Jonathan Majors on a journey in next role
Jonathan Majors is on — well — a major roll at the moment.
Majors has appeared in a string of high-profile features in a matter of a few short years. Those include “Da 5 Bloods” from Spike Lee, Sundance hit “The Last Black Man in San Francisco,” “Hostiles” with Christian Bale and “White Boy Rick” with Matthew McConaughey.
Next up, audiences will see him in the HBO series “Lovecraft Country,” which debuts Aug. 16. The show boasts an impressive lineup both in front of and behind the camera. Majors’ co-stars include Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Michael K. Williams and Courtney B. Vance. Based on the book of the same name by Matt Ruff, the show was created by Misha Green, with Jordan Peele and J.J. Abrams among the executive producers.
Majors’ ascendancy to the lead role in an HBO series featuring some of television’s biggest creators and most heralded stars has brought him a long way from his native Cedar Hill, Texas. Fresh out of an alternative education program he had been sent to as a middle schooler, he tried his hand at theater at the suggestion of a teacher. He performed a monologue in front of his class. He already knew he was a good public speaker, as his schoolmates would often throw it back to him when choosing someone to read aloud in class. But his solo performance that day sealed the deal.
From there, he went on to the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, followed by a stint in New York before attending the prestigious Yale School of Drama, from which he graduated in 2016.
“I have a lot of passion,” Majors says. “I was told by the world for a long time that I was angry, or that I was sad. I put my mind to (performing) early on and did nine years, 10 years of actor training nonstop. To me, that’s what I’m still doing. I’m still trying to get in there and do the best work I can in the scene.”
It becomes clear within a few minutes of speaking to Majors that he is a cerebral actor, one who thrives on analyzing every detail of his roles.
Majors stars in “Lovecraft Country” as Atticus Freeman, a Korean War veteran who returns home to 1950s Chicago when his father (Williams) goes missing after sending him a mysterious letter. Atticus, his uncle George (Vance) and friend Letitia (Smollett) try to find him, setting them on a collision course with a powerful magical force, a horde of Lovecraftian monsters and the racial terrors of Jim Crow America.
A grown man who went to war against his father’s wishes, Atticus is on the journey, Majors says, of a prodigal son who is becoming the family patriarch. The road is an ancient one, he says, and filled with “so much redemption, forgiveness and responsibility.”
“The hero is he or she who allows their heart to break,” he says. “In cinema, the hero is not the one who sacrifices their body always, but the person who sacrifices their heart. They allow their heart to break so everyone else can stay intact. You know, that’s the hero. And I found that quality to be so key in the development and then the portrayal of Atticus.”