Trevante Rhodes Wants to Challenge How Hollywood Portrays Black Men
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Version 0 of 1. People know you for starring in “Moonlight” in 2016, but before you became an actor, you were on your way to becoming a track-and-field star until you suffered an injury. What’s harder: running with a torn A.C.L. or starring in a small indie film about a queer black love story? Running with a torn A.C.L., 100 percent. The most physically painful thing I’ve ever experienced. Do you bring an athlete’s discipline to acting? For sure. It’s the same thing. Mental sports. I think if I hadn’t become an actor, I would’ve tried to be a teacher or a coach. I just try to educate myself every day, and I try to pick characters who make me have to study and learn something that I haven’t known in the past. We’re almost two years out from the best-picture Oscar for “Moonlight.” As awards season approaches, how are you feeling about representation in Hollywood? Do you think that we’re in a renaissance moment for black filmmaking in America? Yes, but across the board — for filmmaking, in general. I think representation is had, and it’s continuing to be had. Do you think that actors of color are more obligated to make socially progressive films? Yes and no. Everything anybody does these days means something. There were just a slew of ’90s films that I remember watching while growing up, and they had an abundance of black actors. But then they were always labeled as “black films,” rather than just “films.” There were a number of brilliant black actors and black filmmakers who didn’t get particular shine outside the black community for whatever reason. I think that’s changing now. That appetite is had. I think reality’s catching up to the industry. How do you personally want to change or challenge Hollywood with your work? I want to challenge how people see me, how people see people who look like me. I want to help progress the art of what we do. You seem pretty egoless for an actor. Naw, naw, definitely not. The ego is in doing great work; it’s not in telling. You can’t tell somebody you’re good. They have to tell you. What were the first films that made an impression on you? My mom loves Alfred Hitchcock, so we would binge-watch all of his films during Christmas. Hitchcock’s brain is so amazing — it just helps you expand your imagination as a child. We’d also watch Jimmy Stewart in “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Jimmy just had a really kind essence about him. You felt good watching him onscreen because he’d make you at ease, just with the way he was. What do you want to see happen in Hollywood over the next decade? I want people to be able to make films that they want to make; with streaming, there’s a home for everything now. And making different types of films is just necessary in order to continue to grab people’s attention. What were your experiences working with Barry Jenkins on “Moonlight,” and now, with Susanne Bier on “Bird Box”? Barry is the most amazing person at putting love on the screen. Whenever you watch the film, it makes your heart beat and thump so deep because of the way he just portrays love. And Susanne had a way of doing that same thing for me, which I think is a unique trait for a filmmaker to have. I have no interest in doing anything that doesn’t give me that ability to breathe in the character and to have a creative experience. Like, I’m trying to make experiences, trying to make memories with these people, and the relationships that you build — they’re not just jobs, you know? “Bird Box” is a post-apocalyptic movie about people’s innermost fears. How post-apocalpytic do you feel the world is right now? Pretty close. I’ll leave it at that. |