Celebrity Coverage
Mamoudou Athie’s next act – The Essence
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JUNE 20: Mamoudou Athie attends the New York premiere of “Kinds Of Kindness” on the Museum of Modern Art on June 20, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images)
Even though his face is already quite well-known, Mamoudou Athie is one step away from becoming a household name.
The Mauritania-born, New Carrolton, MD-raised actor has remained a fixture in high-profile projects since graduating from the Yale School of Drama in 2014. Even in case you don’t know his name yet, you’ve actually seen his work. Whether it’s as Grandmaster Flash in Netflix’s too-soon-dead hip-hop musical, as protagonist Elijah in Prentice Penny’s hit sommelier drama, as Wade Ripple in Disney’s , or as Ramsay Cole within the hit sequel.
“I’m incredibly lucky,” Athie says of his success on this field so soon after launching his acting profession. The classically trained actor, who also got his start on the William Esper Studio in Manhattan, acknowledges that his rapid rise to success was a mixture of exertions, timing and the collaborative efforts of many black actors who got here before him, breaking through established boundaries, stereotypes, industry discrimination and typecasting.
“I graduated in 2014 when the business was kind of taking off. I always think about all the actors of color who have been denied opportunities over the years, since the industry started,” he says. “A lot of people have done a lot of work so that I could have a fair chance at something. [like this]“Which is the real damage.”
The actor, who has already worked with stars like Jamie Foxx within the 2023 film, Neicy Nash and Courtney B. Vance in 2020, and Phylicia Rashad in 2020, also notes that his personal motivations pushed him to concentrate on auditioning for unconventional roles after graduating.
“The student loans were a huge motivator,” he laughs. “A lot of the roles you saw me in, I won’t say they didn’t exist, but I certainly wasn’t the first choice for a lot of those roles.”
You’ll rarely see Athi playing “type” in his roles. Unlike most young black actors starting out, he never needed to don an orange jumpsuit or stand in a police line. He didn’t play a T-shirt-wearing street drug dealer doomed to linger on the corner with few options and even less ambition. Instead, he was a very sensitive Brooklynite who found himself in barely absurd situations while attempting to deny his behavior on FXX, which earned him a Primetime Emmy nomination. He was an area alt-punk graveyard dweller who dreamed of a profession in hard rock recording in 2017. He was a gifted archivist who delved too deeply into an occult mystery long buried in lost footage in Netflix’s too-soon-canceled horror thriller, .
Athie often lands not only projects that tell queer stories, but additionally roles that aren’t necessarily written for a black man to fill. Yet he makes each character distinctly his own—to the purpose where viewers could never imagine anyone else filling those shoes.
“I want to be able to do whatever I want,” Athie said of being consistently solid in roles as people of color. “I went to all of these schools for a reason. Just like anyone else, we’ve earned the right to play things that are outside of our [perceived] life experience. And we can do it as well as or better than anyone else.”
His latest project, , is true to expectations, the most recent absurdist black comedy anthology directed by acclaimed contemporary surrealist, Yorgos Lanthimos.
“He could be a genius,” Athie says of Lanthimos, whose last film, released in 2023, earned 11 Oscar nominations and 4 wins.
“This guy is just so confident and unwavering in his vision of something,” the actor says of his excitement about working on the film. He says that despite not fully understanding the story — under no circumstances shocking given Lanthimos’ dystopian fantasy scenario, which the director famously never talks about — he was committed to growing as an actor and fully immersed himself within the exploration of the film.
“I saw this guy create something so unique and vivid and specific and full and terrifying. It just makes you excited when you see something so refreshingly unique and thoughtful.”
Athie takes on multiple roles within the film, which he says has pushed him to grow as an actor.
The film, which explores themes of control, sacrifice and desperation for acceptance, features wild plot lines and even wilder imagery – the whole lot from wound-licking to fatal self-harm and group sex – each delivered with a healthy dose of dark humor. The latter of those wild images involved Athi, demanding a level of enthusiasm for the role and trust within the director’s vision that he hadn’t tackled before.
“As an actor, you give up a lot of control from the filmmaker—your image, who you are, what you do—there’s a lot of things you don’t have control over. You want to do it with someone you can rely on,” he says. “And the scene isn’t a big deal. When I was shooting it, I was like, ‘Oh, man, what’s this going to look like?’ But then you see it and you’re like, ‘Oh, okay.’”
