• "Back in Action" is Cameron Diaz's first film role in over a decade.
• Unfortunately, it's a poor comeback vehicle with rough dialogue and a thin plot.
• The film works fine as a casual watch, but not much else.

"Back in Action" is Cameron Diaz's first film role in over a decade. She should have made a better choice for a comeback.

The film, directed by Seth Gordon, is capital-F "Fine" at best and mediocre background watching at worst. Given that this is the movie Jamie Foxx miraculously recovered from a stroke to complete, one would hope the end product inspired stronger enthusiasm.

The aptly titled film stars Diaz and Foxx as Emily and Matt, suburban parents who were elite spies before having their first child and pivoting to coaching soccer and selling puzzles on Etsy. "Back in Action" kicks off 15 years in the past during their last mission together to steal an Industrial Control Systems key (don't worry about it) from a Eastern European crime lord. They succeed, but terrorists attack them on the plane back to safety. Presumed dead, Matt and Emily use the plane crash to disappear and raise the child that Emily has just learned she's carrying.

This opening sequence does little to establish Matt and Emily's relationship, or even their individual characters, past a few entertaining punches, quippy one-liners, and saccharine expressions of sincerity. "My favorite person is about to create my new favorite person," Matt tells Emily, despite having to clarify moments before that they were exclusive.

Their extremely normal life only gets blown up because Matt and Emily are caught on tape beating up a few guys ("BOOMERS WRECK DANCE PARTY") while picking their underage daughter Alice (McKenna Roberts) up from the club. With Alice and their son Leo (Rylan Jackson) in tow, they go on a quest to pick up the ICS key from Emily's mother Ginny (Glenn Close — why not?) and unite their family through espionage. Andrew Scott and Kyle Chandler are also in this film, for some reason, and are mostly wasted in their roles.

Aside from one tepid but somewhat surprising twist, "Back in Action" is a mélange of spy tropes, embarrassingly bad and self-explanatory dialogue, and trite familial conflicts. The film's emotional appeal hinges on Emily's relationships with Alice, who rebels against her for standard Teenage Girl Reasons, and her mother Ginny, whom she hates for being absent in her childhood. Simple friction leads to simple payoffs.

The film's fight sequences slightly redeem it, mostly because it's fun to watch Diaz and Foxx beat up some classic goons in tandem. However, the movie insists on soundtracking those fights to classic hits like Nat King Cole's "L.O.V.E." and Etta James' "At Last," seemingly in a bid to create a romantic, nostalgic atmosphere for its leads. To be fair, they have more chemistry in those moments than literally anywhere else in the film.

In the end, "Back in Action" is an unfortunate comeback choice for Diaz, and its script gives her and Foxx little to stand on through the film's nearly two-hour runtime. For audiences, it's a passable enough choice for a Friday night flick or folding laundry, but not much else.

"Back in Action" is streaming now on Netflix.

Tekashi 6ix9ine filed a lawsuit against LA Fitness, alleging negligence in an attack at a Florida location two years ago.

Tennessee hired a new general manager to make the No. 1 overall pick.

Nearly six thousand people have backed a Christian petition calling out president-elect Donald Trump's reported "pay-to-pray" plan.

Roki Sasaki ended the suspense of the most intriguing free agency of the offseason Friday, announcing his signing on his Instagram account.

"I had a chance to go have a long and actually quite intriguing dinner with him," Gates told The Wall Street Journal.

Recently, internet personality and WWE Superstar Logan Paul spoke about taking a break from wrestling to fight Conor McGregor unless WWE could match the bill.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed Friday that Democratic senators had sent him a letter alleging "he has a clear and direct interest in obtaining favors" from Donald Trump and is using his donations "to cozy up" to the incoming administration to avoid regulatory scrutiny.

Why it matters: Altman was one of several tech titans who donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration. In a statement to Axios in response to the senators' letter, an OpenAI spokesperson said: "Sam believes that President Trump will lead our country during a pivotal moment for AI and American innovation, and looks forward to working with him and his administration."

