Rising star

• Date: 06 July 2021
• Published date: 06 July 2021
• Publication title: Signal

KELVIN Harrison jun is the very definition of a rising star.

Since his big-screen debut in best picture Oscar-winner 12 Years a Slave in 2013, Harrison (26) has become a fixture of Sundance dramas (Mudbound, Luce), A24 films (It Comes at Night, Waves) and awards contenders (The Trial of the Chicago 7, in which he plays Black Panther chairman Fred Hampton).

His latest project is Netflix’s Monster, adapted from Walter Dean Myers’ 1999 young-adult novel. The legal drama follows a 17-year-old black teen, Steve Harmon (Harrison), an honours student who is accused of being the lookout for a deadly robbery. Jeffrey Wright and Jennifer Hudson co-star as his well-to-do parents, while Tim Blake Nelson plays a teacher who maintains Steve’s innocence after the boy is arrested and put on trial.

A handful of recent films have dealt with systemic racism and police brutality. What’s unique about this movie’s perspective?

What I like about the book and movie is that we get to see a young black kid from an affluent black family doing well for themselves...