Glancing around at his surroundings, it isn’t hard to see why LaKeith Stanfield might, as he puts it, ‘feel adrift in history’. We’re sitting on wooden chairs in a cottage on the grounds of a Pasadena hotel that dates back to the Gilded Age. Stanfield has been living here for the past few weeks while he remodels his nearby home to mimic its rustic aesthetic: exposed oak beams, heavy velvet curtains, wrought iron pokers beside the fireplace. ‘I like feeling like I’m in a different time,’ he says. ‘That’s how this hotel makes me feel.’ It is, he says, his hideaway from the modern world. ‘I’m trying to find a hole and stay there,’ he smiles. ‘Especially these days, I’m really enjoying the things that matter, like family. Building my family and having those moments of sacredness is really important.’
Let’s bear with him for a moment, shall we? ‘I don’t know if it’s start-middle-end,’ he muses, his voice low and languid. ‘I view it as a revolution in a circle, a neverending loop.’ The 31-year-old (at least by conventional calendars) found himself pondering this concept on the set of his spooky new Disney movie, Haunted Mansion. ‘If you think about it like that, technically we’re ghosts,’ he continues. ‘The question is: do you want to be a good ghost or a bad ghost? You’re in someone’s dream right now, and you’re either haunting it or making it more pleasurable. My thing is: let’s make people’s dreams a little bit more fun and cooler, make them feel good if we can.’
Over the past decade Stanfield has established himself as the most compelling, charismatic and idiosyncratic actor of his generation. His lethargic charisma is endlessly malleable, allowing him to drift through time to play an Old West outlaw in The Harder They Fall or a 1960s FBI informant in Judas and the Black Messiah (earning an Oscar nomination in the process). He is best known, though, as the otherworldly Darius, who spent four seasons of Atlanta as the trippiest, most heartfelt character on television.
When we meet, though, he’s dressed for his real-life role of family man. He wears a nondescript all-black outfit topped with a burgundy cap embroidered with the word: ‘DAD’. Last year, Stanfield became a father for the second time, and rumours online suggest he recently married his fiancée, model Kasmere Trice. He won’t confirm this. ‘I can’t say!’ he demurs with a grin, but he’s eager to talk about what their relationship means to him. ‘I’m so happy that I’ve found a person that makes me feel a love I’ve never felt, and that I didn’t know was possible,’ he says softly. ‘It just radiates from me, and I feel like I have to share it.’
Not that love is always easy. ‘It takes a lot of work,’ he says. ‘We do couples’ therapy. We do therapy individually. We’re always checking in with each other. We know this journey is a path we’re taking together, but one that takes close attention, maintenance and self-work.’ The couple are building a life with his two daughters, who have different mothers. ‘My kids are my muses,’ he says. ‘They’re just these balls of wonder and ignorance and excitement and knowledge and wisdom and innocence. It’s really interesting to watch them live in a world that’s tempting them to learn, but also to be mischievous. Rascality is always at the tip of their wonderment!’
His eldest, who’s six, has started to take an interest in what her dad does for a living. ‘My kid will see me on a billboard or something, and I always wonder how I would feel if I saw my parents up there,’ he says. His answer is to try to keep their — and his — feet on the ground. He points out the tattoo of an anchor beside his right eye. ‘I hope that I can instil some sense of groundedness in them,’ he says. ‘Just cherishing the important things in life, which isn’t all those lights and those big-ass billboards. The important thing is what’s going on in your spirit. How do you feel today? So many people who you see on those billboards are not really feeling that well.’
Stanfield’s inconspicuous dadcore look today contrasts with his striking ES Magazine shoot. He considers it a ‘beautiful luxury’ to be able to explore different shades of masculinity, and has long since given up worrying what people might think about his more flamboyant fashion choices. ‘I could show up in a suit, I could show up in a cowboy hat, I could show up in fishnet socks, it doesn’t matter — somebody’s gonna have something to say!’ he shrugs. ‘Most of the people who have something to say are nekkid flipping through the channels, or online in their drawers! So what difference does it make? Everybody has an opinion, so you might as well just do whatever feels right.’
I could show up in a suit, I could show up in a cowboy hat, I could show up in fishnet socks, it doesn’t matter — somebody’s gonna have something to say
When Haunted Mansion arrives in a couple of weeks, his kids will be seeing him on a lot more of those big-ass billboards. He knows the film represents new territory for him. ‘I stepped on set and was like: “Damn, they really got some money,”’ he chuckles. ‘It was way different in scale to any other thing I’ve been part of.’ Still, he’s not just there for the elaborate sets or the Disney-sized pay-cheque. In paranormal tour guide Ben, he found a character he could relate to his own spiritual growth. ‘Playing Ben was cathartic for my personal journey of spirituality and soul-reaping,’ he says. ‘We were kinda going through the same journey.’
Hang on, soul-reaping? ‘Going deeper into exploring your inner self to find your soul and then bringing it forth to manifest,’ he elaborates, mystically. ‘Sometimes you’ll feel lost and you don’t know where you’re going in life. Sometimes you’ve got to really sit. For me, I’ll think out loud, which looks like I’m talking to myself.’ He runs through a dialogue, playing both parts: ‘So then this happened’, ‘Why did you respond like that?’, ‘Well, that wasn’t really the right way…’ or ‘Well, that was good, you stood up for yourself…’ The fact that he is starring in a family blockbuster based on a theme park ride didn’t deter him from wanting to throw himself into these contemplative depths. ‘That’s what Ben had to do,’ he says. ‘He had to face these challenges that taught him more about who he really was. He was able to bring out the real, truer, more honest version of himself. I felt like I did the same thing.’
