Nicole Hill

Because this is the thing.

His boys think that she is too ambitious.

Her girls say that he's a player.

Plus, Essie and Paul, by their own admission, argue a lot.

They're opposites in temperament and style and height.

They also want an unconventional arrangement where instead of man and wife, they are going to be equals.

So one rainy day in August 1921, a year after they started hanging out, Paul and Essie elope.

They move into a tiny apartment in Harlem.

Their friends and family are like, God bless.

So Paul is studying to be a lawyer, which is a huge deal for many reasons, not least of which because he and Essie are the first generation to come up in an America without slavery.

His dad was actually born enslaved and then escaped on the Underground Railroad as a teenager.

All around them, Americans are trying to figure out a way to beat Jim Crow, and Paul hopes to do his part as a lawyer.

So, while Paul is studying, Essie supports the couple as the first black woman to lead a lab at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.

Paul ends a job at a law firm where he's subjected to all kinds of racism, all kinds of indignities.

They hate that.

So Essie's like, Paul, you know what you should do?

You should quit being a lawyer and you should become a full-time actor.

Paul is like, what are you even talking about?

But she's like, no, no, no.

I think you're a generational talent.