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• Altman posted the letter on X, adding: "funny, they never sent me one of these for contributing to democrats."

Driving the news: The letter from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) stated that "million-dollar gifts" to Trump's inaugural fund by Altman and tech firms like Google, Meta, Microsoft and Uber, "raise questions about corruption and the influence of corporate money" on the Trump administration.

• Altman was one of a few tech CEOs who donated personally, rather than via their companies. Apple CEO Tim Cook did the same, as Axios scooped.
• Representatives for Warren and Bennet didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

What they're saying: In the letter, lawmakers said that "the industry's efforts suggest that Big Tech companies are trying to curry favor and skirt the rules."

• The letter includes a list of questions, with a Jan. 25 deadline for Altman to respond. They include: "What is your rationale for these contributions?" and "When and under what circumstances did your company decide to make these contributions to the Trump inaugural fund?"
• In his response, Altman noted that he'd made a personal contribution and thus "i am confused about the questions given that my company did not make a decision."

Flashback: Altman told Fox News in December he would donate $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund, saying he was "eager to support" Trump's efforts to "lead our country into the age of AI."

• He's changed his tune since 2016, when he stated in a post on X that "I am voting against Trump" as "he is unfit to be President and would be a threat to national security."

Between the lines: Trump has vowed to repeal President Biden's AI executive order from 2023 that outlined the steps companies and the government will be directed to take to foster responsible AI.

• YouTubers Myka and James Stauffer adopted a boy named Huxley from China in 2017 and documented it online.
• In 2020, the Stuaffers were criticized after revealing they placed him in a new home.
• In a since-deleted video, the couple said that Huxley was "thriving," and "happy" in his new forever home.

Almost five years after YouTubers Myka and James Stauffer faced waves of backlash for their decision to place their adopted son Huxley in a new home, plenty of questions still linger about the family.

The Stauffers' controversial decision gets renewed attention in the HBO original documentary series "An Update On Our Family," whose title is taken from the couple's infamous since-deleted video of the same name. The three-part docuseries is also inspired by a New York magazine article by Caitlin Moscatello.

The Ohio-based vlogger parents didn't participate in the docuseries, but James regularly posts about his car detailing business on his Stauffer Garage YouTube channel and Instagram account.

Here's what we know about where Huxley is now.

Myka and James Stauffer adopted Huxley, then 2 and a half years old, from China in 2017

The parents of four other children kept their followers updated on their adoption process through YouTube vlogs. After welcoming Huxley into their home, the Stauffers shared his progress as he adjusted to his new life and family.

Their channel swelled to 700,000 subscribers, videos about Huxley were monetized, and they maintained sponsorship deals with brands.

But in 2020, fans noticed that Huxley was absent from their social media content, prompting questions and concerns about what happened to him.

In May of that year, Myka and James revealed that they had placed Huxley in a new home to better support his needs.

Little is known about Huxley's life since he was placed in a new home in 2020

In the since-deleted video that sparked backlash, the couple said that they only learned after bringing Huxley home that he had special needs that they hadn't been told about.

The Stauffers said that Huxley received multiple assessments and evaluations from medical professionals who agreed that he needed a home better equipped to support him.

The couple also said that they were intentionally vague about Huxley's situation because they "didn't want to mess up anything" as he was meeting and spending time with new people so he could find his "forever family."

Myka said that the adoption agency had placed Huxley with a family it thought was "the perfect match." People magazine reported that Huxley has since been renamed.

"He is thriving," Myka said in the video. "He is very happy. He's doing really well. And his new mommy has medical-professional training, and it is a very good fit."

In an Instagram post shared in June 2020, Myka apologized for the "confusion" and "pain" she caused and admitted she was unprepared to properly parent Huxley.

"We love Huxley and know that this was the right decision for him and his future. Praying that Huxley only has the best future in the entire world," she wrote.

The first episode of "An Update On Our Family" is streaming on Max. The remaining episodes will be released weekly through January 29.

Ron Devine, former owner of BK Racing, was ordered to pay $31 million after the U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a judgment against him for avoiding payroll taxes.

