CELEBRITIES
Amandla Stenberg adds power to teen activism, uncaging her psychic abilities in ‘Darkest Minds’
Multi-talented teen actress Amandla Stenberg explores her psychic side in ‘Darkest Minds’.
Amandla Stenberg is one of Hollywood’s fastest-rising actresses, not to mention a singer, violinist, author, fashion trendsetter and activist. Did we mention that the Los Angeleno is only 19?
“I like to allow myself to explore every facet of my creativity,” Stenberg said.
It’s her mission to leverage whatever popularity she’s attained so far — and whatever is yet to come — to help people and to support her causes.
“I look at it as a responsibility,” Stenberg said. “I think it’s crucial I hold that responsibility with the best intentions, because I have the privilege of having a platform, and so I need to wield it well. And I think I’ve had the blessing of being able to do that with the films I’ve worked on.”
So far those films have included The Hunger Games
(2012), in which Stenberg played the young, doomed tribute Rue, and Everything, Everything (2017), a youngadult drama about a homebound teen (Stenberg) who apparently suffers from a rare immune disorder. She also stars in three upcoming films, the sci-fi drama The
Darkest Minds, The Hate U Give, a racial-strife drama, and Where Hands Touch, a wartime romance that costars Abbie Cornish and George MacKay.
Set for nationwide release on Aug 3, The Darkest
Minds casts Stenberg as 16-year-old Ruby, one of the most powerful among a group of teens who mysteriously have acquired psychic abilities after a plague that has killed most of their peers. Considered a threat by the government, the survivors are forced into internment camps. Ruby, who can see and interfere with people’s memories, escapes and soon encounters other youthful fugitives, each possessing a unique power. They join forces to fight the government, with explosive results.
Speaking by phone from Manhattan after a screening of the film, Stenberg admitted that, heading into The
Darkest Minds, she had never heard of Alexandra Bracken’s book series of the same name, which inspired the movie. Only after she’d been signed for the big-screen adaptation did she read the first novel in the series.
“I’m a huge fan of sci-fi,” Stenberg said. “I’m a huge fan of fantasy, I’m a huge fan of young-adult books, so I immediately connected to it, especially as someone who grew up reading exactly those types of trilogies.
“I think what’s really cool about Ruby is that she’s not an inherently, obviously strong character in the beginning of the story,” the actress said. “She is experiencing a lot of trauma from what happened to her growing up as a kid. She is someone who has to find her strength along her path.
“I love a hero’s journey, where you’re able to see that character develop their strength over time,” Stenberg continued. “I think that it’s done really beautifully in the book, and so also that translates to the film.”
Stenberg paused for a long moment when asked what the gifted kids in the movie get from each other, and if teaming up makes them more than the sum of their
parts. She then launched into a passionate reply.
“I think they give each other friendship,” she said. “I think they give each other family. I think that they give each other joy, which in the world they are inhabiting is really crucial.
“It’s a story about a world that is not too dissimilar from our own in many ways,” she said. “It’s a world where a disease has killed 90% of all children and those that are left have psychic abilities and, because adults are afraid of them, they put them into camps. That narrative is somewhat allegorical to what we’re experiencing now, just in terms of we have so many tools at our disposal as a younger generation, with access to social media and the internet, and we know how to use all of that to organise and communicate with each other.
“I think maybe that’s daunting to some adults,” Stenberg added. “They see the power in what we can do with that, collectively, and are scared of it.”
Stenberg went on to speak enthusiastically about the “crazy” stunts and her “incredible” co-stars, who range from such veterans as Gwendoline Christie, Mandy Moore and Bradley Whitford to relative newcomers such as Skylan Brooks, Miya Cech, Harris Dickinson and Patrick Gibson.
The actress also praised Jennifer Yuh Nelson, who makes her live-action directing debut after helming the animated features Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011) and Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016).
“When we’d talk about Jennifer’s directing style, oftentimes we would use the word ‘elf’ to describe her, because she’s kind of like a ninja,” Stenberg said, laughing. “She’s so calm, so grounded. She’s so sweet and so giving, but exercises this really amazing secret control over everything.
“And, because she made us all feel so comfortable, everyone was able to do their best work.”
Books and movies are different beasts, and it’s not unusual for fans of a book to balk at what they see when it’s brought to the screen. Stenberg believes, however, that fans of Bracken’s book will feel that the film captures the essence of the words on the page.
“Actually, another author I talked to recently described the book-to-movie phenomenon as like fraternal twins,” Stenberg said, referring to Angie Thomas, author of The Hate U Give. “And I think that you see that in this case. There are things that have been restructured and changed a little bit, just to make the film feel cohesive, but the idea was also to still include all the elements in the spirit of the book.
“I have seen it,” she said. “I think it’s a great adventure. The characters are really relatable and grounded, which makes it feel really special. I’m very proud of the movie.”
Bracken has penned several sequels to The Darkest Minds. If this first film takes off at the box office, Stenberg could wind up playing Ruby for years to come.
The actress insisted, however, that she’s not looking that far ahead.
“I don’t know if I’m going to get the opportunity, and I don’t necessarily like to get my hopes up too much, so I haven’t really allowed myself to explore that,” Stenberg said. “But, if it happens, I think what would be really cool would be the ability to explore even further the strength that Ruby has gained by the end of the first film.”
Up next for Stenberg is The Hate U Give, which casts her as a poor black girl who attends a wealthy, predominantly white school. Her world is turned upside down when she witnesses the shooting of her childhood best friend by a police officer.
“It explores something that is so relevant to our current political and social climate, and it does it in a way that is filled with so much heart and soul, but still grounded in reality,” Stenberg said. “And, because it is a nuanced perspective and exploration of blackness, I think we’ll be able to make people empathise with the experience of black communities.”
Also on the way is the aforementioned wartime romance, Where Hands Touch, which is set in Nazi Germany during World War II. Stenberg plays the daughter of a white German mother and a black father, a girl who falls in love with a member of the Hitler Youth (MacKay) who is the son of a powerful SS officer.
“What excites me about Where Hands Touch is its ability, like The Hate U Give, to discuss current topics when it comes to a political climate, but through the lens of history,” Stenberg said. “It’s really important that we explore nuance in all facets of history, and so to see a depiction of a biracial child during (that) period of time, in 1940s Germany, I think is really crucial.”
Stenberg hasn’t yet lined up any subsequent films — because, she said, she’s “taking my time with that to be selective”. Instead she is recording new music, which she hopes to release in the near future, and sharing her happenings, feelings and musings on social media.
The young actress acknowledged that there’s a great deal of good — and a great deal of bad — going on for women in the world at the moment, including in the entertainment industry. She sounded pleased to be in the game, right here, right now, as these seismic shifts occur.
“I hope,” Stenberg said, “I can make people feel less alone and experience some joy.”