Eyes On: Dominique Thorne
The actor, who will soon star as Marvel’s Ironheart, on how combat boots landed her a breakout role.
AGE: 23
HAILS FROM: East Flatbush, Brooklyn
RÉSUMÉ:
Thorne, a “New York City girl at heart,” pursued acting seriously throughout high school only to pivot when she went to Cornell, wanting to explore other interests. The daughter of immigrants from Trinidad and Tobago, her passion for immigration legislation led her to the Policy Analysis and Management major initially before her innate desire to understand people made her change to Human Development with a minor
in Inequality Studies. “I concentrated on social and personality development, so understanding how we
become the people that we are in our uniqueness,” Thorne says. “To understand
how that uniqueness and that human experience relates to my lane of being a
‘Black’ and ‘woman’ person.”
Upon graduating, Thorne hit the ground running with a role in the new awards-bait film “Judas and the Black Messiah,” in which she acts as one of two women (with Dominique Fishback)
along Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield. She plays a fictional character, Judy Harmon, a
member of Fred Hampton’s security team.
WHY WE CARE:
Despite shying away from acting for a bit while in college, Thorne is a clear natural performer. Unlike many young actors who will cite seasoned, lauded films as early inspiration, she quickly lists “Hannah Montana” and “Degrassi” as her favorites when growing
up. It was as a teenager, though, that she learned the power acting has in self expression.
“It was the entire range of expression: my voice, my body, everything matters. There was something so empowering about that,
especially at that age,” she says. “I didn’t understand that I could speak for myself or articulate my inner life in this way until I got to step into these shoes and I realized, ‘Woah, I have so much to say, and these characters
are allowing me to do that.’”
“‘Judas’ is the reason why I wanted to be an actor,” she says — a film with a message. For her audition, she had it in her mind that Harmon, her character, needed to be in combat boots, but she didn’t have any.
“On my way to the actual audition I ran into a Target and I had just enough money for my return ticket back home but I bought a pair of boots, I put them on, neatly untied the tag, went to my audition and then neatly re-tied the tag and took them back after,” she says. “And then I got a call back. So I went back to Target
and I did the same thing.”
The best thing about being part of “Judas” for her has been the reception from other Black young people who have been inspired by the film’s retelling of Fred Hampton and
the Black Panther Party.
“I think a lot of us in the cast agree that we hope folks will be reenergized and revitalized by this story. It’s such a strange time in life and it’s so easy to get bogged down and distracted and feel like your whole life has been upended, and in addition to that you’re also living this life as a person whose humanity is not fully respected,”
Thorne says.
Up next, she will portray Ironheart in Marvel’s new series, which starts shooting in
the coming months.