If you haven’t checked out the new film MOONLIGHT yet, what the hell are you waiting for? Admittedly, it’s not playing everywhere just yet, but if you are living in a town where it has opened, I promise you it’s the best film out there presently. And one of the reasons for this is the actor André Holland, who has had one of the more interesting acting careers of the last 10 years, if only for the range of projects he’s been connected to, beginning in 2008 with Spike Lee’s MIRACLE OF ST. ANNA, into 2013’s Jackie Robinson biopic 42 and 2014’s SELMA (Holland played future UN Ambassador Andrew Young).
And that’s just his film work. He was a regular on the comedy series “1600 Penn” with Josh Gad; he was one of the leads on Steven Soderbergh’s decided cinematic Cinemax show “The Knick”; and he’s currently features on the current season of “American Horror Story.” Presently, he’s shooting the new film by director Ava DuVernay, an adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle's A WRINKLE IN TIME.
Holland’s role in MOONLIGHT is as the character of Kevin, whom we have also seen at different ages throughout the story, played by two younger actors. The film is divided into thirds, and Kevin is at his most compelling and moving when played by Holland (that’s as much a credit to the writing as the performance), who is astonishing in his work here and in his openness as a performer. Holland is very open about the type of work he’d like to be involved with moving forward, and he was a fantastic interview. With that, please enjoy my talk with André Holland…
Capone: When we meet your version of Kevin in this story, he’s gone through a fairly radical shift in the way he views himself in that 10 years since we saw him in the second segment. I’m wondering if you give much thought, or figured out in your head, or talked to Barry about what happened in that period.
Andre Holland: Yeah, man. I created for myself a story about what happened in that gap, because I agree, man. He becomes almost a totally different person. But what’s interesting about it is, in some ways, he actually reverts to who he was in the first story. The first thing we see him do is try to help Little. “Why are you letting these kids pick on you? Let me show you how to like protect yourself, how to like defend yourself a bit.” I think that’s what he’s doing in the third story. In his own way, he’s saying “Hey, I can tell like you’re not living an authentic life. This whole thing you’ve got going on, I know it’s not you. So like can you come out of that hole and meet me here? Let’s be authentic together.”
Capone: That first meeting that you guys have as adults, it’s a little tense because we’re not quite sure what’s about to go down. But your character is so natural, and he’s got a great soul to him that diffuses any tension that is there. Was that something you picked up on based on where he came from and the kind of person he was as a little kid?
AH: I definitely felt that, man. For me growing up in Alabama, which is not Miami, obviously, but has a lot of similarities—where I grew up and where this story takes place. There are people I know, for example, one of my really close friends when I was growing up had some serious problems socially. He didn’t get along with many people. He was very, very, very withdrawn. If there were psychologists around, they’d probably say he was clinically depressed or something, but we didn’t have access to that.
But I knew, because he was such a good friend of mine, that he and his father never got along. His father used to beat him all the time. His father would pull knives on him and was a terrible guy to him, and he would often come to my house in the middle of the night upset, and we’d play video games until we fell asleep, and the next day he would go home. But when we got to school, people who didn’t know that about him would be making little comments or saying things about how his shoes are messed up, or asking who cut his hair. I always felt like I had to protect him. It would make me livid. I would want to hit people when they would speak to him that way, because I knew the whole story.
I think that’s similar to Kevin. Kevin knows the whole story. He may not be living at home with Little, but he understands what’s going on, because he’s aware of it. I think that’s what makes that relationship work.
Capone: When you were first considering this part, did you look at primarily just what you would be doing, or did you look at the whole Kevin storyline?
AH: The whole story. Barry didn’t let us meet the other Kevins.
Capone: I heard that.
AH: Yeah, but that made me look even closer at what was in the script in terms of what’s come before.
Capone: That middle segment must have been hard, because it’s about a betrayal. What’s amazing about your segment is that Kevin is reaching out like an addict would, making amends for something he did when they were kids. The middle segment was hard to watch.
AH: It was hard to read. I remember reading it thinking, “Why’s he doing that? Please don’t do that. Stop it. Stop it.” I know that’s what peer pressure will do. For a teenager, his whole identity in school is very much built on being this tough guy, this hyper-masculine dude, and then he’s around his whole community. In the way Oscar Wilde writes his play: “London is like a square.” So like if someone finds out that you slept with so-and-so, the whole world knows. And it’s the same thing. That little courtyard is their whole world. If he doesn’t do the thing that he’s been told to do, Kevin, then his reputation is ruined.
Capone: I know this has come up before in a lot of discussions and reviews of the film, the idea of masculinity, which it’s amplified by being in the south where you have to be more masculine. I’m guessing younger men who are straight still have to amp up their masculinity in those circumstances. Is that something you were able to identify with?
AH: Absolutely, man. Absolutely. In the south, probably not just in the south, but definitely in the south, you’ve got to be able to handle yourself. My first day of high school was a fight. Somebody came up to me and hit me for no reason, in the way that Kevin hit Black. You’ve got to go through it.
Capone: Also in your segment is the first time we realize we’re watching a love story, which I think is why a lot of people are reacting to it so emotionally. We have all the feelings inside us by that point, but we don’t quite know what to do with them. Then it becomes this “give me your real self” love story, and it just destroys us.
