I'm A Virgo Actor Jharrel Jerome: There Could Be A Faster Push For Asian, Black And Indian Stories In Hollywood | Exclusive

Emmy Award winner Jharrel Jerome has been receiving rave reviews for his newly released show ‘I’m A Virgo’ on Amazon Prime Video. The actor, who is known for his roles in Oscar-winning movie ‘Moonlight’ and Ava DuVernay’s ‘When They See Us,’ plays a 13-foot-tall black man named Cootie in the Boots Riley’s series.

Jharrel exclusively spoke to News18 Showsha about how he finds his character very relatable and why he has been “strategic" with the choices he has made in his seven-year long career.

“I think a lot of the characters I try to play I try to find what relates in this usually a lot. But like you said, Cootie wakes up every day, and he’s 13 feet tall. So for him, that’s just part of who he is. So, to me, it was about finding the nuance of his naivete. He’s very naive and young minded. And even though he is intelligent, well read, and has an understanding of certain things, he still has a lot to learn. And I feel like I’ve done so much in my life. And I’ve accomplished some great things, but I have so much left to learn and do and I find myself walking into a new space and being bright eyed and wondering what what things are and what it’s about. So, I think that’s where Cootie and I really related to each other," Jharrel told us.

Jharrel is also an executive producer on ‘I’m A Virgo’. When asked if there’s been a conscious effort from his end to be associated with projects that become a catalyst for important conversations, the actor said, “I’ve been very strategic and meticulous with the choices I’ve made in my career. Projects like ‘Moonlight’ and ‘When They See Us’ they don’t come across often, those are very special projects that happen every once in a while so it’s not like every project I’ll be able to get to do something so culturally large but if I can try my best to to enter projects that at least have an important conversation and a fresh approach on a certain conversation then I’m all for it."

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Jharrel further talked about whether Hollywood has been making enough efforts to improve diversity when it comes to representation. “I think there’s always a set of creatives in Hollywood that are adamant about pushing that needle and very good at pushing that needle. I’ve gotten to work with a ton of them like even Ava DuVernay, Barry Jenkins and I think especially in recent time, we’re seeing a lot more black stories Indian stories, Asian stories, female-driven stories and I think that there’s such an importance with them. But at the same time, I always think that there could be a faster push and I think there will be more change. We just always have a lot left to go and so we just got to keep going," he concluded.