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Jonathan Majors on the earthbound and otherworldly horrors of Lovecraft Country

(L-R) Jurnee Smollett, Jonathan Majors and Courtney B. Vance in Lovecraft Country. (Photo: HBO)
(L-R) Jurnee Smollett, Jonathan Majors and Courtney B. Vance in Lovecraft Country. (Photo: HBO)

Halfway through our interview with Jonathan Majors, the star of HBO’s Lovecraft Country, he pauses in the middle of an answer in response to how he prepared for the role. Turns out, there was a Southeast Asian element in his preparation to play the introverted and bookish Atticus Freeman.

“I should tell you that I prepared for Atticus in Bali, in Singapadu,” he explains. He has a theatre company on the Indonesian island, and while formulating the character, he sent his notes to his friends there, who then went to traditional topeng mask makers and had four masks made to represent the character. Majors then made use of taksu, a Balinese concept that refers to the life within the arts that can capture the hearts and soul of the audience.

Majors is at pains to explain that these masks were not traditional topeng masks by any means, but it’s clear that he has put a lot of thought and effort into putting himself into the shoes of Atticus. He said, “I began to put the mask on and let the energies kind of come in and feel me. And then the body remembers those energies. And then when I got to set, I just played them out that way...And then I looked at the Korean War and what that was, and the fact that it was called The Forgotten War in many ways, and what that would do to the psychology of a man or a soldier to have gone through something so traumatic.”

Lovecraft Country is based on a book of the same name by Matt Ruff, and tells the story of Atticus Freeman (Majors) travelling with his friend Letie (Jurnee Smollet) and uncle George (Courtney B. Vance) across 1950s Jim Crow America in search of his father, Montrose (Michael K. Williams). The Lovecraftian aspect of the story comes in early in the first episode, where Atticus dreams about the monsters like Cthulu and Shoggoth, and is a commentary on the horrors of sci-fi and fantasy, as well as more earthly ones.

Below are extracts of our conversation with Majors about the horror drama.

You have a mesmerising body of work, from Da 5 Bloods to The Last Black Man In San Francisco. Is it a conscious decision for you to pursue stories that are out of the ordinary, because Lovecraft Country is certainly not ordinary?

I think I had an acting teacher that said once, “I'm training you for the theatre, not for life”. The same teacher told me there's always a sense of occasion when you do something. And so I think with that, I look at scripts and I try to find what’s special about them, what I can tease out of it that makes it special.

I read that you were not a Lovecraft fan before you started working on Lovecraft Country, and the last movie I saw you in other than Da 5 Bloods was Captive State. Are you a fan of science fiction and horror in general?

I would say [that in terms of] literature, George Orwell is way up there. Ray Bradbury is way up there. I’m a big fan of Stephen King. Captive State is very, very Orwellian, that's kind of the world we're in, you know. And with that Orwellian idea, Lovecraft Country kind of borrows from that a kind of mental psychological horror.

What sort of monsters were you fascinated by when you were growing up?

Do you guys remember Animorphs? You know, you could [makes a sound meant to imitate someone’s body undergoing a change] and they would turn into – it was like a teenager, like a ninth grader in high school, and then they turn into like an ostrich or something like that. I love Animorphs in a weird way, they didn’t really scare me, I was more intrigued by them. But Chucky scared me, frightened the hell out of me. And then Tales From The Crypt. I used to watch that and just freak out.

Lovecraft Country is coming right on the heels of Watchmen, which has very similar themes and is another look at what the life of African-Americans would be like in an alternate reality. What sets Lovecraft Country apart from a series like Watchmen?

It’s not an alternate universe in our case. And with all due respect, the producers and writer and the showrunner of our show are of African-American descent, speaking to Mr. Green and Jordan Peele. And the source material is different. In some cases, the shows share a lot of things in common. I would say the shows are cousins, we’re related. But what sets us apart is that we are literally referencing something that actually happened.

Jonathan Majors in Lovecraft Country. (Photo: HBO)
Jonathan Majors in Lovecraft Country. (Photo: HBO)

There aren't a lot of African-American protagonists in sci-fi in general. What does it mean for you personally to play a character like Atticus?

What I think of when you say that is Alien. The black guys always die, you know, they’re more of a martyr than a hero in many ways, you know? So I think it's extremely important to bring black bodies and African-American men to the genre of sci-fi, not to have them die, and to see them strive and win and succeed.

