LOS ANGELES (AP) — Aaron Pierre is closing out his massive yr on a literal excessive observe.
After donning Malcolm X’s distinctive browline glasses within the “Genius: MLK/X” collection and getting his modern-day Rambo on within the Netflix motion hit “Rebel Ridge,” the 30-year-old English actor showcases his vocal skills in “Mufasa: The Lion King.”
To ship because the titular regal lion, Pierre educated underneath Lin-Manuel Miranda in what he calls a “wonderful singing boot camp.”
“My voice was doing things I never imagined it could do. I was hitting notes that I didn’t think existed for my range,” Pierre mentioned. “I’m just really hoping the footage of me singing these songs doesn’t come out because I’m using all the techniques. Lin’s like ‘Throw the baseball!’ So I’m throwing the baseball trying to hit that high note.”
His Hollywood trajectory retains going up: He is been named one in every of The Related Press’ Breakthrough Entertainers of 2024 and HBO introduced in October that, reverse Kyle Chandler, Pierre will lead “Lanterns.”
That’ll be the broad-shouldered, hazel-eyed actor’s second DC Comics-based collection, following his 2018-2019 run on SyFy’s “Krypton,” which explored early days on Superman’s residence planet.
As for Pierre’s personal origin story: He grew up in South London because the oldest of three, with childhood aspirations of being a monitor star and a criminologist. At 13, he joined an area theater troupe that carried out in a warehouse, generally with simply a number of folks within the viewers.
“That’s actually where I learned some of my foundations. And one of those is irrespective of whether there is one person in the audience or 1,500 people … you give the same performance, you give the same energy,” Pierre mentioned.
Mark “Moonlight” and “Mufasa” director Barry Jenkins down as impressed by that power. After watching Pierre play Cassio within the Globe Theatre’s “Othello,” Jenkins solid him as Caesar in “The Underground Railroad.” The small half grew and grew after Pierre arrived on set in Atlanta.
“I found myself just creating scenes for him,” Jenkins mentioned. “You know, that character is in the show for much longer, much longer than his character exists in the narrative (Colson Whitehead’s novel). He just keeps reappearing. And that’s just because it was just a joy to work with him. And it was so clear that his presence was just immediately a part of the spiritual essence of the show.”
Counting Denzel Washington, James Earl Jones and Sidney Poitier as profession function fashions, Pierre has been deliberate together with his decisions as he strikes deeper into stardom. Artwork is the tip aim — not fame and even enjoyable, actually. He hopes new followers return to look at his 2022 indie “Brother,” about household bonds in Nineties Toronto.
“I always want my community to feel seen. I want them to feel respected. I want them to feel heard and understood. And I think the projects that I choose, that’s my small contribution hopefully to that manifesting itself,” he mentioned.
Pierre, now dwelling largely in Los Angeles, says he is been reaching out recurrently to his mother again in London as he navigates the Hollywood circuit.
“Any time I speak with her, any time I’m present with her, I feel safe. I feel reassured, I feel rejuvenated,” he mentioned. “I definitely call her phone a lot and she’ll answer even if she’s at work. Yes, I’m 30 and 6-foot-3 and doing Terry Richmond in ‘Rebel Ridge.’ But like to me, I’m still her baby and I’m still her little boy and she always makes time for me, no matter what the situation.”
Each on and off-set, Pierre carries himself with a way of objective and seriousness. “I don’t know that there’s anything frivolous about Aaron Pierre, even in downtime, which is — I mean that as a compliment,” Jenkins mentioned.
“He’s very intellectually engaged. But he also looks like a superhero. And there’s a version of him that is only viewed that way. He’s always diligent about protecting against that by doing things that are maybe a bit outside the box,” Jenkins added. “And for me, I just hope that he gets to grow and express himself in all the different ways that I think he’s capable of.”
Certainly, when requested about his aspirations for future artistic collaborators, the primary title out of Pierre’s mouth would possibly shock: “Women Talking” writer-director Sarah Polley.
“If you could put a word in for me, please,” he mentioned.
“Yeah, just to continue to work with filmmakers who inspired me and whose work I admire and respect and that will inevitably put me in a situation where I’m forced to evolve and develop and grow and challenge myself as an actor. And I want to be doing that until the day that I decide to stop doing this,” Pierre added. “I want to always feel like I’m growing, like I’m shifting the needle. You know, I never want to feel stagnant. I never want to feel comfortable.”
___
For extra on AP’s 2024 class of Breakthrough Entertainers, go to https://apnews.com/hub/ap-breakthrough-entertainers