As he steadily took his acting to latest heights, Athie never overlooked the moment that showed him that this was the trail he would follow for the long haul.
“I did a play called when I was in my third year of graduate school, and it was really important to me,” he reveals. “It was basically about people and greed and money, and it was about humanity in a way that I found really intensely moving and deeply personal.”
“I remember going to Yale Hospital for a checkup and this lady stopped me. And the way she talked about how much art had affected her made me realize that this was a really worthwhile career.”
For Mamadou Athie, moments like this, which he has also experienced while working on projects similar to and , remind him what it’s all about.
“When you feel like there’s something that’s really at stake, that something’s really been said, that something’s really been explored about humanity, or that something can change someone’s mind about something, or open up someone’s perspective, or help someone feel better about something in their own life, you feel like it’s inevitably useful in a way that’s just so fulfilling.”
“Something about that moment made me think, ‘I can do this until I’m 80.’”
Celebrity Coverage
Tara Davis -woodhall on her hair trip and showing on a representation of textures with a pigeon – the essence
Patrick Khachfe/Getty Images
The average American publishes 4.8 hours a day on their phone. Meanwhile, 90 percent of black people live in a household with smartphones, i.e. Six percent of the higher than the total US population. But despite almost 4,000 emoji coded in our phone, most of the black ones have Difficulties to get hold of emoji which exactly represent our hair.
Calling for change, athletes Tara Davis-Woodhall He works with #CodemyCrown, a Crown Coalition campaign led by Dove and Rise365 To put pressure on the Unicode consortium to include emoji depicting Afros, Braids, Cornrows and Locs. Like the game industry, Black Beauty is poorly represented by technology with such platforms Idor And my leading integration of the crown with the digital world.
“8 out of 10 black people in the USA fights to find Emoji that reflect their hairstyle,” says Davis-Woodhall. “I wasn’t surprised, just disappointed.” Wearing hair relaxed to College, the athlete says that her relationship with her hair was about assimilation, which is capable of likely be attributed to the lack of representation.
“Growing up in white society, black hair is too much work and is not seen so beautifully,” he says. “I’ve always tried to straighten my hair.” But when she was natural in college, she understood the beauty in our texture of the hair. In March, for the first time, she published Afro on Instagram along with a blow and braids, all of which could thoroughly be styles absent in the Emoji Apple library.
Nowadays, “I change hairstyles every month,” he says, now leaning to sewing. However, he says that finding a routine will likely be like finding emoji: harder than it should. “I’m trying to protect my omission as much as possible,” he says. “In fact, this is impossible when you do so many shoots and try to keep your hair as tame as possible.”
Banking about deep treatments and oils, finding time in her tight schedule to take care of her hair is an act of self -care. This and opening pores on her skin and scalp in a long, hot bath at night. “I work on the skin, I work on the skin of the body, making sure that I remain moisturized and exfoliated,” he says. “I give myself a little more time because I feel that I give [most of my] Time for other people. “
Now, back to the track season in full bloom, finding styles which could withstand blood, sweat and tears of an Olympic athlete is one other obstacle. But one thing is for certain, he hopes that Emoji represents the emotions he puts in each. “The beauty of our hair is that you can have options and wear everything you mean.”
William Gottlieb/Redferns
When Billie Holiday entered the stage, not only her voice turned her head – it was her presence. Known as Lady Day, she embodied the timeless type of beauty that cannot be reproduced – only worship. More than an icon of jazz, Holiday was a plan: her appearance, its mastery and its unrestricted elegance are still inspired by generations of black women who understand that beauty concerns the soul, as in style.
In the Nineteen Forties, the singer was known for wearing a deep, dark lipstick, which made her hair decorated with gardenia relatively more. Her eyebrows have contained throughout the least times been thrown out and eyelashes? Flirts, feathery and unforgettable. Sometimes she liked to take care of cool and canopy with packaging, contained throughout the least times emanating this sort of glam. In 1939, she added to the photo session, gardens in full bloom-nevertheless it surely’s eyelashes and it is a soft look, to which we’re still attracted.
Quickly until 1947, when the legend hit the stage on the Downbeat Club Manhattan. No foundation, no powder – just daring lipstick, natural leather and star power.
Until 1957, Billie modified every little thing to her performance to Newport Jazz Festival, leaving Gardenias behind, but keeping a characteristic red lip. And because of all this she never avoided the camera. New head shots, latest corners – because my love is contained throughout the least times in style.