One of the things about sci-fi is that it’s not necessarily the muscle that wins, right? It's usually a matter of thinking, how smart can you be? You have to have a scientific brain in a way, in order to survive a sci-fi horror film. Muscles just won't do it. And so to give and to expand that scope, you know, to African-Americans is huge, and I hope we did it all right that they see and understand in this moment that, yes, we can do sci-fi, we can do horror, we can do other things besides rapping and play basketball.

The most famous Atticus most people might know is Atticus Finch from To Kill A Mockingbird, and he was someone who definitely fought for justice. Were there any parallels that you saw between your character and Atticus Finch, and did it inform the way you portrayed the character?

Well, one of the first things I do when I get a role, I look at the etymology of the name. Sometimes you get like, oh, it's Roman or it's this or that. And then the second phase of that is pop culture references. If someone says your name is Michael, what do you think? OK, you think The Godfather and you think Michael Jordan. Those are two incredible Michaels. With Atticus, it's no surprise everyone thinks of Atticus Finch from Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird.

We both wear glasses. We're both men of our brains, so I went with that. And the thing that I found to be the most poetic about the correlation between the two of us is that we were both embattled. We're both at war, and we both have such a strong inner core. In this case, we have the same initials too. They have a singular quietness about them and nobility about the way they want to live their life. In a way, they feel how society should be run and they both are on a mission to accomplish that. I saw that parallel and allowed that to hopefully come out in the work.

It feels like being black in America means you need to always be aware of your escape routes. I was wondering if you could talk about that and of the timeliness of Lovecraft Country coming out right now with everything that’s going on there.

The head on a swivel is something very integral to the survival of our race. You have to look out for police, for citizens who don't necessarily want you around. And that's been going on since 1619, right, since the White Lion, which was the name of the first slave ship that came to the coast of America with enslaved Africans. Since the first African slave put his foot on her foot on this continent, that idea of having a head on a swivel is key.

So it is extremely relevant now. I think it was extremely relevant when we were making it. But the beauty of it coming out now is that people are already looking in that direction. People are already questioning and wanting information and wanting to educate themselves on that. And to do so, and not just a literal way, but in a spiritual and emotional way. And that's what we give them in Lovecraft. I also want to be clear that we're also here to entertain, but that said, it's good to have some honey with your lemon.

What was the most interesting part that you wanted to display in this drama?

People will see what they want to see, you know, but I think people will hopefully see the thing that drew me to the piece, which was the fact that this was a story about a family. This was a story about a young man, his father, his aunt, his little cousin and a woman whom he falls in love with, and the adventures that they go on to claim that legacy. For me it was a family drama. And the beautiful thing about this family is that in this case, our protagonists are African-Americans, and that's something we don't really get to see all the time. In my opinion, we haven't been portrayed enough in cinema and entertainment, or in literature to give a full picture of what a black life really is.

And so, when you see the show, you see many distinct characters. All sharing the DNA of being African-Americans, you have all these different black lives. And if you can connect to Letie, if you can connect to Uncle George, you can connect to Montrose. I hope you connect to Atticus. Those are four separate black lives that you can then say, oh, I have an idea what a black life is. It’s not just a mantra and it's not just something to say, it's something to believe in, there’s something to feel.

What are your personal highlights of the series so far? Do you have a favourite story arc?

Episode six is my favorite. It is one of the most enjoyable experiences I've had as an artist. In that episode we talk about Atticus and “Tic”, and to me that's two fellas. In building [the character] I put Tic way at the bottom, and sourced from him, but you never see him. In that episode you get to see Tic for the first time. So I loved that entire episode. And then I would say [Atticus’s] relationship to Montrose, played by Michael K. Williams. It’s very close to my heart as a man and we just activate each other in the most beautiful way, I think.

Jonathan Majors (left) and Courtney B. Vance in Lovecraft Country. (Photo: HBO)
Jonathan Majors (left) and Courtney B. Vance in Lovecraft Country. (Photo: HBO)

One of my favourite episodes so far is the episode where you go on a treasure hunt, which is very much inspired by Indiana Jones, and we've never seen an African-American play Indiana Jones. What are your memories during that episode with all the setups, all the special effects? How do you act with special effects since this is new to you?

Yeah, the special effects were absolutely new [to me]. You just had to let your imagination go. I have a seven-year-old child and I watch her move and I use that. I took all my drama school [training] and my kid’s imagination with the frame and voice of a grown man.

