Interview:
Travente Rhodes,
"Moonlight"
Before Trevante Rhodes earned critical acclaim for his performance in director Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight, he was at a star sprinter at the University of Texas with no aspirations to act. The athlete was approached on campus by a casting director who thought he would be perfect for a film role. Rhodes did not get the part but he was later cast in an uncredited role in Nacho Vigalondo’s Open Windows and spent two days acting in Terrence Malick’s upcoming Weightless. He then landed a role in the Tyler Perry OWN sitcom If Loving You Is Wrong. In the Miami-set Moonlight, Rhodes is one of three actors to play Chiron. Moonlight follows Chiron from childhood to adolescence to adulthood. As a child, Chiron finds a surrogate father in a local drug dealer (Mahershala Ali), whose customers include Chiron’s abusive mother (Naomie Harris). As a teenager, Chiron must contend with the high school bullies and struggles with his sexuality. As an adult, nicknamed “Black” and now played by Rhodes, an emotionally closed-off Chiron reaches out to the only friend who treated with him with dignity. Moonlight opened Nov. 4 in Austin. Rhodes also recently appeared in the pilot of HBO’s Westworld.
Aired: Nov. 3, 2016 Web site: http://www.moonlight-movie.com |
|