Taran Brar told Newsweek that the Donald Trump chicken inflatable is his form of public service.

Zac Efron received a withering insult on 'The Traitors' last night as his brother Dylan was arguing a point on the competition show.

It took the owners a moment to process and then they screamed with excitement.

Biden and Trump have the lowest average approval ratings out of any post-World War II presidents, according to Gallup.

• The Biden administration will leave it to Trump to enforce the TikTok ban.
• Congress ruled last year that Chinese firm ByteDance should sell TikTok or see it banned.
• Trump takes office on January 20, the day after the deadline for ByteDance to sell.

President Joe Biden's administration is not planning to implement the TikTok ban set to take effect on Sunday.

That would leave it to President-elect Donald Trump and his officials to act after they take office on January 20.

The law, which was passed by Congress and signed by Biden in April of last year, requires TikTok to be banned unless ByteDance, its China-based parent company, sells the app's US operations by January 19.

"Given the sheer fact of timing, this Administration recognizes that actions to implement the law simply must fall to the next Administration, which takes office on Monday," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.

"President Biden's position on TikTok has been clear for months, including since Congress sent a bill in overwhelming, bipartisan fashion to the President's desk: TikTok should remain available to Americans, but simply under American ownership or other ownership that addresses the national security concerns identified by Congress in developing this law," she added.

The bill that would ban TikTok from US app stores also gave Biden the ability to grant ByteDance a 90-day extension if several conditions were met, including if there was "evidence of significant progress" made toward selling TikTok's US operations.

Trump has defended the app, which was banned amid concerns user data could be accessed by the Chinese government.

Mike Waltz, Trump's incoming national security advisor, told Fox News on Wednesday that Trump would seek to preserve the app, used by around 170 million Americans.

"We're going to find a way to preserve it but protect people's data. And that's the deal that will be in front of us," Waltz said.

He suggested an executive order could be used to protect it, but offered few details on how this might work in practice.

Last month, Trump called on the US Supreme Court to pause the ban. The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the ban on Friday.

Following the ruling, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew posted a video to TikTok thanking Trump for his commitment to working with TikTok to keep the app running in the US. 

There have been several potential TikTok buyers, but it's unclear if or to what extent ByteDance has sought to divest. ByteDance and TikTok have not publicly shown any interest in a sale.

Democratic former Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor Thursday that more time was needed to find a US buyer.

"It's clear that more time is needed to find an American buyer and not disrupt the lives and livelihoods of millions of Americans, of so many influencers who have built up a good network of followers," Schumer said.

It's also unclear what will happen to the app on Sunday if Biden, Trump, or the Supreme Court do not step in before then to save it.

The legislation passed last year requires platforms in the US such as Apple or Google to stop offering the app or updating it when the sale deadline passes, meaning it'd effectively "go dark" or be unavailable.

• Democrats may need to help Republicans raise the debt ceiling this year.
• If that happens, Democrats aren't going to do it for free. They'll likely demand concessions.
• Rep. Ro Khanna, a Silicon Valley Democrat, says his party should demand a federal minimum wage hike.

At some point in the next few months, Congress will have to raise the debt ceiling.

For now, Republicans are planning to do it on their own. But if past is prologue, they'll probably need votes from across the aisle — and Democrats are likely to demand something in return.

Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat who represents Silicon Valley, told Business Insider this week that he believes the price should be an increase in the federal minimum wage.

"We should force Republicans to vote on it," the California Democrat told BI.

Khanna did not specify a particular level at which he'd like to raise the wage, but Democrats generally support a $15 per hour federal minimum wage. Some, such as Sen. Bernie Sanders, have proposed pushing it even higher, to $17 per hour.

President-elect Donald Trump said in December that he would "consider" raising the minimum wage, but several Republican lawmakers later told BI that they opposed the idea.

Scott Bessent, Trump's nominee for secretary of the treasury, said at a Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday that he does not believe the current $7.25 per hour federal minimum wage should change.

