Janelle Monáe lands in ‘Homecoming’

If there is any silver lining to the weeks that Janelle Monáe has spent sheltering in place, it is the opportunity it has afforded her to refocus on the fundamentals of performance. Monáe “Having to use less tools and figure out how to innovate, it just reminds me of when I started becoming an artist,” she said. For Monáe, that has lately meant playing more piano and guitar, even picking up a brush and painting, which she said she hadn’t done in years. “I’m not super-creative,” she said. A cursory survey of her work would surely contradict this: At 34, Monáe is not only the ever-changing architect of audacious pop albums such as “Dirty Computer” and “The Electric Lady,” but also a burgeoning star of films such as “Moonlight,” “Hidden Figures” and “Harriet.” This week, she will appear in her most ambitious role to date, playing the lead character in the new season of the Amazon thriller “Homecoming.” Those episodes, which were released Friday, cast her as a woman who is trying to piece together her own identity and learns it is more layered and complicated than anyone initially suspected. It is a huge opportunity for Monáe as “Homecoming” pivots to a new story line — audiences will have to wait to see how it syncs up with its first season — and reinvents itself in the absence of its original series lead, Julia Roberts. “That’s where I find my freedom,” she said of her unpredictable acting career. If people want to characterize her as a chameleon, Monáe said, she is fine with that. As she explained, “No matter where you put me, I’m going to figure out how to survive in that environment.”