AH: I know exactly what you mean. There’s that one shot when they’ve been at beach that night, then they drive back home, and Chiron gets out and he’s walking, and Kevin gets in the car and he’s like, “I’ll see you later.” They shake hands and he’s walking away, and Chiron’s walking and he kinda looks back for a minute, and then when he looks back you see this little smile come on his face. For the first time, you see this kid like happy, then five minutes later he’s being beat down in the courtyard.
Capone: For you personally, what was it about Kevin that hooked you and made you think “I can do something with this.”
AH: To be honest, it wasn’t so much about the part. It was more about the story, about working with Barry and Tarell. The whole thing to me felt like “I want to be a part of it.” The Kevin part was interesting to me. There’s something there. It’s not a flashy part. It’s not the part that people are going to be saying, “Oh!” It’s a bit of a blocking-and-tackling part, but I felt like I could actually lend a lot of humanity to it and a lot of myself to it. I think it sometimes goes unnoticed, and it just felt cool to be a part of the fabric of this whole thing.
Capone: You’re right, a lot of times when there’s this stable force at the center of something flashy or chaotic, that person doesn’t get the recognition, but that’s a hard role to play to have all these flashier characters in your gravity.
AH: Right, I agree. I’m happy to be a part of it, and I’m not trying to say “I wish I got more recognition.” Believe me, we’re getting plenty of recognition. That was the challenge for me. How do you take a part like this that is this stable, grounding force and make it interesting. Make him not just come off as “He’s the one who’s going to tell us what’s happened. He’s going to give us the exposition. He’s the one who’s here to ask Chiron all these questions so that Chiron can respond.” He actually has a point of view about being there.
Capone: Your character is also the one that says to Chiron like “Who are you?”
AH: Yeah. “Who is you?”
Capone: That’s the theme of the movie. You have a really great history of not picking the most obvious roles. You’ve being selective. What is the process going on in your head when you’re saying yes to one thing and no to something else that might be higher profile. Are you trying to challenge yourself?
AH: Trying to challenge myself, man. Also, I consider myself I’m like an actor, you know what I mean? I’m not here for the money or the attention or for the fame. That stuff is cool, but like that’s not why I’m here. I enjoy the process of acting. That’s what excites me, so I want to do that with like really good people and really good stories, and I want to be challenged. So to me, there are some offers that come along like “Do you want to come on this TV show for 10 years and investigate a new crime every week?” I’m like, “Not really.” [laughs] Sure, it would be nice to have a nice house and not have to worry about student loans, but at the end of the day, the artist in me would probably die.
Capone: That being said, I think what you are doing on “American Horror Story” this season is phenomenal. Who wouldn’t want to work with those people?
AH: Different kind of challenge. A lot of the parts that I’ve played before, almost all the parts in TV, have been like supporting parts, and when “American Horror Story” came along, it was pitched to me like this is a lead of the season. Of course, you don’t get to read everything ahead of time. It’s very, very secret. But what I want to do now is move more toward playing lead parts, so “American Horror Story” felt like a step in that direction, and I hope that the next step is even further in that direction. I feel like I’ve played enough supporting parts now; I’m ready to step into being a leading role.
Capone: Seeing the finished film, MOONLIGHT, and seeing all the pieces in place finally, what was your initial reaction?
AH: First thing I thought was, I was blown away by the performances of those young kids. Youmg Little, Alex Hibbert, he’s so, so good.
Capone: He hasn’t acted before? Right?
AH: No, never acted. He just carries so much with him. He’s so expressive. All the younger actors were fantastic. So when I got to my part I was like, “Oh god.” But after I saw it the second or third time, I was like “You know what? Actually, it fits perfectly. Barry’s done a great job casting the right people and constructing this thing.” It’s a true ensemble, man. It’s like actually a true ensemble. Very proud to be a part of it.
Capone: The other thing I wanted to ask you about real quick was what you did on “The Knick”—the fact that that show even exists. Here’s Steven Soderbergh, who’s allegedly retired, and you’re doing 20 hours of television with him. What do you learn from working with him?
AH: I learned so much from him. I still learn from him—preparation, number one. You have to be extremely prepared to work with Steven. Confidence. He actually demands that actors make their own choices about things, so you come in and like, “What do you want to do?” You have to decide. You can’t wait on him to tell you “Pick up the cup here, put it down there, walk across the room here.” You make those decisions, then he largely works around what you’re doing. Also just about filmmaking. We’d have these long conversations about, why this shot verses that shot, why this cut verses that cut.
He’s been also, I hate to say a mentor, because it’s not really that, just a friend to me. A really, really generous friend in that when I’m trying to decide which projects to do or not to do, I call him up. I’m about to direct my first short this coming weekend, and so I met with him last week to talk through why I’m going to make certain decisions, and we’re going to meet again tomorrow to look through my shot list to make sure we’ve got it all together. So he’s been an incredible friend and resource. I’ve learned more from him I think than from anybody I’ve ever worked with.
Capone: And “The Knick” is not a TV show. It’s shot like a long-ass film.
AH: That’s what he kept saying. We’re making a 10-hour movie.
Capone: Best of luck with this, and good luck with the leading role search.
AH: [laughs] I’m looking, I’m looking. Thank you so much.
