LaKeith Stanfield’s Plan to Become Hollywood’s Busiest Man© Erik Carter for WSJ. Magazine
“Oftentimes, I’m on set and I’ll irritate actors by sort of semi-directing,” says actor LaKeith Stanfield, reached by phone at home in Los Angeles, about 90 minutes southwest of Victorville, the desert suburb where he grew up. “I love storytelling a lot and all the different creative ways one can go about achieving it.”
After appearing in Ava DuVernay’s Selma, Stanfield, 32, had his breakout in Atlanta, Donald Glover’s trippy, often hilarious FX television series about the city’s hip-hop industry. He featured in Jordan Peele’s Get Out and Shaka King’s Judas and the Black Messiah, and this winter he plays the titular role in The Book of Clarence, as a first-century Jerusalemite looking to make his fortune off the popularity of Jesus Christ.
Even as his star rises, Stanfield retains a playfulness, and the possibility of directing appeals. “I want to do things that I find fun, whatever that might be. I might pop a wig on, I might do whatever I might do. Who knows?”
Stanfield spoke to WSJ. in June about this desire to direct, his forthcoming movie and music projects and how he stays on top of his self-care amid it all.
What can you tell us about your upcoming biblical epic, The Book of Clarence? This movie has been the most challenging movie I’ve had the pleasure of being a part of. It technically involves almost every aspect of my career up until this point, whether it be training to ride horses, stunts, fighting, emotional scenes where I’m brought to tears, scenes where it’s just the most hilarious predicament that I’ve ever found myself in, the accent work. There’s just so many different elements and muscles being stretched here, and it’s just a really wonderful hodgepodge of everything that I’ve been working to add to my repertoire as an artist. On top of all of that, it speaks to something that a lot of us find really true and close to home, which is our spiritual beliefs. How we relate to God isn’t necessarily religious, but it isn’t necessarily simply spiritual. Really unique movies like this are what I wanted to be doing in my career when I first started.
You’ve also been working on your first album. How would you describe your musical sound? I really just try to come from the heart and make fun stuff and make stuff that also just has to do with whatever I’m experiencing at the time. I go through the lot in a day, in a year, so I just record some pivotal moments. It’s almost like my audio diary to an extent, but it also has some fantastical elements that give me a creative license that I don’t really necessarily have as an actor. I write with a creative flair. A lot of stuff is really rooted in real experiences that I had that the world doesn’t know about because I haven’t shared these things publicly. I create these cool characters that have gone through similar things that I’ve gone through, or some things I haven’t actually gone through, you’ll never know. But with my music, it’s a unique exploration every time to just get a window into a side of me that people just really haven’t seen.
You’ve talked in the past about having “crippling anxiety.” How do you work through these feelings—what it’s like to live in public and act in these roles and also take care of yourself? Anxiety? What anxiety? I think I have taken special care to always be working on myself and working on how I relate to my experiences and just always doing inventory to make sure that I’m checking in with myself before I go into any kind of work. I’m in a really great place right now. I feel amazing. I feel confident. I feel ready to take on the world and whatever obstacles may, and inevitably do, come my way. And a lot of that was internal work and assessing myself. I’ve also been in therapy. I stay in therapy consistently. I think it’s really helpful if you can have someone that you can talk to that can help you create mirror images of yourself.
In terms of your broader career trajectory, do you know what you hope to do next? I really want to direct; that is bucket list. I’m currently trying to just learn as much as I can about what that looks like. But that’s something I definitely want to do. I’d love to write more. And again, shout-out to the writers. We respect them and we respect their hustle and what they’re doing and believe in it as well. All the talent off of the screen as well. I just think everyone deserves to have fairness and for them to be considered in this beautiful gift that we have in making shows and movies and media. Not everybody that’s involved in entertainment has this flashy, beautiful, crazy celebrity life. Most people don’t become filthy wealthy in this business. And I think people should understand that. These fights that we’re doing for the writers and for any other strikes that we end up doing in support of these people, it’s a real fight. It’s not something that people are just rich and sitting back and trying to get more money for.
What draws you to directing? I can’t watch anything these days without completely breaking down every single aspect of everything, in terms of how they were able to achieve it, what decisions and choices were made for the actors. I approach my own performance and things in a visual manner. I tend to close my eyes and look to my third eye to visualize what I’m going to do before I do it. I just love the process so much. I’m like, well, I might as well try my hand at it.
And here, in his own words, a few of Stanfield’s favorite things:
“In front, I love my water bottle—always got to stay hydrated. I really started paying attention to my hydration when I was filming Haunted Mansion with Disney, because I had a lot of stunts to do, running around, jumping, things like that. So I overdid it on the big jug. It’s 125 ounces. My pee is not yellow. To the right of that is my Leica M11 Monochrom. I started doing photography after I shot this movie called The Photograph with Issa Rae. My character was a photographer. I decided to pick up a camera, and I learned that I loved taking photos. It’s really fun to capture a portrait that feels like a great illustration of a moment you were feeling or seeing, or that someone else was having, and the kind of spur of the moment–ness of it. I find it very fun to hunt for photos because it makes you view the world in a new, fresh way. Behind that is a car seat, with a doll in it. Got to have a car seat for the kids just to make sure that they are able to get to and fro, so always have one of those handy just to make sure I’m able to transport my loves. On the left is my iPad [and keyboard]. I read scripts on my iPad. I also have a stylus. Not a stylist like the clothes, but the pen to help me highlight things. Then my portable music studio: my Neumann U 87 Ai mic in the back left and my Apollo Twin X audio interface in front. I make music, and so I take my studio everywhere. I could just set my mic up and then start. I write everywhere I go. I hop on that iPad or on my phone or pen and pad, wherever I’m at, I’m always writing music and I’ll just try some ideas out. In the back, I always keep my backpack with me wherever I’m going. It’s like my man purse. Sometimes I have a secondary water bottle in there.”
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