I was also very nervous about swimming [in that episode] and had to prepare a great deal to swim. Because I didn't grow up swimming. I knew how to do it, but Jurnee Smollett and Michael K Williams called themselves the Dolphin and the Mermaid, and here I am musclebound thinking there is no way I’d be able to keep up with these lively skinny people. For a moment, I was going to wear a hat. We were going to go all the way in and do the hat. And we're like, that's probably too much. It's too on the nose. But it felt great to have an example of an African-American man or an African-American in general stepping into that role and fulfil it and expand the genre. And we did all the stunts. I mean, I did everything, all those stunts. So that was a childhood dream come true.

This show was executive produced by Jordan Peele and J.J. Abrams. Did you get to meet them? What was it like working with them?

The truth of the matter is that we did not meet. I didn't see them. That said, I've watched Us, I’ve seen Get Out, I’ve probably seen more of Antebellum than I should’ve. I’ve seen Lost, I’ve watched what J.J. has done with all the Cloverfield movies. I’ve watched a lot of their work, and so when I stepped into Lovecraft, I could see and feel elements that each one of them were putting forth.

The psychological race horror that Jordan Peele can articulate on screen is masterful. The scene when we all get pulled over by the police officers, that could be ripped right out of Get Out. The opening sequence, or what I would call the overture of things and aliens and monsters, is J.J. Abrams just unloading what we have in special effects. Every time you see Cthulu or Shoggoth, those images are very much a collaboration of those creators.

In Lovecraft Country you’re with your fellow Yale alumnus, Courtney B. Vance. How fun was the shooting process with him?

Courtney did a play called Fences, written by August Wilson, while he was at Yale, and he originated the role. The play is incredible. I would say it’s at the top of the American canon. And my very first professional role as an actor was that same role, so I read his stage directions and watched his performances. I also played that role four times, so we have that deep connection and we have the same dialogue.

In the scene in Lovecraft Country where we’re being pulled over, between some takes Courtney and I would be boxing with each other off to the side. He plays my godfather, but the connection was so real between he and I. The thing about acting is if you do your work well, you don't have to act it, you just let [the other actors] in, and I let Courtney in and he let me in. And so when we get to that moment, it was very organic. That's how close we were, and are.

There is this fantastic moment in the first episode when you're off the bus and you're talking to the old lady about loving A Princess Of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs. And it's an incredibly nuanced conversation that brings up this conflict that we all have about creators and their art. Sometimes artists are less than savoury, but their art is so beautiful, and your character said, “Well, I just like the stories.” How do you reconcile loving something from a flawed source?

I view the actor, the artist, the musician, as the vase. They’re the vessel, but art is natural. Art is like the flowers, and there's a separation between what is in the vase. And H.P. Lovecraft’s entire bibliography, that’s coming out of that vase. And the vase is cracked and torn and not that good to look at. However, the flowers that come out of it are beautiful. There is a separation. To me, the art comes from the muses, and [the artist] can be a son of a b****.

Why do you think audiences are so captivated by the idea of family history and its secrets?

I think all of us are inherently seekers. We were all hunter-gatherers at one point as a species. We’re always seeking something that's going to give us security. And I think nothing gives you more security than knowing where you come from. The other thing that can give you more security than that is knowing where you're going. It’s the reason we have books and maps. And I think it's personal, you know, when you're talking about your own lineage. It allows for security, and a legacy allows you to really conceptualise it and contextualise it in a way that lets you know who you are.

Since Lovecraft Country deals with horrors both worldly and otherworldly, what do you think American and international viewers should take away from the series as a whole?

Two of the things that kind of run head-to-head in our show is the idea of legacy, and the idea of – I hate to say it because it doesn’t even match up to the word “legacy” – but bigotry, racism. The thing about these two words is that one is extremely earthbound. Racism is earthbound, is something that we only do here on Earth to each other, unfortunately. Legacy transcends the present time, it’s otherworldly. It pushes forward to our future, to all our children's children, and on all our ancestors who are behind this. I think that's a beautiful thing. And I think what I would like the audiences to take from this experience is the transcendence of the bulls***, of the day-to-day racism and prejudice that we experience.

[As for international audiences], you know, we all connect to the genres. You know, that's something we all dig up. You guys are in Asia, I'm here in the desert in America, and we're all talking about this show. The dope part is we all come from families, you know, and those families are rough. Sometimes things are easy, but we all come from families. And for me, that's the core of the story. You have a core group of people who you move through the world with, and the way I view my father and the way you all view your fathers and mothers, it's universal. You know, the struggle to move a family forward is universal and at the core of Lovecraft, that’s what we’re talking about. And so, I think every race, creed, country can grab on to that. And I hope they do.


Lovecraft Country premiered on 17 August and new episodes debut same time as the US on Mondays at 9am on HBO, with an encore broadcast at 10pm on the same day.