In honor of the late icon we rejoice some of the most unforgettable moments of beauty Billie Holiday.
Celebrity Coverage
Hannah John -kamen on Thunderbolts* and always remains ready to get close – essence
Killer Action Role on television, science fiction Odyssey Outlaws and Hyper-Dystopian Stories are stuffed with the movie Hannah John-Kamen as a performer with strength in her emotional performance on the screen. A 35-yr-old English actress known for her roles in movies similar to Andas, just like the television program, Likeand is ready to bring her to her because she had large roles supporting in lots of successful franchises. He represents his role Ghost (Ava Starr) in Marvel. Directed by Jake Schreier, The Asterisk within the title of the film is an actual show Way Marvel, and the filmmaker intended to be this story to be the departure of Disney franchise and resign how very different it’s from the more shiny repertoire of Marvel’s movies.
“Jake’s lens of this film was very, tonally specific”, he describes John-Kamen through the conversation. “It was like creating an independent film in the Marvel universe – Jake had a level of sensitivity and nurturing this story.” Re-reembodiment John-Kamena Ava Starr as a spirit, a killer for employment, is a key paria of the newly formed group, which was later recognized within the film as Thunderbolts, the name developed by the character of David Harbor, Aleksiej Andreovitch (Red Guardian).
The family roots of John-Kamen reach her Nigerian father and Norwegian mother, who performed significantly different works as a criminal psychologist and fashion model. With her established experience in Performance’s art, she was able to introduce her history of upbringing in a house stuffed with beauty and brains in her roles on the screen. The English contractor doesn’t stop his roles on television and film and cooperated with the maestros cinema, similar to Steven Spielberg (), and now Jake Schreier. “It’s quite difficult, because when you filter abroad, you revolve with a time difference that is easier to say than to do,” says John-Kamen. “In this world it can be a lonely lifestyle that concerns the spirit, and I grounded, taking breath and seeing my loved ones, friends and hugging my dog.”
Florence Pugh leads as Yelena Belova, a self -sighted super agent who suffers from disturbing episodes that recreate memories of the past that persecute her. The unusual childhood injury Belova led her to becoming a one who acts probably the most alone. Belova and Starr are a fortress behind Anti Hero Alliance of the Thunderbolts. They are the one women in a six -person organization who meets with controversial forces. “He, very, controls himself, his body and making decisions very much,” the John-Kamen explores. “She is Fort Knox and is a lonely wolf.”
The unusual moments of the comedy from the forged, which incorporates Sebastian Stan, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Lewis Pullman and many others, does so related and feel more human than OR. Without having shiny superpowers, which make up lightning, they’re forced to face their reality without pursuing fandoms and public support. In the film Arch Nemesis Thunderbolt is the vengeful figure of Louis-Dreyfus, Valentina Allegra de Fountaine-infiltrating director who tries to manipulate and remove the Marvel Hero team.
During the 2 -hour journey, which makes up the history of Thunderbolt’s origin, the audience experiences the way in which these qualified warriors are still fighting for the worst problems. Ava Starr remains under the radar for many of the film because he has more sequences than words. “Her guard is very elevated,” says John-Kamen. Ava Starr appears when Yelena Belova needs her most to save the world overtaken by darkness. The character of Lewis Pullman, Robert “Bob” Reynolds, is armed against Thunderbolts, and his arch symbolizes how our minds may be as powerful because the uncomfortable villain.
Schreier’s approach to this film within the Marvel series was to enlarge greater than outside, removes all glamorous aesthetics that makes the heroes so aspirative. Even in Thunderbolts marketing, a wheat box standing in the course of the box is caught to satirize the trail of superheroes created within the Marvel cinema. Each anti -hero character stands in front of its own internal battles created by the trauma and wounded within the script by Eric Pearson. “We really laughed between shots,” Hannah warns me, talking in regards to the heavier features of the film. “I really created this beautiful family in this cast.”
In general, it is a story that follows wounded individuals who learn to treat. Along the way in which, they establish a family bond and support system. In 2025, when people can feel more disconnected, the narrative of Thunderbolts hits the home harder, watching the characters construct sufficient confidence and mental Harta to stand in themselves and their newly discovered friends. “I think that at the end of this movie I want you to hug a loved one or make sure someone feels safe and informed him that they do not have to boldly smile,” John-Kamen says.
