ESSENCE’s hot new digital cover features Emmy-nominated actress Zazie Beetz who stars in the upcoming Netflix original film, The Harder They Fall. The film from Jeymes Samuel centers Black men and women in the west not as subservient beings, but as gender-equal, gun-toting cowboys who take, provide, protect, and, most of all, answer to no one.
The stunning actress, who is as known for her loosely structured textured hairstyles and natural makeup as she is for playing “Domino” in Deadpool 2 and “Van” in the FX series Atlanta, looks resplendent in Versace, Giuseppe Zanotti, Alexander Wang, Lagos KSL and more. In the story, A Reluctant Star, she talks to ESSENCE’s Senior Entertainment Editor Brande Victorian about chasing excellence and not fame, choosing acting and being accepted in the entertainment industry so quickly:
- The Rise of Her Profile: “It was an adjustment in terms of what I felt I deserved and what I earned. I questioned whether I had earned my place yet. ‘Was I just lucky?’ That was very tortuous for me for a long time…”
- On Choosing Acting: “After I graduated, I was like, ‘I’ve spent so much time acting. I can’t not try it.’ I think after high school, I was like, ‘I can’t get trapped in this. What are my other things?’ And then I had an opportunity to see those other things–and I chose acting again…”
- On Fame: “The amount of people that are famous nowadays is so much more than 10 or 20 years ago, and there’s a much larger sort of gray space in terms of mid-fame, mid-level and B-list celebrity versus A-list celebrity. Sometimes I wonder, ‘Am I continuing down the path of no return?’ Like, would I want more? Would I not want more? But I’m speaking about it in terms of fame rather than artistry. What is arrival? I don’t really know, but I think there’s a lot more I want to do…”