Jonathan Majors is on the fast track to movie stardom, picking up speed after a Sundance standout in the Brad Pitt-produced The Last Black Man in San Francisco
Next up are J.J. Abrams and Jordan Peele’s HBO series Lovecraft Country, Spike Lee’s war drama Da 5 Bloods, and a revenge western from Jay-Z, The Harder They Fall
Here, some insights gleaned during Sunday errands with the classically trained hotshot
He was born in Lompoc, California, but calls himself “a Texan. I came from a very military, Christian, Southern upbringing
” At five, he moved and settled in Dallas, but shortly after, his father left the family
“His sudden absence had a real wear and tear.” His mother’s a pastor and his sister graduated at the top of her class
“I was an athlete but a rough kid who ran with a gang—people couldn’t believe we were related
” He admits it was a brawl with a classmate and a teacher that led him to acting. “They put me in a boot camp where we read Agatha Christie out loud,” and he wound up being cast in a school production of Romeo and Juliet
He suffered from a slight speech impediment and had his tongue clipped in order to audition for colleges
“I was accepted to North Carolina School of the Arts with stitches in my mouth.” “I was a ball of raw emotion—chaos, rage, pain, and a lot of joy—but I am who I am
” He calls himself a “disciple” of August Wilson, whose plays he directed at the Yale School of Drama
“We did all 10 of the Pittsburgh Cycle series in one year. They hadn’t seen anything like it since the heydays when Angela Bassett and Courtney B
Vance had been in school.” His pizza preference in New Haven is Est Est Est over long-standing rivals Pepe’s and Sally’s
If he could have anyone over for a dinner party, he’d invite Jesus Christ, Malcolm X, Maya Angelou, and Malcolm Gladwell for Bolognese and his signature cocktail, mezcal neat
He favors a uniform. He recently transitioned from his Army surplus jumpsuits to “high-waisted 1950s jeans and a vintage Yale football jersey
I’ve worn it every day for the past two and a half months.” He’s most at peace when sitting on top of the chicken incubator at his grandparents’ farm in Riesel, Texas
Photographs by Pari Dukovic; Styled by Nicole Chapoteau. He was surprised by Spike Lee’s “incredibly strong cardiovascular system
Apart from knowing everything about everything, he could outrun everyone on the mountains we climbed on set in Thailand
” He’s currently filming Lovecraft Country in Georgia, a state some film studios have threatened to boycott in the wake of restrictive abortion laws
“My crew and I don’t talk politics all the time, but if we take the jobs away, what do they do? Where do they go? I applaud the effort but I fear we could be hurting our own
” He anticipates the new HBO series will “change the medium of television and streaming, in a weird, very cool way
We redefine genres—fantasy, science fiction, and history.” But he remains mum about the Jay-Z-produced Netflix western
“When you see who’s joining this cast…you’re going to freak the fuck out.”FAN MAIL “You can tell by his genuine passion and talent that he is going to be and do something very special
”—DANNY GLOVER “He is a man you want at a party! He’s quite delicious and all kinds of people just adore him
”—PATRICIA CLARKSON “Jonathan is in such demand because he brings his special mojo to whatever he does, and the project is better for it
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