- 7 months ago
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00:00what happened to her body has decomposed how quickly can that happen seven years
00:08super excited to have one of our summer screen kings um and to talk about your projects so
00:19i have to say um i was like it's hard talking to someone who's newer on the scene like i'm trying
00:25to find things yeah too and i'm like i know that you are from south london one or two athletes you
00:34love to write poetry i think that's all i love i think i think that's about all that's out there
00:39too so you did well tell me about starting out well this athlete background i'm so intrigued by
00:48tell me about a little bit about this so i think for me the first real passion that i had was
00:58wanting to be an athlete i was really into track and field specifically um so you know when i was
01:06growing up at the time i think the world record holder was morris green okay and so that was
01:13around the time that i was really infused and excited about track and field um so you know i
01:20joined uh a sort of track and field club in my part of town and um just really sort of for a short
01:28amount of time really pursued that i really pursued that and i was determined to be the fastest man on
01:34the planet and all of those big wild dreams and then i think when i was maybe around 13 14
01:42we would call that year nine i'm not sure what grade that would be for you guys but 13 14 that's
01:49when my passion sort of changed um and from there it was more i just had this real interest in telling
01:59stories and hopefully sort of affecting change and encouraging conversation and evoking thoughts
02:08and feelings from people um that hopefully have a positive impact in some way or another
02:14yeah yeah so you were going to be a big deal either way you're like
02:19i don't know about that i don't know about that but i was certainly going to try
02:24so tell me about like your family's reaction i'm always curious you know what people's parents
02:31or family you know saying like i'm going to be an actor like were they like okay we'll get you in
02:36school you know we'll support yeah yeah so i i mean i always say that i've been very fortunate and
02:43very blessed um to arrive into the family that i did you know um my parents and my whole family
02:53have been entirely supportive of me no matter what my passion um and like i've explained to you my
02:59passion has changed yeah um from when i was a kid so i'm really thankful for that um and my dad is
03:06actually an actor so it was so amazing for me as a child to see my dad doing what he loved and what
03:17he was passionate about and my mom on the other hand is not in the creative industries but she
03:23inspired me in a whole other way yeah her life approach how she approaches life how she approaches
03:31uh family and friendships and you know all of that stuff so um i've been very blessed in that sense
03:40um you know and i don't take that for granted i know that's not um everybody's experience so i'm
03:47thankful yeah so tell me about and i know it's kind of a big span to cover but i'm curious about
03:53uh you know that moment from okay 14 i'm a teenager i want to add to like now where american audiences
03:59you know are getting to see you for the first time what were kind of you know your next steps acting
04:04school or you know early projects that you started with yeah so i think the first thing that i did was
04:10that so the school that i was at they did like one theater play once every maybe three years or
04:17something like that i don't i don't i don't even think we had drama as a subject to study okay at
04:23the time i was there anyway it's changed now i think but um yeah so i i did this play and i was i think i
04:30was a narrator or something which i loved and then after that it just sort of went from one thing to the
04:37other so there was a local group in my area um that was based at a theater i think it was called the
04:43warehouse theater that it was based in we basically would devise our own work so we would um and how
04:51we would do that was sort of improvise and um sort of brainstorm and then we would perform it for
04:57whoever cared to see it basically and often that wasn't a whole heap of people but that wasn't the
05:05point of doing it the point was of the creative process it took to make it and then sharing it for
05:12those that wanted to view it irrespective of whether that was one or a hundred people we still gave the
05:17same energy and it was just about the sharing of it um and then after that i studied at lewisham
05:25college which is in southeast london okay and i'm actually based in lewisham now okay yeah i i'm i'm
05:33very i'm a very i'm a very sort of like i i stay in south london a lot of the time
05:39i'm not sure what it's like for you but like you know when when you when you grow up in a particular
05:45part of london in my experience you know it becomes your it becomes your home and your base
05:51and very familiar yeah you know so i love i love being in south london i love the whole of london but
05:57i love south london because it's home you know okay okay um so i went i went to lewisham college for
06:03two years i studied for a year in toronto okay and then i did three years um at university in west
06:12london um at lambda so and then and then the rest is history i turned professional in 2016
06:18yeah so how um right and then i'm trying to get this right because i'm thinking about from
06:25american audience perspective like we're seeing you in two really big projects this year
06:29um but obviously as you say you've been doing this five years you know already does this
06:34feel like a breakout year for you or is that fair to say um i think for me every project that i do
06:42is a blessing that's how i see it you know from my first job to my most recent job i value them
06:53and give thanks for them equally because it's all a part of my journey and it's all a part of
