John David Washington: the Photo Shoot and Interview for L'uomo

Leggi l'articolo su beautynews John David Washington: the photo shoot and interview for L'Uomo Raised in a family of actors, preachers, musicians and intellectuals, John David Washington has a distinctive cadence that resonates with a strong sense of belonging, like a coiled spring of physical and mental energy. Maybe it’s because he graduated from Morehouse College, the private university of the African-American intelligentsia where Reverend Martin Luther King studied after the war. Or perhaps it was the role Spike Lee gave him in BlacKkKlansman (2018), the true story of a police officer who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan. He prepared for that part by channelling his cultural roots. “For months I only listened to ’70s music. I went to bed with Soul Train in my ears and watched Super Fly over and over. And I often phoned my uncles, Vietnam veterans, to understand what it meant to be men, and black, at that time in American history.” Having grown up in the Toluca Lake neighbourhood of Los Angeles with his father Denzel Washington (who was Spike Lee’s Malcolm X) and his mother Pauletta Pearson (an actress and pianist), John David is now a modest 36-year-old gentleman. “My mother taught me to love,” he says on the phone from LA, where he spent lockdown with his parents and three younger siblings. “My father taught me to hunt,” but not in the sense of killing animals, he explains. “Instead, it’s about being relentlessly scientific about your approach to life and work. It’s about developing a system and putting in the hours, because nobody’s going to hand you anything – you have to get it yourself. That’s how a hunter lives.” pagina 1 / 4 Wool gabardine single-breasted Soho suit with peak lapels, classic cotton shirt, silk tie, Giorgio Armani. Gregory Harris For years John David was chasing the wrong prey, failing to break free of the mental fetters that he had placed on the course of his own life. To assert his independence, he chose football and became a promising university running back. His dream of NFL stardom seemed within reach, yet it remained a tantalising mirage. Perhaps he was unlucky, or maybe he was subconsciously living in denial of his true calling as an actor. And now that he’s following his artistic vocation, he’s steadily finding inner peace. He was first cast as a leading character in the HBO series Ballers, playing a hothead athlete. Then Spike Lee gave him the role that won him a Golden Globe nomination. After that came Monsters and Men, where he had the part of a policeman who lacked the courage to report abuses against black communities. And finally there’s Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, the action movie that has made him an international celebrity. What was it like returning home and sleeping in your teenage room? It brought back some of the best memories of my life. Like when I was 12 and my father took me to see the Lakers versus the Chicago Bulls at the Los Angeles Forum. We beat the Bulls and after the game I got to go to the locker room, where Michael Jordan signed the shoes he played in that night. I’ve still got them hanging in my room. pagina 2 / 4 They could be worth more than a Hollywood part. Well, if this Covid thing continues and the cinema business falls flat, I’ll seriously consider selling them. Long-sleeved cotton and silk crew neck, Corneliani; wool trousers, Paul Smith. Gregory Harris Do you like writing? Lately I’ve been writing a journal about my experiences of being back in LA. But I’m not consistent with it. It depends on what’s going on in my life. I was heavily into writing when I started acting. I’d write my prayers down, literally the words that I was thinking when I was talking to God. Usually it’s saints who write prayers. It was about the process of getting from my heart to my head to the pen. It made me more concentrated on what I was asking for and being grateful for. It was interesting reading those prayers again a few years later. I was embarrassed at some of them, but as I kept reading I realised where I was in my life at that time, how hopeful I was pagina 3 / 4 with this new frontier of acting. Praying is also a way to manage my expectations and to know I can achieve my goals if I believe in them, even if they’re beyond my understanding. You attended a religious school founded by a reverend. Does it all come from there? My mother’s grandparents were from North Carolina and they instilled it in me early. I went to church often and I had to wear suits to Sunday school. The attire was very serious. We had to learn all the songs, too. My father’s father was a Pentecostal preacher from Virginia, so it was full- on God first in my upbringing. As a non-violent Christian, how did you put the necessary aggression into playing football, even at the risk of hurting someone? I’d use the anger and resentment from people who thought I’d got everything handed to me. I’d put my personal issues onto the field – the frustration of not doing what I really wanted to do, which was to act. Everything that seemed to be a barrier or a deterrent, I’d use that as gasoline to ignite the fire of determination to make myself independent. (Continues) Fashion credits: Photographs by Gregory Harris Styling by Michael Philouze Grooming Cheri Keating @ The Wall Group Stylist’s assistant Céline Sabbagh Digital tech Stephen Wordie Tailor Leah Huntsinger @ Atelier Q NYC Set design Kadu Lennox @ Frank Reps Production Michele Stanger Opening photograph: check wool coat and wool trousers, Paul Smith. Read the full interview by Raffaele Panizza and see the photo shoot by Gregory Harris in the October issue of L'Uomo, on newsstands from September 22nd pagina 4 / 4 Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org).

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