Jenifer Lewis has had a long and varied acting career. Her resume is packed with stage, film and television appearances across decades, from “Sister Act” to “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” to “The Princess and the Frog.” When chatting with Steve Pond for a screening hosted by TheWrap of her new short film “Ado,” however, she didn’t hesitate to say how much this project stands out.
“It certainly is the most important role I’ve ever played,” she said.
Lewis stars in and produced “Ado,” a live-action short from director Sam Henderson, who wrote the film alongside Ryan Romine and served as co-producer. In December, “Ado” was one of 15 films shortlisted for the Best Live Action Short Film category at the 2026 Academy Awards.
“Ado” follows Lewis’ Ms. Hopkins, a middle school drama teacher whose rehearsal of William Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing” is interrupted by an active shooter. The film comes from a personal place for Henderson, whose mother taught at a middle school for nearly 40 years. The film is dedicated to her: “For Ms. Bee. Another Hero.”
“The movie originated from a conversation I had with my mom about what she would do if she was in that situation, faced with a school shooter. Thankfully, thank God, she’s never actually been in that situation,” Henderson said. “She told me she thought the only chance she would have was if the shooter knew her, if the shooter remembered her, who she was, perhaps to him because he was in her class, or if he remembered who she was to the students at the school that she taught.
“When she said that, it was a great igniter for this idea because I hadn’t seen that particular representation of the problem,” Henderson continued. “Of course there are a lot of explorations about the psychology of the shooter, and of course, rightfully so, we talk a lot about the kids and the students who are affected by this, but I felt like the teachers, people like my mom, are often caught in the middle of the conversation.”
Once it came time for casting, nobody could compete with Lewis once Henderson got her name in his head. Just as the writer/director brought a lot of himself to the story, Lewis brought a lot of herself to the project. The “Black-ish” star suffered a severe injury in 2022 after falling 10 feet from a Serengeti balcony. It was during her recovery period that she became attached to the script.
“Instantly, I was drawn to the role,” Lewis said. Referencing the 2018 mass shooting in Florida, she added, “I had actually gone down to Parkland (High School) and visited the students there. I have become a fierce advocate for, well, all causes. I’ve had an illustrious career, and now my life is pretty much of service, to give back. So when I read ‘Ado,’ I did not pause.
“I knew I had to do it, but I also knew I was in bed,” she continued. “You can see the cane that Ms. Hopkins is using. That was real. I was coming to the end of my recovery.”
Davis revealed to Henderson during the Q&A that she sent the short film to Michelle Obama after appearing on the former First Lady’s podcast. “The text was so powerful,” Davis said, noting that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting occurred during Barack Obama’s presidency.
Lewis and Henderson talked at length about the power of art and the tragic prevalence of mass shootings in the United States. When discussing the legacy of Shakespeare, Lewis called the Bard “the greatest writer to ever exist in the English language.” And communication is central to Henderson’s film.
“I wanted to make a movie about language,” he said. “I have two teenage kids now, and we’ve told them their whole lives, ‘Hey, words matter.’ Words matter. Language matters. The words you choose matter. Words can heal, they can help, they can encourage.
“That’s another ode to Shakespeare, the master of words: there’s power in language.”
Watch the full discussion here.
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