07:00my career you know so i just give thanks for those blessings and um everything i do i treat it like
07:08the most important thing yeah yeah you know whether that's like i said the first or most recent thing i
07:14treat it like it's the most important thing and just give it my everything you know because what a
07:19lesson it is to be doing this as a career you know what i mean yeah i've got to give it 100
07:24yes so i want to start with um underground railroad you know we had talked to um tuso and bedu who
07:33talked about just being a south african woman that you know she thought that she knew uh you know the
07:41story of slavery in america and then stepping in the road she realized like she had no clue you know
07:45what it was really like um so i'm curious for you just working on that film did you feel like you
07:49learned you know things maybe that were different than what you had been taught um you know or just
07:54what your experience was like working on that project i certainly learned a lot most definitely um
08:02i think i think what what i where my knowledge expanded was just having a deeper understanding of
08:14the african-american experience um in relation to race relations i of course understand entirely
08:23what it is to be a black person in this part of the world and what that experience is like
08:31and there are certainly parallels but there is also differences you know um and and that's where my
08:40knowledge deepened for sure you know understanding that and empathizing with that and um i think i
08:49think it just it just gave gave me um a deeper understanding and connection to it yeah and what
08:57was it like for you just filming you know did you kind of isolate did you you know i mean i'm sure
09:03you couldn't stay in character that might be pretty hard but kind of you know what was your process
09:07just kind of working through such difficult material yeah that that's a really good question it was
09:14it was not easy all the time anytime it was not easy um i think i think when you're dealing with
09:23a subject matter like this
09:25you have to really look after your mental well-being and your spiritual well-being
09:33um and we were really fortunate to have barry at the helm
09:40um barry for me is the epitome of a leader and exactly the type of energy and leadership you need
09:50in a project like this you know he created such an entirely safe space for all of us
09:56a space where creatively we could be exploring those really raw and uncomfortable places but then
10:07separate to the creative aspect and the sort of storytelling aspect he also created a safe space for
10:15us as individuals so we had a guidance counselor on set at all times you know and that's really
10:22important for if and when you need to speak to someone because you just can't process it that day
10:27yeah yeah
10:29and i think irrespective of whether you utilize that service or not sometimes it's just the knowing
10:36that that is available yeah that can just sort of keep you at peace and keep you um calm
10:44knowing that if if and when it just gets a bit much you have someone to sort of guide you out of
10:50that place and talk you through it now what about la for you how do you i think about so i interviewed
10:55london hughes um earlier this year comedian um and she talked about moving from london where she's from
11:02to uh los angeles but also doing it like during the pandemic last year and just like adjusting
11:08you know even to that lifestyle and being there um but i'm curious you know would you consider move
11:13to la do you think or i think for me if i'm answering that question honestly yeah i i will certainly spend
11:24extended periods of time in la in new york i love these places you know it's it's such an enjoyable
11:33experience every time however i think my base will always be in london it's where i feel
11:38most at home and it's where all my family and friends are you know and um you know when when
11:46when you have that support network you know it's hard it's hard to leave and you don't want to yeah
11:52so then with oh so i'm super excited for this i love a psychological thriller i love
11:58him tell me about i'm gonna remember you said this when when it comes out and i'm gonna and
12:03i'm gonna check up on you and how you doing i just have five minutes to ask him a question
12:11so tell us what you can um you know about the movie and your character so yeah so it's old and um
12:20um yeah you know m night shamalan directed this movie um and wrote it and it's based on a novel
12:29called sandcastles um and it is terrifying
12:37it is eerie and it makes you reflect at all at the same time because you know this is
12:49i'll say what i can you know it's like it's it's this family that go on this holiday
12:56okay and that's all they're anticipating experiencing a holiday experience but then they
13:03end up in this place where they begin the adults and the kids begin to age rapidly and it reduces
13:13their lives to essentially a day and it's sort of even though i was part of it you know and i'd
13:22read the script however many times even until the last day of filming i was sort of asking myself
13:29questions like if if sort of days became minutes and like what what what becomes important to you
13:41you know i feel like it will just give people hopefully perspective at the same time as being
13:46that amazing thriller that everyone's there to see i think it will encourage reflection and and
13:51perspective because if you if your whole life was a day i think people would do things a little
13:56differently oh yeah yeah yeah do you know what you would do different did you decide i wish i knew
14:03the answer to that but um i don't i don't know what differently i think i think maybe what i would
14:09do differently is try and be more present and i think that's the hardest thing to do in this day and
14:15age uh you know it's you know especially when things move so quickly nowadays yeah it's hard to be
