Danielle Deadwyler delivers a powerful performance in the action-packed thriller, “40 Acres.” The film follows a family’s desperate struggle to survive on an isolated farm after a series of plagues and wars devastate their community. Deadwyler’s character, Hailey, a former soldier, has instilled in her family the essential skills of self-defense and survival. As the family faces a formidable militia determined to seize their land and lives, Hailey must lead them in a final stand for their existence. In a recent interview, Danielle shared her insights into the film and the reasons behind its significance to her.
Was it purposeful or great writing to set the tone of the film from the beginning by portraying the matriarch of the family?
It’s a bit of both, for sure. There’s a marriage that tends to happen with an actor and a director. At least for me, it needs to happen. If I’m gonna carry something and we’re talking about the drastic nature, the urgent nature of the context of the film. We’re talking about dystopia. She does derive from the South. So you marry the history of what it means to come from a certain place with the urgency of the time. And those two things have to meet each other, you know, and conjunction with her, you know, character background as a person of military, knowledge, and then her partner, having that military knowledge at the same time. And to be witnessing no other animal life, to be witnessing all these kinds of, you know, this cannibalistic , uh, um group and violent, you know, groups that are in their mil you, right? You have to take hold, right? And there is a way that, you know, maternity, black maternity, desires to own so that survival is, is imminent, right? Like, that is what is a being applied in this experience . And and you can’t have much back talk. If, you know, if if wild folks are coming across the thing trying to shoot and kill your people, you have to.
40 Acres subtly hints at the real-life, real-world consequences that could arise if we fail to exercise caution. Did you notice these similarities during filming?
I wasn’t really thinking about it during the filming, right? Of course, because I know she just wants to protect the foundation she’s building. But assuredly, in the final iterations of watching it and having watched it with an audience, they feel and understand that a rift can only survive for so long, that change is inevitable, and that reading Octavia Butler’s “Parable of the Sower,” which is also mentioned in the film, emphasizes the importance of community. It’s clear that there can only be a blockade, but for so long, that children have to grow into their own knowledge. Guarding your heart can consume you.
As someone who is currently contextualizing and analyzing the film, I understand this. But amidst the chaos, there’s a dog-like spirit trying to keep the walls secure, and it’s incredibly difficult to break through. Especially when you consider your personal history, trauma, and knowledge of what a government like Haley’s will do. People aren’t meant to be controlled. So, yes, there’s a mind and a perspective as a character in the midst of doing it, but in retrospect, yes, there has to be an opening up.
My Energy Is A GIFT Not A GIVEN