It's not clear if Democrats will follow Khanna's lead, though he told BI that he would "make the case to the caucus."

Minimum wage increases tend to be popular among both Democratic and Republican voters — in November, several Republican-leaning states passed minimum wage hikes via ballot measures.

Democrats still have to figure out their price for helping Republicans

As of now, Republicans want to avoid handing any leverage to Democrats in the first few months of Trump's presidency. They plan to include a debt ceiling hike in a broader party-line "reconciliation" bill containing a smattering of Trump's priorities on energy, immigration, border security, and taxes.

But there's a good chance that won't work, given some hardline Republicans' deep reservations about raising the debt ceiling without dramatic spending cuts. Some Republicans have never voted to raise the debt ceiling before, and in December, dozens of them openly defied Trump's call to raise the debt ceiling after Elon Musk helped tank a government funding bill.

If Republicans can't do it themselves, Democrats will have the chance to make demands, lest the country breach the debt ceiling and trigger a fiscal crisis.

"I'm not a cheap date," Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts told BI. "The idea that we're just going to help them out when they can't get their own members to cooperate, those days are gone."

Of the several House Democrats that BI spoke to, only Khanna was willing to name a specific price. Others demurred, saying they were waiting to see what negotiations would look like in the coming months, and underscoring that Democrats would have to decide on their approach collectively.

"The sentiment from our caucus is: If you need our help on anything, you're going to have to help us," Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York told BI. "All of this, I think, is subject to many of our internal conversations."

Democrats could also use their leverage to try to halt the deep cuts to federal government spending that Republicans may pursue in the coming months, rather than making an affirmative policy demand.

"There's clearly a whole host of things that I think the caucus would have as priorities," Democratic Rep. Joe Morelle of New York told BI.

• AMC's "Breaking Bad" ended over 10 years ago, but its popularity and impact endure.
• The show's iconic characters resulted in spinoffs, and it still has an enthusiastic fan base.
• From a character's brush with death to flying pizzas, here are some surprising "Breaking Bad" facts.

When "Breaking Bad" debuted in 2008 on AMC, the gritty drama stunned viewers, especially those who knew Bryan Cranston as the goofy father from "Malcolm in the Middle." His chemistry-teacher-turned-meth-maker character, Walter White, became increasingly ruthless as the series continued. 

That wasn't the show's only surprise. Gruesome deaths, twisty plots, and memorable characters all made the show iconic, a legacy that continues over a decade after its end. "Better Call Saul" and a movie, "El Camino," followed, continuing the interest and accolades for "Breaking Bad." 

Here are some fun facts about "Breaking Bad" you may not have known. 

• When I tried a variety of hacks for perfect scrambled eggs, I was impressed by the whirlpool trick.
• My new go-to method involves placing raw eggs in a boiling vortex of water and then straining them.
• The finished scrambled eggs come out super fluffy, creamy, and perfectly cooked every time.

Scrambled eggs are simple to make, but they aren't always easy to get right. They can be rubbery if they're cooked over heat that's even a skosh too high, but they can be goopy and runny with too low of a temperature.

I've tried many different methods for making scrambled eggs just how I like them — light yellow and fluffy with no rubbery or dry texture — but my favorite involves a boiling vortex of water.

It sounds weird, and I was pretty reluctant when I came across this egg-cooking hack online. But once I tried it, I was converted.

All you need is eggs, salt, and boiling water for this relatively simple process

I start the process by bringing a pot of salted water to a boil, as if I was making pasta. Just as the water begins to boil, I crack some eggs into a separate bowl and whisk vigorously for about 30 seconds.

Then, it's time to make a whirlpool. I stir the water clockwise until it's swirling. While the water is still circling the pot, I pour in the whisked eggs and place a lid over them.

I use a glass lid to cover the pot so I can watch the action unfold as the eggs quickly turn stringy.

When I initially tried this method, I thought it was interesting to watch them cook this way, but I was worried — I didn't think eating long strands of eggs sounded particularly appealing.

