With some embarrassment, director/writer Jeff Nichols admits that he wasn’t at all familiar with the story of Mildred and Richard Loving whose interracial marriage got them jailed and exiled from Virginia in 1958. The couple persevered, became parents and eventually lived in hiding in Virginia, taking their case to the U.S. Supreme Court which in 1967 ruled in their favor, overturning Virginia’s ban on “the crime” of a mixed marriage.
“I grew up in Arkansas where the desegregation crisis was front and center. I felt I had an awareness of the civil rights movement but I didn’t know about the Lovings—and I’m ashamed of that,” said Nichols. “Once I was approached with their story, I sought out information. I sat down to watch a documentary [The Loving Story directed by Nancy Buirski] and I started to identify with it on several levels. I identified with Richard, his inability to articulate what he felt at times, and with Mildred’s deep connection to the rural area where she grew up and how she wanted that for her children [only to be forced to move her family to the urban sprawl of Washington, D.C.]. I identified in my life with what Mildred and Richard felt, and their story started to add up for me as something special.”
To capture how special, to do justice to that story, became a heartfelt pursuit for Nichols who both wrote the screenplay for and directed Loving (Focus Features) which stars Ruth Negga and Joel Edgerton as Mildred and Richard Loving. While the story led to a landmark Supreme Court decision, Nichols’ focus stayed on the couple. There are no grandiose Hollywood moments, no sweeping speeches, no courtroom drama—nothing even remotely preachy. Nichols simply tells a love story and by doing so shows the impact of an injustice on a family, underscoring the magnitude of that injustice through the quiet dignity and resolve of how a man and woman handled the situation, all the while staying committed to each other.
Nichols explained that by sticking to the facts, he was able to avoid being cliche. For example, while the Lovings’ story conjures up notions of a Supreme Court setting, the reality was that at the time their case was being heard the Lovings had returned from Washington, D.C. to live in their home state of Virginia—in violation of the local court verdict, putting them at the risk of being jailed. “The documentary on them had shifted in its third act to the court case but the Lovings weren’t involved in that on a day-to-day basis,” said Nichols. “I instead decided to look at that period in terms of the Lovings living in hiding in Virginia. Very few details were known about that time for them. But imagine what they went through. The psychological threat they felt. Being fearful if a car they didn’t recognize came driving down the road towards their house. Richard wasn’t socioeconomically privileged but he was advantaged in the eyes of the law because of his race. He could have divorced Mildred and stepped away from any psychological threat but he didn’t. His character and love for Mildred were deep.”
So too does Nichols’ performance at the Cannes Film Festival run deep. Loving was nominated earlier this year for the Palme d’Or. Four years earlier, Mud—which Nichols wrote and directed—was also in the running for the Cannes Palme d’Or. And prior to that his 2011 feature Take Shelter won the Critics Week Grand Prize, and the FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes.
Select collaborators
Nichols credits his many collaborators for the resonance of his films, among the key contributors being DP Adam Stone who has lensed all five of the writer/director’s features, starting with Shotgun Stories which was released in 2007 followed by Take Shelter in 2011, Mud in 2012, and both Midnight Special and Loving this year. Regarding what Stone brought to Loving, Nichols observed, “In this film an important narrative point is Mildred Loving’s connection to the rural life, her sense of place there, wanting her children to have room to grow and play in the countryside. I knew Adam would be able to photograph the film in a way that audiences would understand this connection. We’re not just talking about making the scenery pretty. It was about a profound connection to the grass, the land, the crops. I felt there was no other choice but Adam to film this. I plan on Adam shooting all my films—he and I continue to evolve with each piece of work.”
Nichols also evolved on another front, making his first foray into the ad arena this year with a Summer Olympics spot, a continuation of P&G’s “Proud Sponsor of Moms” campaign from Wieden+Kennedy. Titled “Strong,” the commercial—shot by Stone—shows the strength and support moms offered to their youngsters during times of crisis, which helped to shape their character, leading to their becoming Olympic champions. The spot was produced by Rattling Stick, which reps Nichols in the ad arena. Nichols enjoyed the challenge of telling a story within short-form confines, adding that “Strong” expanded his horizons on other fronts—representing his first project shot digitally, and the influence of global travel. “We flew all over the world—from Austin to Uruguay, Romania to Shanghai and back again. I was floored by Shanghai. I had never been to China before—and my experience there has China finding its way into a new feature script.”
