March 15 live in Los Angeles airing on ABC.
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