After straining, these eggs come out light and fluffy with no rubbery texture

After about 20 seconds, I use a strainer to lift the eggs out of the water and into a bowl.

I might have to blot a little extra water out of the eggs, but otherwise, they no longer look stringy and are actually light and fluffy.

I like to add butter, salt, and pepper to the eggs or put them on top of toast. They're creamy, they're not runny, and impressively, they don't make the bread soggy.

Even better, the clean-up process with the whirlpool trick is minimal

Not only do the eggs come out just to my liking and cook quickly, but the cleanup is pretty easy. There's no need to soak and scrape away caked-on scrambled eggs from a pan.

Instead, you're just cleaning up a pan that held mostly water and a strainer — I like to spray mine down immediately after using it to prevent the eggs from sticking.

Perfect eggs and no-fuss dishwashing? I'll be boiling my scrambled eggs with the whirlpool trick from here on out.

This story was originally published on June 2, 2022, and most recently updated on January 17, 2025.

• TikTok might go away. (Or not? Probably not? Who knows!)
• Whatever its fate, TikTok changed how people consume and post to social media.
• The TikTokification of American life isn't going anywhere — even if the app disappears.

Even if TikTok goes away, part of it will be with us forever: It's impossible to erase the TikTokification of the entire internet — or the effect the app has had on, well, everything.

Sure, there are several possibilities now that the Supreme Court has upheld the TikTok ban: One possibility is that TikTok actually goes away in the US on Sunday, existing in history as a strange several-year blip — replaced by either incumbent apps like Instagram and YouTube Shorts, or something new. (RedNote? Probably not, but who knows!)

In the last week, when things were looking pretty dire for TikTok, I started talking to colleagues about what TikTok actually meant — what its legacy meant. And we all realized that, essentially, there were almost no aspects of American life that had been untouched by TikTok. OK, well maybe not EVERYTHING — I'm being a little dramatic here, but it's very easy to rattle off a bunch of industries and corners of culture that were massively changed by TikTok.

Book publishing is one of the perfect examples of a fusty old thing — an industry that's existed for centuries and one that you'd think would be threatened by people's free time being sucked up by a video app. But instead, BookTok became this juggernaut force for selling and marketing books.

The beauty industry, homebuying, restaurants, the customization of Starbucks drinks, the music industry, sorority recruitment — all changed by TikTok.

Still, those various activities had already been disrupted by social media platforms that came before TikTok: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter — even MySpace. But TikTok represented something even more — an entire cultural shift.

TikTok changed us to the online core

As someone who has spent most of my career trying to observe how people act online, I've come to believe there are a few things about TikTok that have changed humans on an almost molecular level. It's changed the way we interact online — which is much bigger than just how lipstick is marketed.

TikTok's algorithmic feed upended all that we had previously understood or enjoyed about social media.

Social media has long been about followers and a direct relationship with the person whose content you're viewing. Before TikTok, follower count was important — and it was rare that a single post would go viral on its own.

TikTok flipped this completely.

It's almost hard to remember now that most other social apps have copied TikTok's "For you page," but this way of organizing your feed was new and almost confusing at first.

Sure, there were still some big creators who had massive followings, but there was a democratization of virality: Suddenly, every high school had a kid who had gone viral at least once on TikTok.

As TikTok grew to be more than just teens dancing, it became understood to everyone using it that if you posted, there was a chance lots of strangers might see your content — even if you weren't a big influencer or famous person. Almost Warholian — in the future, everyone will get 10,000 views on a random TikTok post. "I didn't expect my last post to blow up," is one of the most common intros to a TikTok you'll see.

As people accepted the idea that you might actually be perceived by others on the app, something strange happened. Instead of an Instagram effect where people felt pressure to look their best and put forth an idealized version of their life, people — especially young women — were more willing than I'd ever seen before on social media to post images of themselves looking, uh, not-so-perfect. Lying in bed with unbrushed hair, no makeup, unflattering angles — things you'd never, ever see on Pinterest or Instagram. As a millennial woman raised on Instagram, I admired Gen Z's daring to look like crap on the internet — it was refreshing and honest.