The film assembles an impressive ensemble cast, including Tiffany Haddish, Owen Wilson and Rosario Dawson. Then there’s Danny DeVito, who couldn’t help but send Stanfield tumbling back through time again. ‘I remember watching him on VHS in the 1990s!’ he says. ‘Batman Returns? He was the Penguin guy and I was like: “Yo, this is that guy who looks crazy as shit!”’
Haunted Mansion also reunites him with Jamie Lee Curtis, who has become something of a mentor. They first met on the set of Knives Out, where Stanfield was magnetic but underused as a police lieutenant. One day on set she caught him having a crafty cigarette and chastised him for being careless with his health as a young dad. ‘It was just a few little words but I knew it was coming from a real place,’ he recalls. He quit smoking soon after. Later, she reached out when she heard he was contemplating sobriety. ‘She just really looked me in the eye and took me to task about what I wanted to do, and what I wanted to be,’ he remembers. ‘She was someone that showed care for me, in a way that you don’t always get in this business.’
Stanfield grew up in Victorville, a quiet desert town only 90 minutes outside of LA, but got to Hollywood the hard way. ‘My story is very much rags to riches,’ he says. ‘When I came to LA I was homeless for a few years.’ He spent that time couch-surfing and pan-handling while going on audition after audition. Time and again his hopes were dashed. ‘I don’t know if they still do this, but with TV shows you would sign something that has the amount you’d be making per episode right there at the audition!’ he remembers, wide-eyed. ‘I was seeing these numbers that I’d never seen before, and I was just like: “F***! I could change my life! I could change my mom’s life!” And I’d fail every single time.’ Eventually, in 2014, he walked into an audition and stopped putting so much pressure on himself. ‘It was The Purge: Anarchy where I finally was like: “I don’t care anymore,”’ he recalls. ‘And then: Boom! It happened.’
That role lead to a handful of other small film parts. He was Snoop Dogg in Straight Outta Compton, and the guy who says ‘get out’ in Get Out. His real breakthrough came when Donald Glover spotted him dancing like nobody was watching at an industry party and invited him to be in his show Atlanta. He snatched the chance, even if he wasn’t sure he understood his character. ‘I remember the first day on set not really being comfortable with Darius,’ he says. That soon changed. ‘I think what started to happen was that Darius adopted me-isms, and I adopted Darius-isms. The writers on the show were always hanging out so they would find little things about us. Darius listens to Death Grips because I do. A lot of his lines are things that I just came up with, so it is a version of me filtered through the show.’ Like his attitude to time, for example: in the opening episode of season two, Darius greets someone, ‘I would say nice to meet you but I don’t believe in time as a concept, so… I’ll just say we always met.’
Bringing the show to an end last year was emotional. ‘I actually shed a tear,’ says Stanfield. ‘I didn’t expect to, but after seven years… I forged so many friendships with people like Donald and Brian [Tyree Henry]. He’s really my friend, like how Darius and Alfred are friends. It’s special.’ The rest of the core cast, which also included Zazie Beetz, have all found their way into the Marvel Universe. Would he join them? ‘Yeah, I’ve seen a couple of Marvel scripts,’ he says with a sly grin. ‘I’ve just been… a little selective. Honestly, when they call me with a villain I’ll be more excited! If I’m gonna be in a superhero thing, I’d rather be the bad guy.’
I support anybody who’s standing up for getting whatever it is they need, unionising and saying that we deserve more. That’s something any honest worker should support
The success of Atlanta helped Stanfield graduate to leading man status in films like Sorry to Bother You, Boots Riley’s genius gonzo blend of pro-union activism and, as Stanfield recalls with a laugh, ‘horse people with giant dicks’. Riley’s outspoken political stance has informed Stanfield’s own politics and he supports the ongoing Hollywood writers’ strike (which has now encompassed actors, too). ‘I think it’s necessary that people get what they’re owed, and that’s what the writers are saying,’ he says. ‘I support anybody who’s standing up for getting whatever it is they need, unionising and saying that we deserve more. That’s something any honest worker should support.’
After Haunted Mansion, he’ll next be on screen in Bibleera epic The Book of Clarence. Set in Jerusalem in 29AD, Stanfield plays down-on-his luck Clarence, who attempts to capitalise on the rise of Jesus’ celebrity for his personal gain. ‘It feels profoundly powerful to me, this movie,’ says Stanfield, who grew up in a deeply religious family. ‘As a teenager I was quite rebellious, so I dropped all my belief in any kind of spirituality. I took the atheist route. As I grew, I started to realise that there is some divinity to this whole thing. I think we’re all talking about the same thing. There are some profound universal truths told through this story, and it’s still fun! It’s in 29AD, with all these people in 29AD attire, which is akin to Star Wars. Well, I guess Stars Wars is akin to it.’ LaKeith Stanfield is slipping off through time again.
