Hollywood rising... JURNEE SMOLLETT
THE LINE BETWEEN FICTION AND REALITY BLURS FOR THE ACTOR AND ACTIVIST, WHO’S BATTLING RACISM AND OTHER DEMONS BOTH ON-SCREEN IN NEW THRILLER LOVECRAFT COUNTRY AND OFF
TWO EPIDEMICS – CORONAVIRUS AND SYSTEMIC RACISM – have spread across the world, and
Jurnee Smollett, like most Black people, is still trying to process them. ‘It’s a time of shifts, a time of change, a time of detox,’ the 33-year-old actor and activist told us in late June. ‘It’s a rest, yet it’s also filled with so much mourning and this collective grief that I know we’re all experiencing.’ She’s calling from California, a state that has seen a spike in Covid-19 cases in recent days, to talk about her latest project: Lovecraft Country, a new drama series, which premiered on Sky in August. The show, set in 195Os Jim Crow USA, feels disturbingly – but not unsurprisingly – timely. ‘The unfortunate thing about our nation is that [Lovecraft Country] could have been released on any day, in any month, of any year since 1619 and, arguably, what we explore in this show would be relevant,’ Smollett says. Based on Matt Ruff’s 2O16 fantasy horror novel of the same name, Lovecraft Country follows Atticus, a young Black man played by Jonathan Majors, on a road trip to New England in search of his father. Smollett plays Letitia, Atticus’ forthright friend, who joins him and his Uncle George (played by Courtney B. Vance) on the journey. Along the way, they
encounter a plague of monsters – some human, some supernatural, which could have been conjured by horror author H.P. Lovecraft himself. ‘Our heroes go on a mission to bring down these powers, which happen to be white supremacy,’ Smollett says.
Born in New York, Smollett spent her childhood between there and LA, raised by a white Jewish father and Black mother, who met through civil rights activism. One of Smollett’s earliest memories was of standing on a corner holding a protest sign after the police who’d beaten Rodney King were acquitted.
Around the same time, she was also becoming well-known to a generation of television viewers as Denise in Full House, and Jordee in On Our Own (she starred alongside real-life siblings Jussie, Jake, Jazz, Jocqi and Jojo in the latter). At age
11, Smollett won a Critics’ Choice Award for her title role in Eve’s Bayou; at 12, she volunteered for Artists For A New South Africa, a not-for-profit that assists children orphaned by HIV/AIDS.
Smollett recalls a childhood of art, activism and negotiating the environment around her. ‘Oftentimes, when we could afford to live in a certain neighbourhood, we were the only Black family,’ she says. She drew from this personal history while working on Lovecraft’s third episode, in which her character renovates a large home in a white neighbourhood with hopes of turning it into a boarding house – unleashing demonic forces in the process. ‘You cannot buy yourself out of systemic racism,’ she says.
Earlier this year, Smollett starred in Birds of Prey and Jordan Peele’s The Twilight Zone. She’s also an active participant in the LA chapter of Black Lives Matter, and is a founding board member of Time’s Up. The actor hopes to raise Hunter, her three-year-old son with singer-songwriter Josiah Bell, with a similar drive to serve others. ‘I intend for Hunter to have a deeper understanding, a deeper consciousness,’ she says. ‘We are ever-evolving as a society, and [must] create space for every single person and every identity, ability, and gender identity.’
Aside from being ‘a terrific actor, [Smollett] is just electric and amazing to watch,’ says J. J. Abrams, who co-executive produced Lovecraft alongside Peele, Misha Green and four others. ‘She’s got an incredible strength, both on screen and off.’
Green, who also serves as showrunner, met Smollett while working together on their previous show, the Civil War drama Underground. Green says Letitia runs through Smollett’s veins: ‘At the end of the day, Jurnee happens to be perfect for [the role] because [she and Letitia] have that same vibe: of the fight and the power of what it means to be a Black woman – and looking things in the face.’
Indeed, Smollett feels ‘a visceral, ancestral connection to the oppression of my people, but also a connection to the uprising – we are survivors,’ she says. ‘[Letitia] believes in disrupting the system. It’s so bold, so audacious, because that era was bent on erasing us, but she will not be erased.’
Lovecraft Country is available now on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV
”WE ARE EVER-EVOLVING AS A SOCIETY, AND MUST CREATE SPACE FOR EVERY SINGLE PERSON, IDENTITY AND ABILITY”