Lakeith Stanfield: An actor at home in the surreal

NEW YORK (AP) - The weirder it gets, the more Lakeith Stanfield looks 権利 at home.

It was Stanfield, as the bodysnatched Andrew Hayworth, personifying the nightmare of Jordan Peele's "Get Out." In Donald Glover's "Atlanta," his cosmically lackadaisical マリファナ-smoking philosopher Darius is the epitome of the show's freewheeling surrealism. And in Boots Riley's comic and caustic social satire "Sorry to Bother You," Stanfield is the 入ること/参加(者)-level telemarketer Cassius ("Cash") Green, whose swift rise introduces him to a darkly dystopian world.

"I do find I'm a little more comfortable than the 普通の/平均(する) person in strange 状況/情勢s, which is probably why I'm an actor," says Stanfield. "I've been in some strange 状況/情勢s. Like orgies. And I was in an orgy in this movie. It wasn't strange to me at all. I had no 保留(地)/予約s about getting naked. I was supposed to be naked in this, 十分な frontal.

FILE - In this Jan. 21, 2018 file photo, actor Lakeith Stanfield poses for a portrait to promote the film, "Sorry To Bother You," in Park City, Utah. The film opens nationwide on July 6. (Photo by Taylor Jewell/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 21, 2018 とじ込み/提出する photo, actor Lakeith Stanfield 提起する/ポーズをとるs for a portrait to 促進する the film, "Sorry To Bother You," in Park City, Utah. The film opens 全国的な on July 6. (Photo by Taylor Jewell/Invision/AP, とじ込み/提出する)

He grins. "Maybe I am, I don't know."

Since his acclaimed feature-film debut in 2013's "Short 称する,呼ぶ/期間/用語 12," Stanfield, 26, has become one of the most 逮捕(する)ing, 予測できない, and in-需要・要求する actors in Hollywood. He has played Jimmie 物陰/風下 Jackson ("Selma"), Snoop Dogg ("Straight Outta Compton"), Miles Davis ("Miles Ahead") and, um, Chandler, in Jay-Z's "Friends"-style music ビデオ "Moonlight." In even his soberer parts, Stanfield has a disarmingly laid-支援する, unflappable presence, like his antennae is tuned to a different frequency than everyone else.

Glover, the "Atlanta" creator, vividly remembers first 会合 Stanfield.

"He barely talked to me," Glover said in an email. "He was not 関心d with getting the 職業 at all. He was already living in a different dimension than the 残り/休憩(する) of us."

"Sorry to Bother You," which opens Friday on the heels of ecstatic reviews, Stanfield may have 設立する the best feature-film 乗り物 yet for his particular dimension. The movie is a years-long passion 事業/計画(する) for Riley, the Bay-area hip-hop 開拓する and 行動主義者, who along the way also spoke to Glover and Peele about the 役割. It's a wild, anti-資本主義者 romp through workplace America, all seen through the dazed 注目する,もくろむs of Stanfield.

"What 持つ/拘留するs the movie together - which is why I 選ぶd Lakeith - is there's all this crazy stuff happening but you have to believe that character," says Riley. "If it's an actor that's like, 'Oh, this is how I show I'm 脅すd. This is how I show I'm 混乱させるd' - it wouldn't work. Lakeith doesn't care about what his 直面する looks like. He just gets to that emotion."

In the film, Cassius is catapulted into 夜通し success once he begins using what an older 従業員 played by Danny Glover 条件 is "your white 発言する/表明する." Stanfield's rise, though, has been predicated on remaining himself.

"It's a hard thing to be yourself and be 利用できる," Stanfield said in a 最近の interview in Soho. "It's much easier to use the white 発言する/表明する, which I've also done. But at some point, I become exhausted with it and I have to say what's on my mind and do what I feel. Part of that is the 推論する/理由 why people put cameras on me."

Stanfield has 以前 channeled into music his underprivileged しつけ in the Southern California 砂漠 city of Vict orville. In eachof the 2015 music ビデオs for his hip-hop 二人組 Moors, Stanfield (who recently わびるd for a 自由型 with homophobic lyrics) returns to an image of 溺死するing on the seafloor.

"At the time I made those, I felt smothered by circumstances," says Stanfield. "There was a lot of family 演劇 at the time. I watched a family member that I love try to kill themselves by suffocation. I was 令状ing from that place. The 推論する/理由 why you 港/避難所't seen very much follow-up to that 肉親,親類d of 構成要素 is because, luckily, I 港/避難所't been in those 肉親,親類d of 状況/情勢s."

Drawn into 事実上の/代理 by a high-school 演劇 class, Stanfield (機の)カム to Los Angeles at 18. He 解任するs spending hours 星/主役にするing at Echo Lake in between auditions, with nothing else to do.

"I was homeless. And I was hungry いつかs," Stanfield says. "But I didn't really 見解(をとる) it as hard. I always kept a 肯定的な idea about it. I remember 存在 in my car listening to Jimi Hendrix and eating McDonald's and 存在 like: One day, I'm going to remember this moment. And I still do."

Stanfield's 打開 (機の)カム 経由で Destin Daniel Cretton's college short film "Short 称する,呼ぶ/期間/用語 12," which five years later became the feature about a foster care 施設 for at-危険 teens. By then, Stanfield was in Sacramento working at a マリファナ factory. His character, who 徐々に comes out of his 爆撃する, mirrored Stanfield's own 旅行. But any reticence is now long gone.

"I always want to 拡大する," says Stanfield. "I can learn something from everyone and everything and hopefully I get to play a dog that is also a cat, that is also a man and a woman and a flower so I can just be all 見解/翻訳/版s of life."