14:23present you're always sort of one foot in the future one foot in the present it's hard to
14:30yeah hard to be present nowadays so i think i would probably just try and do that more
14:35i would love to talk about your writing of poetry as well and and kind of how that started for you
14:40if it's still you know a current practice i think yeah i think for me writing poetry began as
14:48well i'll take you back okay so so we i i grew up um on we we call it flats but you can call it projects
15:00yeah in the flats like we would as as a way of connecting and as a way of um sort of spending our time
15:12we would rap someone would like make a beat and someone would spit bars or we'd have flashes where
15:21two people would just go at it or we'd have so it's it started it started as sort of something that
15:29was something that you would do with your friends and your family you know in your local area and then
15:35for me it transitioned into yes being fun but also being therapeutic for me so i would then start to
15:46write more personally and would actually find that that helped me through things um and then it sort of
15:56went from that to spoken word okay and then next thing i know i'm like at a spoken word event and
16:02people are like so it sort of like that so it was like purely fun and for the joy of it and that fun
16:16and joy never left throughout the whole journey it still hasn't left but things just accompanied it
16:21kind of accompanied it like it became therapeutic for me and i started to write more personally
16:26um that's all that changed um and yeah i i still i still like to write now and again um
16:35and yeah i think i think i'm most inspired by if we're talking a poet langston hughes
16:43and my favorite poem from him is april rain song and if you haven't read it it's not very long but
16:49you should check it out okay absolutely he's the man yeah okay now what about your influences um
16:58in acting who are are some of the male actors you look up to yeah i mean first and foremost my dad
17:07you know or that early inspiration and continued inspiration as you know a man and um as a creative
17:16as well of course um and then i think you know in addition to that i would say
17:24viola davis is a huge inspiration for me and i am going to keep speaking this into existence i will
17:33work with viola um yeah she just she's just incredible you know and she is you know she's somebody who
17:42just is a master of every medium that she engages with you know she's been on broadway she's been
17:50doing film she's been doing television and just mastered it all and she she's she just gives
17:56everything when she performs um there's no vanity about her performances and that's really inspiring for
18:03me yeah i don't know if jeopardy and if you saw her instagram post about her cries did you see her
18:09and talk about that no i didn't should i check it out please do she was like i see what y'all are
18:14talking about which she's like i'm not crying about that but yeah she's just into it no that's i might
18:21have to check her out but it's like no vanity is like that that's like that's the goal yeah that's like
18:29that's the goal so certainly viola davis um you know denzel that that goes without saying
18:38that's the main man you know like he um he's inspired me for a very long time you know with
18:44all of the projects that he's done and just the his approach to the to the things he does as well
18:49you know he gives 100 or nothing you know it's like it's everything every time um yeah i'm very
18:56august wilson as you know just as a creative you know he's someone who inspires me uh i have a lot
19:02of inspirations we'd be here all day yeah i believe it um you know here in the us people
19:11feel like we're having this british invasion um i think with the success of like bridgerton and you
19:16know now you have daniel coola winning um awards and and things like that and i'm curious what
19:22the energy is in london you know around black actors and what they're achieving um in hollywood
19:28you know is there this excitement are there more opportunities starting to open up you know what's
19:33kind of the the energy there i think i can only answer that question from my view yeah i certainly can't
19:45answer it for everybody because everybody will have their own feelings about it but for me personally
19:53um i feel like my position is to listen and separate to that i am i am purely for unity of the diaspora
20:09and i just want us all to win now is there a dream you know biopics are big is there a dream
20:16role you want to play or maybe a person's story that you have in mind you might want to bring to the
20:21screen that's a really difficult question i don't know the answer to that but i think
20:29i think you know if something did come my way and it was really exciting you know i would just dive in
20:39you know all the you know and just to explore somebody's life in that way a real person's life
20:46would be a whole a whole different level you know of sort of um research you know because you're it's a
20:54real person and it's so detailed you know so that would be an amazing experience now what are you
21:01most excited about i think is your star power you know continues to rise you continue to work more
21:06you know what are you just most excited about with building your career
21:11i think i think for me i'm just excited to continue to tell stories that resonate with me
21:16um and learn and grow you know yeah i'm still a young man and i'm just excited for how much more
21:28i can evolve and learn and expand my knowledge so i'm very much in that space right now of
21:35wanting to be inspired and wanting to you know grow so that that's where i'm at right now okay
21:42amazing well thank you so much i appreciate you taking the time this is so good to talk to you
21:48i'm excited i'm i will get back to you on old i'm ready for it but now you made me nervous
21:54make sure you let me know okay
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