Those changes are here to stay, no matter whether TikTok shuts down for a day, or forever, or is saved by some executive order.

TikTok uncorked something in the way we consume and the way we post — and that's not going back in the bottle.

Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor didn't intend to find her niche as an actor starring in movies and TV shows about race. But with a long list of credits punctuated by acclaimed projects that tackle the topic head-on, like "When They See Us," "Origin," "The Birth of a Nation," "If Beale Street Could Talk," and the 2023 remake of "The Color Purple," she acknowledges the trend.

"I didn't seek them out," Ellis-Taylor told Business Insider of these types of roles. "But I always sort of end up in them, and I think I've been trying to figure that out, too."

Ellis-Taylor's latest movie, "Nickel Boys," technically fits into this category, putting a warm and empathetic lens on a real-life tragedy. RaMell Ross' film adaptation of the Colson Whitehead novel of the same name tells the story of Elwood (Ethan Herisse), a Black boy who's sent to an infamously abusive reform school in 1960s Florida.

Told largely through the eyes of both Elwood and his reform school friend Turner (Brandon Wilson) in a groundbreaking first-person perspective, the film is an intimate and often devastating look at the boys' coming-of-age against the backdrop of the Jim Crow South.

As Elwood's devoted grandmother Hattie, Ellis-Taylor radiates warmth and determination, even when she knows the odds are stacked against her grandson.

Ellis-Taylor suspects that her tendency to get cast in heavy projects like "Nickel Boys" that chronicle racial injustice has something to do with how she spends her time off — a case of art echoing life.

"I'm from Mississippi, and so a lot of what I've done when I'm not acting has been fighting what is essentially a Confederacy that didn't die," said Ellis-Taylor, who spent years advocating for the removal of the Confederate emblem from the Mississippi state flag (it was officially changed in 2021).

"I don't hold my tongue when I see things that I feel are wrong and wrong in a way that the foundation of that wrong is race or caste-related or misogyny-related."

If speaking up has given her a reputation, she's glad for it.

"I think who I am when I'm not working, maybe there are rumors about that," Ellis-Taylor continued. "And that gets to people and they think, 'Okay, maybe we need to hire this crazy lady.'"

For BI's latest Role Play interview, Ellis-Taylor explains why the "Origin" awards-season snub still stings, her decision to criticize queer erasure in "The Color Purple," and the project she's hoping to get off the ground next.

On the disappointing reception to 'Origin' and the burden on Black creatives

Business Insider: Many of your recent films, especially "Nickel Boys" and "Origin," deal with heavy topics, and talking about those subjects invariably comes up on the press tour. How do you navigate that? Does it ever weigh on you?

Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor: Sometimes it does. I find myself having to be really vigilant about how I respond to things. For example, with both "Origin" and something like "Nickel Boys," you hear things like, "Where is the hope in this?" Because there is a burden on Black makers to provide hope for people.

So when I get questions like that, I have to be really vigilant in saying, "Why are you asking me that? We're talking about a film here. Why is that uniquely the responsibility of a Black filmmaker to provide hope? Why? You're not asking our contemporaries to do that, but it's our responsibility to do that kind of work."

So that can weigh on me, because that's time that I could be answering something else.

Much has been made of "Origin" being snubbed during awards season last year and why that might have happened. I know you and director Ava DuVernay have both spoken before about how frustrating it was for that film to not get the reception it deserved. Is that something that still bothers you?

Yeah, it does. The lovely people that I'm working with on "Nickel Boys," it's hard for me to say to them, "Look, guys, I got a little PTSD going on." You know? Because I was going through this less than a year ago, nine months ago, really, and it still hurts.

A lot of what hurt me is that I know what Ava wanted. She wanted this book, and her film that's based on the book, to be a part of our national discussion about race and caste in this country. And the reality is, films getting awards, it helps it saturate culture. Not just culture, it helps it saturate our political discussions. She wanted "Origin" to be at the center of that.

