Power of Young Hollywood 2019: Stephan James, who had a breakout 2018 with back-to-back starring roles in Homecoming (opposite Julia Roberts) and Barry Jenkins’ drama IfBealeStreetCouldTalk, is a name to know in Hollywood
“I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt he will be one of the biggest stars of the next five years,” says Joe Russo, who along with his brother, Anthony, served as producers on the upcoming thriller “21 Bridges,” out in theaters on Nov. 22. Despite playing a villain in the film, James tested through the roof in likability against the film’s lead, Chadwick Boseman.James, who has been acting since age 14 in his native Canada, is still processing the growing spotlight on his career.
He admits to occasionally googling himself, but he hasn’t been surprised by his findings. “I’m pretty reclusive, so I don’t put my personal life out there,” he says. DuVernay recalls the first time she saw James, not in a live audition or a self-submitted tape but on David Oyelowo’s smartphone. “David showed me a trailer of Stephan in some indie. He had no idea who he was either, and Stephan had about two lines in this clip, and it was incredible work,” she says.
It’s rare for an actor of any age to have projects as diverse and high-profile as “Beale Street” and “Homecoming” hit in the same year: one a deeply romantic celebration of black love at the dawn of the turbulent ’70s, the other a tense and toxic look at the modern military-industrial complex. “Sometimes my work requires me to take on a little extra baggage and go a little deeper than some other folks,” James says. “But honestly, I accept and rise to the challenge.
James says that he finds television more progressive than the slow-moving wheel of the film industry, and he expresses frustration with tokenism and labels for stories featuring nonwhite casts. “People will look at things like a black comedy and think, ‘This is going to be a great black film,’” he says.
That refers to a cliffhanger scene that ended the first season of “Homecoming,” where Walter is tracked down by a counselor named Heidi . She presumes he remembers nothing from his season-long ordeal. In the final moments of the show, Walter seems to set a fork askew on his napkin, recalling a much earlier scene in the series and suggesting he knows more than he’s letting on.
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