Published in Hero Magazine Issue 19
“Stories grab at you and you can’t control what moves you.” Kelvin Harrison Jr.’s requirement for taking on a role has stood him in good stead so far. Having made his acting debut in 12 Years a Slave, the 23-year-old actor has since been cast in monumental films such as Birth of a Nation and Mudbound – features that are as much about entertainment as truth-telling.
Growing up in a somewhat button-downed, New Orleans family with artists for parents, Kelvin found acting to be the release he needed from societal pressures – and a welcome exit route from the football team he didn’t want to be part of. This year sees Harrison take the lead in Anthony Mandler’s Monster, playing a 17-year-old honors student and aspiring filmmaker who ends up being charged with a crime he says he didn’t commit.
Lindsey Okubo: You’ve been in a number of movies that are based around heavy narratives, how did you find yourself ready to take on the depth of these roles?Kevin Harrison Jr.: Granted when we’re making these films about these heavier subjects, it’s still about entertainment to an extent but more so it’s about telling the truth. If you look at these superficial things like the Disney channel, that aren’t real, that’s harder to connect to for me actually because I don’t see myself in that. These films, “Birth of a Nation”, “12 Years a Slave” and “Mudbound”, while I might not have been a part of that period, racism exists and it lives in my life, my day to day. These universal truths are still present and that’s easier to latch onto and examine myself in the process than it is to pretend.
Lindsey: Totally and you’ve had such a seemingly full career at a young age, how do you know when a role is right and what experiences in your own life molded your process of discernment as an actor?
Kevin: Stories grab at you and you can’t control what moves you. When I get an opportunity and a script, I see a story that means something to me, I [know I] have something to offer. I have an opinion, we always have an opinion and that sometimes allows us to get in our own way, to stop ourselves from feeling because we don’t always want to feel, be vulnerable or expose ourselves. For me, I had been part of this family that we seem a little picture perfect at times in our home in New Orleans, very prim and proper but it’s more complicated than that. When you put on a facade for so long, I realized I may have been looking for an outlet just to release. I think we’re all capable of doing this job, it’s just allowing ourselves to have that moment to expose yourself and be okay with that; to know that what I bring and my humanity is also someone else’s humanity and that it can touch someone else and we can relate in that way, once you understand that, you’re good to go to me.
Lindsey: It’s funny you use the word vulnerable and another interesting topic of the now is masculinity. For you, I’m wondering what your take on this concept is as a black male in America and as someone who has this job that demands you to be super in tune with your emotions?
Kevin: Growing up being someone in the arts and not necessarily in sports or doing something that was deemed as manly or masculine is a problem. You grow up wondering what that means? Who am I? It makes you examine yourself and you feel more empowered once you realize that who I am is enough. I had to do a lot of that exploration when I was filming “Monster”. I don’t know what it means to be a man and masculinity, power, impotence, physicality, potency all go hand in hand and for some reason in our minds we think the more masculine you are, the more power you have and that also correlates with how we respond and act towards women. We need to understand that they don’t correlate, it has nothing to do with that and ultimately good people that are honest, truthful and sure of themselves are actually the ones in power. That’s something that young boys need to realize, that it doesn't define you but it’s something to be worked towards.
Lindsey: Totally and your family is such a music-centric family and having that as your background, did you ever feel like you should be playing football? In your picture perfect family what did these kinds of conversations really look like?
Kevin: I did and music was definitely at the forefront because both of my parents were artists. It was never you necessarily need to do a sport but there was the aspect where my dad was like, ‘let’s go play basketball! Why don’t we go play football?’ I was never interested. Being an introverted kid myself, very intuitive, quiet and shy, I didn’t like being roughed up, something about it felt wrong or weird and it wasn’t for me. In high school, I did join the football team but I quit to do a musical [laughs] but you do build this pressure to kind of prove yourself and defend your masculinity. Who you are as a young man and a huge part of growing up seems like showing that I can be roughed up, I can handle myself and once again, these ideas of handling yourself, being in control of your life and protecting yourself are being associated with a sport or something physical. It’s these ideas that can kind of poison the mind of a child because you grow up with a complex. Ultimately that makes you more insecure in who you are and you suddenly want to suppress the need to open up just because of the fact that someone has told you that A plus B won’t equal C for you and that’s not true.
Lindsey: Right and having that diversity in portrayal out there for young men to see is so important. Do you see a difference between empathy and understanding? Because it’s like okay you empathize with them, but can you understand?
Kevin: It’s so funny because I was with my acting coach just now and I was just saying that I can empathize with the character I’m working on so much, but I don’t understand him. I think that’s such a key component to the process of healing and helping others is putting yourself in their shoes so you can see their world. Naturally we’re all empathetic and I think empathy for me is okay I’m taking it in, I’m feeling for it and I want to be careful with this word, but it sometimes feels like pity for another person, or you kind of see well my life is seperate from this and there’s a disconnect all of a sudden. To understand truly you have to put yourself in their shoes and go through it, ask these questions of why did they do this and really examine the person to see what makes them make the decisions that they make and why are they doing what they’re doing whether it’s a good decision or a bad decision, there is no good or bad in that realm, it’s what they needed to do. The beautiful part of storytelling and movies is that it can take us to that place if that actor starts to go there and we start to understand a little better if the job is done right and ultimately that’s the point of this whole business of movie making or what it should be about at least
Lindsey: Yeah and I’m imagining that the lines between yourself and the character can get mentally messy. Do you ever feel like sometimes the lines get so muddled that once you step out of a role it’s like okay, who am I again? How do you maintain your own individuality in taking on the lives of these other people?
Kevin: It’s important to be healthy and protect yourself but sometimes the story is more important than me. I do carry something with me from each job and I can’t deny that. I finished “Monster” and I think for a good six months I still wasn’t over it and don’t think I was over it until I started filming something else a complete year later. Sometimes it’s these realities that you get faced with in these roles that these characters, they live a different life, they have different problems going on in their world but you can’t help but think about these injustices that are happening in their world and this is how it’s affecting this person. When you see these kids on the street and you see these things going on and in the news, you’re constantly reminded of that feeling and that feeling will never leave you once you dive into it and take the time to understand these characters, you never really shake it off but you do understand your privilege. The privilege is that I get to just portray these people and can still go back to my nice place, walk away at the end of the day. That’s a reminder that my life is real and that’s a character but the feelings that you feel, the hurt, the pain, the struggle, the fear, that will never leave you and that’s my job and part of what my purpose is in this life. If that means feeling that pain then so be it, I don’t have any other scars.