"Playing a flower would be awesome," 追加するs Stanfield, smiling, before 言及/関連ing his "Atlanta" character. "It's a very Darius thing to say."

正確に/まさに where Darius ends and Stanfield begins can be difficult to define. A lot of Darius' eccentric serenity comes 直接/まっすぐに from Stanfield, who improvises much of Darius' 非,不,無-sequitur musing. "In some ways, he is me," says Stanfield.

"I think he's not 事実上の/代理. 事実上の/代理 is pretending. And Keith doesn't seem to pretend much," explains Glover. "Darius, like Lakeith, is living in the now. I can honestly say Lakeith is the only person in the world I know who could play Darius."

There's some method to Stanfield's madness, even if the method is the sort that worries directors. Riley discovered that himself, when he realized Stanfield didn't know his lines as 狙撃 approached on "Sorry to Bother You."

"And he's like: 'I don't usually do that until 権利 before,' says Riley. "His brain is still going through a 過程 of finding the words. It might just be a millisecond more, but it's not that polished thing. That makes the lines more real for him. That's what all the fantastical elements and the absurdity rely on."

Last summer, Stanfield had a baby with his girlfriend, actress Xosha Roquemore. He has his biggest 予算 film yet coming in October: "The Girl in the Spider's Web." In a since-削除するd Instagram 地位,任命する, Stanfield 公式文書,認めるd of the 大部分は Swedish cast: "I'm the only 黒人/ボイコット person in this film."

But having grown up gravitating toward movies that he saw himself in, Stanfield likes the idea that "Sorry to Bother You" could be "some kid's 'Menace to Society' ... but with いっそう少なく guns."

"Now, 黒人/ボイコット 団体/死体s can 占領する space where we have these fantastical and absurd things happening, which we 港/避難所't seen," he says. "You can't do that when you're too busy trying to make yourself seem human. We can still talk about those things, but now we can also talk about these other things."

___

Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP

This image released by Annapurna Pictures shows Lakeith Stanfield as Cassius Green in a scene from
 the film, "Sorry To Bother You." (Annapurna Pictures via AP)

This image 解放(する)d by Annapurna Pictures shows Lakeith Stanfield as Cassius Green in a scene from the film, "Sorry To Bother You." (Annapurna Pictures 経由で AP)

This image released by FX shows Lakeith Stanfield in a scene from "Atlanta."  (Guy D'Alema/FX via AP)

This image 解放(する)d by FX shows Lakeith Stanfield in a scene from "Atlanta." (Guy D'Alema/FX 経由で AP)

FILE - In this Jan. 21, 2018 file photo, actor Lakeith Stanfield poses for a portrait to promote the film, "Sorry To Bother You," in Park City, Utah. The film opens nationwide on July 6. (Photo by Taylor Jewell/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 21, 2018 とじ込み/提出する photo, actor Lakeith Stanfield 提起する/ポーズをとるs for a portrait to 促進する the film, "Sorry To Bother You," in Park City, Utah. The film opens 全国的な on July 6. (Photo by Taylor Jewell/Invision/AP, とじ込み/提出する)

FILE - In this Jan. 21, 2018 file photo, Armie Hammer, from left, Tessa Thompson, director Boots Riley, Steven Yeun and Te
rry Crews pose for a portrait to promote the film, "Sorry to Bother You,"  during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. The film, which also stars Lakeith Stanfield, opens nationwide on July 6. (Photo by Taylor Jewell/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 21, 2018 とじ込み/提出する photo, Armie 大打撃を与える, from left, Tessa Thompson, director Boots Riley, Steven Yeun and Terry 乗組員s 提起する/ポーズをとる for a portrait to 促進する the film, "Sorry to Bother You," during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. The film, which also 星/主役にするs Lakeith Stanfield, opens 全国的な on July 6. (Photo by Taylor Jewell/Invision/AP, とじ込み/提出する)

This image released by Annapurna Pictures shows Tessa Thompson, left, and Lakeith Stanfield in a scene from the film, "Sorry To Bother You." (Annapurna Pictures via AP)

This image 解放(する)d by Annapurna Pictures shows Tessa Thompson, left, and Lakeith Stanfield in a scene from the film, "Sorry To Bother You." (Annapurna Pictures 経由で AP)

This image released by FX shows Lakeith Stanfield, from left, Brian Tyree Henry and Donald Glover in "Atlanta."  (Guy D'Alema/FX via AP)

This image 解放(する)d by FX shows Lakeith Stanfield, from left, Brian Tyree Henry and Donald Glover in "Atlanta." (Guy D'Alema/FX 経由で AP)

This image released by Annapurna Pictures shows Lakeith Stanfield, left, and Armie Hammer in a scene from the film, "Sorry To Bother You." (Annapurna Pictures via AP)

This image 解放(する)d by Annapurna Pictures shows Lakeith Stanfield, left, and Armie 大打撃を与える in a scene from the film, "Sorry To Bother You." (Annapurna Pictures 経由で AP)

This image released by Annapurna Pictures shows Tessa Thompson, left, and Lakeith Stanfield in a scene from the film, "Sorry To Bother You." (Annapurna Pictures via AP)

This image 解放(する)d by Annapurna Pictures shows Tessa Thompson, left, and Lakeith Stanfield in a scene from the film, "Sorry To Bother You." (Annapurna Pictures 経由で AP)

This image released by Annapurna Pictures shows Lakeith Stanfield, foreground, and Danny Glover in a scene from the film, "Sorry To Bother You." (Annapurna Pictures via AP)

This image 解放(する)d by Annapurna Pictures shows Lakeith Stanfield, foreground, and Danny Glover in a scene from the film, "Sorry To Bother You." (Annapurna Pictures 経由で AP)

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