Actor Showcase: Jonathan Majors Will Be Our Next Great Movie Star

 

                                                                                                Image via Deadline

    Jonathan Majors is someone who has all the makings of a star. The 33-year-old actor has been on the radar of many for a bit. Though Majors only entered the Hollywood sphere in 2017 with a small role in Scott Cooper's Hostiles, it took him all of two years until his stock began to rise with his first project with a big supporting turn. That project was an indie film produced by A24, titled, The Last Black Man in San Francisco in which Majors plays Mont Allen, the best friend of the lead character, Jimmie Fails.

    The Last Black Man in San Francisco was highly regarded amongst the whole industry. Majors was cast in the film after sending in an audition tape to Fails, the film's main subject, lead character and co-writer and Joe Talbot, the other co-writer and director. As covered in Rolling Stone, Talbot and Fails said that Majors was "so 'achingly vulnerable' they immediately invited him out." Majors was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award and Breakthrough Actor at the Gotham Awards in 2019 for his performance and what followed has been a massive run on both television and the big screen for the actor.

    As the decade turned and audiences began to prepare for the 2020s, the streaming wars were underway, and Majors was on the precipice of instant recognition by all audiences. First, came a collaboration with Spike Lee on the Netflix film, Da 5 Bloods. Majors plays David, a schoolteacher who surprises his father, played by Delroy Lindo and his old Vietnam war buddies as they plan to go retrieve money and treasure, they had buried many years prior. As one of the younger actors within the war drama, it seemed as though him and co-star, Chadwick Boseman were reflections of what the future would be for African American stardom alongside older actors with reverence such as Lindo, Clarke Peters and Isaiah Whitlock Jr. Unfortunately, many of us know what came next as Boseman passed away due to a private battle with cancer just two months after Da 5 Bloods was released.

    It was soon after that Majors would enter a world in which Boseman had known well, the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In September 2020, Majors was cast as the popular villain, Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. It's a shame that we'll never be able to see Boseman's T'Challa character battle it out with Kang, but Majors has already been on screen as the menace of the multiverse as He Who Remains, a variant of Kang in 2021's Disney+ series, Loki. That same year, he starred in the deeply unique, black-centric Western, The Harder They Fall for Netflix. If you haven't checked this movie yet, I couldn't recommend it enough. Majors stars as Nathaniel Buck, one of the many stand-out roles in the ensemble alongside other acting powerhouses such as Regina King, Idris Elba and Lakeith Stanfield. 

   

 However, his most overlooked role was a starring one in the HBO supernatural horror show, Lovecraft Country. Misha Green, the writer and showrunner of the series brought together a dream team of creatives with Jordan Peele and J.J. Abrams serving as executive producers on the project that starred a mostly African American-led cast. Majors plays Atticus "Tic" Freeman, a young man who had served in the Korean war who embarks on a road trip across 1950s Jim Crow America to find his father. The show also stars Jurnee Smollett, Aunjanue Ellis, Wunmi Mosaku, Courtney B. Vance and the late, great Michael K. Williams. The show was a raving success, having ended up on many end-of-year "Best of Television" lists and earning 6 total nominations at the Primetime Emmy Awards for its first season. Majors earned a nomination for his role as Freeman. Unfortunately, as Green was working on the scripts for the second season, the show was abruptly cancelled by HBO.    

    Majors has set a standard by working with rising and prestigious black voices in film & television as well. Spike Lee, Jeymes Samuel and Misha Green serving as major examples as well as his next upcoming feature film roles. Majors is set to enter the Creed franchise, as the actor has bulked up in order to be the latest adversary to Michael B. Jordan in his directorial debut, Creed III. Majors plays Adonis' childhood friend, Damien "Dame" Anderson in the third installment of the Rocky spinoff series of films, which will release in March 2023. Before that, Majors will work with another young, rising director in J.D. Dillard, best known for helming Sleight, an original superhero film back in 2016. Dillard's new film, Devotion stars Majors as an elite fighter pilot named Jesse Brown who works with his wingman to help during the Korean War. In addition, according to Deadline's Justin Kroll, Majors is being eyed to play Dennis Rodman in the film, 48 Hours in Vegas, following the now famous two-day trip during the 1998 NBA Finals that was chronicled in ESPN's, The Last Dance.

    

    Jonathan Majors is separating himself from some of his rising counterparts due to his diverse acting choices, the scale in which these stories are being told and the passion he has for his art. Majors has also prided himself on being a hard worker and never taking the easy route. Even to get to where his massive physical presence is ahead of Creed III and another movie on his docket, Magazine Dreams, in which he plays a bodybuilder; Majors said earlier this month in an interview with Variety, "Work. Time. Prayer. Rice and chicken, six times a day." He added in the October 2022 issue of Men's Health, that even when it comes to picking projects to sign on for, the same hard work goes into the choices that he makes. "When I look at a script, I look at the level of difficulty. If it’s going to be easy, I don’t want to do it." Majors is truly a unique actor with an indistinguishable charm, charisma, mystery and urgency that demands to be seen every time he is on screen. Majors is only just arriving and making his presence felt on Hollywood for the foreseeable future. 

                                                                Image via Men's Health (October 2022)