KIKI LAYNE

IS READY TO TALK…

Ireally feel like this has been the calling all my life,” says KiKi Layne, the 26-year-old breakout star of Moonlight director Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk. Garnering plaudits for playing the resolute Tish in the James Baldwin adaptation, this Cincinnati native is ready to answer that call…

How did you feel when Barry Jenkins said you’d got such a key role in

If Beale Street Could Talk?

I was just so happy and thankful and excited. I really, really wanted the part. I thought it was such a special part and I definitely knew it was going to be a special film. James Baldwin and Barry Jenkins! And I knew it was going to be a big step in my career, but I definitely was trying to rush him off the phone so I could really lose it! As soon as I pressed ‘end call’, I lost my shit!

You’re also upcoming in Native Son. How would you describe it?

It’s another adaptation of a really important piece of black literature, but Native Son follows the story of Bigger, played by Ashton Sanders [teenage Chiron in Moonlight]. It’s speaking to truths that

are sometimes overlooked in terms of the black experience.

What are your career ambitions?

I want a career filled with variety. I’m very thankful these are the first two stories I’m a part of. But I want to do all types of films, all types of genres and characters. I don’t know. I’ll wait for that thing that really brings some sense of joy. Even if it’s a painful story, I want something that really connects to my spirit.

What about taking on big blockbusters?

I would love to be a superhero! That’s so fun. That’s the fun thing about acting – you get to do these unrealistic things that in regular daily life you can’t do! JM

ETA | 8 FEBRUARY / IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK OPENS NEXT MONTH.