![]() For people to receive a film that shows so many different layers to people - not just black people - and really receiving that with open heart and open eyes, that shows me where we are as a world." "You'd think the black community would really shun something like this because it is perceived as taboo to be effeminate and black because we have to be the physical, most imposing guy in the movie. ![]() "The response we got from the trailer alone, I feel as if I really underestimated America in regards to how people would receive the project," says Rhodes. The three breakout stars of "Moonlight" may have filmed separately, but they're together experiencing the film's rapturous response and the spotlight of an international publicity tour. It's OK now because I'm here in New York and I'm going to see him today." "I had to move, so my dad wasn't there in my life a lot," says Hibbert. "I felt like I was becoming an artist because I wasn't putting on a coat, I was inhabiting another skin." "This is the movie where I fell in love with acting," says Rhodes. So this film, in the scenes with Naomie Harris, allowed me to deal with that. I do this thing often where I bury things in the back of my mind until I have to be confronted with them. "She's been on and off drugs for my entire life. "At the time when I got this part, my mother had just relapsed on drugs," says Sanders. Jenkins didn't allow them to share notes, so each came to embody Chiron in his own way. "When I saw the movie, I was all like: 'I don't talk.' My mom was all like: 'Don't you get it? You talk with your face.' " "There's a lot of scenes where I'm watching, just reacting," says Hibbert. They're a talkative bunch, in contrast with their quietly powerful performances in "Moonlight," each of which bubbles with inner turbulence. Hibbert, who speaks with a confidence and maturity beyond his years, utters a wise pronouncement and Rhodes exclaims, "This guy!" Rhodes, a New Orleans native transplanted to Texas, is the most established of the trio, with a number of credits including Terrence Malick's upcoming "Weightless" and the HBO series "Westworld."Īs if making up for lost time, they're exceptionally supportive of one another, playfully cheering each other on during a photo session and complimenting each other's answers. Hibbert, encouraged to go out for it by his drama teacher, came out of local auditions in Miami. Sanders, an aspiring actor in Los Angeles who had a small role in "Straight Outta Compton," was the first to be cast. "I heard about them and I was like, 'Oh my gosh, bro, they're dope!' " says Hibbert.Įach was plucked from auditions. But they didn't all get together until the film played at the Toronto International Film Festival. Rhodes and Sanders met briefly as Sanders was finishing his shoot and Rhodes was starting his. He's putting up this façade, but can't hide the eyeballs." "I don't," says Hibbert, while munching on gummy bears. "I get it," says Sanders, a college student. ![]() They see bits of themselves in each other, even if they don't all agree with Jenkins about their eyes. Even though they didn't film one scene together, sharing Chiron has made them something like brothers. Tenuous though their connection may be, Rhodes, Sanders and Hibbert could hardly feel more related. ![]() They are excited - man, are they excited - about collectively sharing a singular character and splitting "Moonlight" (one of the year's most acclaimed films even before it opens) in thirds. Rhodes, Sanders and Hibbert gathered together for one of the first times recently in Manhattan. "But there was this spiritual, cosmic connection through the eyes." Same character, different people," says Jenkins. ![]() "I really wanted them to be different people. The only link between the three actors, Jenkins says, was their eyes. Tenderly lyrical, exhilaratingly intimate, "Moonlight" and its trio of Chirons capture the tidal swells and recesses of an identity in the midst of discovery, one warped by pain and lifted by fleeting moments of transcendence. Yet they somehow add up to one of the fullest coming-of-age portraits in years. ![]()
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