Camden lad who’s toast of Tinseltown
DANIEL KALUUYA — an awards season contender thanks to his breakthrough leading role in Jordan Peele’s Get Out — has been taking Hollywood in his cool stride.
I enjoyed watching big name studio executives and chiefs court the 28-year-old actor who once called London’s Camden Town home.
There’s expectation that Kaluuya will land a best actor Oscar nomination when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences releases its list on Tuesday.
He’s already had a nod from the Bafta voters.
Next month brings the release of Marvel Studios’ Black Panther, in which Daniel plays W’Kabi, the Panther’s best friend and leader of the border tribe that protects the country.
‘People think I’m a tribesman or a farmer but W’Kabi’s one of the greatest fighters in Wakanda — and he’s got all this amazing weaponry hidden under a tribal blanket,’ Kaluuya told me.
I was surprised when he revealed that the movie, which is supposedly set in an African state, was filmed in Atlanta.
What’s that all about, I asked him.
‘It’s to do with the Africanisation of the United States,’ Kaluuya joked.
I wonder what the current occupant of the White House would make of that.
In November, Kaluuya will be seen as part of a cast that includes Viola Davis and Cynthia Erivo in director Steve McQueen’s film Widows, based on Lynda La Plante’s 1983 series, which starred the great Ann Mitchell.