Not having that kind of result was very disappointing. Not just disappointing for everyone who worked on the film, but I feel that I'm personally disappointed. My disappointment is not just my own personal disappointment, but I feel that to have a conversation, to be able to have the language for the conversation that would've been so beneficial in these last few months, and not to be able to have that because folks didn't know. And folks don't know because folks didn't see it, and folks didn't see it because it wasn't in the awards discussion. It still stings a bit, yeah.

On calling out queer erasure in 'The Color Purple' remake after appearing in the film

After "The Color Purple" remake came out, you criticized how both the 2023 version and the 1985 film downplayed that this is a story about Black lesbians. Why was it important to you to speak out on that?

It's important for me to say that because Alice Walker is a queer woman, and she wrote that. She was writing herself into existence when she wrote "The Color Purple." And I feel that it is a dishonoring of that writing into existence if that is not a priority in any iteration of it.

When we say things like, "It is about Black sisterhood"... that's lovely and wonderful, but it is also about Black women who fall in love with other women, who have sex with other Black women.

And when we're not honest about that and we don't meet that, when we cower and say it's about something else because we don't want to make other people feel uncomfortable, that's homophobic. That's homophobia at its core, and I'm tired of that.

I feel like we have a lot of well-intentioned people who want to do the right thing, who would never claim to be homophobic or bigoted in any sort of way, but if we are like that, we have to be like that in the art that we make. And that is why I have to say that.

And I'm queer. I'm a queer woman. I'm bi, so when I read "The Color Purple," I saw myself. I feel like we're quiet and silent about queer erasure. I just won't do that.

Do you feel like for the story to be told properly, it needs to be told by a Black queer woman?

I think that would be beneficial. I believe that queer people should play queer people. I think too often we have straight people playing queer characters. And I think that queer people can play themselves and should play themselves. I think it's not going to change until we start insisting, until queer folks start insisting on something better.

Did anyone give you a hard time for being critical of the movie after having been in it?

Nobody said anything to me. I don't think people really try to say anything to me too much.

And I'm going to be honest, my critique of the film was about its erasure of queerness, solely. It wasn't about its artistic merits. It wasn't about Ms. Winfrey personally or how I felt I was treated on the film. It didn't have anything to do with that. And I made sure that when I said what I said, the film was out already, all the awards had been announced.

There was nothing that I was going to say that was going to affect the box office or affect its chances. I waited until all of that was over, because the reality is when you do say critical things like that, it affects how the film is seen in the world.

I feel that I owed it to those young women who were in that movie, for them to have the fullness of the experience, the joy of being in "The Color Purple," and I didn't want to shed any sort of negative light on that at all. So I waited until all of that was over, and then I had to say that because it was important to say that. And I hope my queer community joins me, and when they see that, that they speak up as well. It's not going to be different until we do.

On her first Oscar nomination and writing her own stories

You got your first Oscar nomination in 2022 for "King Richard." In 2024, you had four films released. Do you feel like the nomination changed the types of roles you were being offered, or boosted your career?

Well, I think 2022 and the end of 2021, yeah, things changed. Things changed quite a bit. It was like a five-year period leading up, a couple years leading up to that, things started changing. I was doing some stuff that I had never really done before.

As far as the types of roles, I think it's consistent. I don't have people that are knocking on my door throwing scripts at me. I just think that the diversity of the kind of work that I would choose to do, I would like to do, it's not as varied as I would want in terms of what is being offered to me.

But my response to that is I have to write that into existence, and so that's what I'm trying to do now.

What types of projects are you writing now?

Well, one of the things is writing a story about Rosetta Tharpe. It feels like every other year there's a story about Elvis or Bob Dylan. And I think that Rosetta Tharpe created rock 'n' roll, so we need some stories about Rosetta Tharpe and the movement of music that she made inside and outside of the church, and then her blending both of those.

That's the story of American music, and I think it's fascinating. She's a woman. She's a queer woman. She had a relationship with the woman who she was singing with. It is a fascinating story. I want to see that onscreen.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

"Nickel Boys" is now in theaters.

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