JOVAN ADEPO

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Sometimes we are pulled so strongly in a certain direction that it becomes almost impossible to resist the sheer force of it, whether it’s itchy feet insisting we pack a bag in search of the unknown, or a level of restlessness felt during times of unproductivity. For Jovan Adepo, this unremitting pull came in the form of acting, a vocation he had not at all considered until a move to Los Angeles made the possibilities increasingly impossible to ignore. “I moved initially to pursue writing,” he explains. “I had friends who had told me I had a knack for acting, but I never had a passion for it.”

The British-born, Los Angeles-based actor is what you would call a natural. Armed with the support of his L.A.-based aunt and uncle but with no formal training to speak of, Adepo started going through the motions—taking headshots, submitting himself for roles and signing up for acting workshops. Still, the focus remained firmly on his first love, with his acting efforts presenting little more than a vehicle through which to earn the money to write. “The more I went to workshops, the more I was hearing from the teachers that I should pursue it,” recalls Adepo. Finally, the idea stuck and Adepo began pursuing the craft with a new level of assiduity.

Now, with his first feature, an adaptation of August Wilson’s Tony- and Pulitzer-winning drama Fences, out and several highly applauded roles to his name—including his run as Michael Murphy in HBO’s drama The Leftovers, and supporting roles in several independent shorts including “The Youth” and “Bruise”—this decision could not seem more right. The fact alone that in his very first feature, Adepo holds court with some of the biggest names in stage and screen (Denzel Washington and Viola Davis as his parents among them) should be proof enough of his undeniable dexterity for the craft. “It was like a master class,” recalls Adepo of his time on Fences. “You get to go in and spend hours upon hours on set with two of the greats and the rest of the cast, who are all incredibly talented and wise and experienced. I was really fortunate to get the opportunity that I did.”

Not only did Adepo share screen time with some of the greats, he also joined a cast that for the most part had already walked miles in the shoes of their respective characters for the 2010 Broadway production, a factor Adepo did not take lightly. “It was a blessing to be able to be a part of that, understanding that they brought back the entire Broadway revival cast but that I had an opportunity to squeeze in and contribute when they needed me,” he says.

To see the film of Wilson’s iconic play, in which Adepo plays Cory, is to see something specific and universal: a snapshot of a moment in time that is at once achingly familiar and impossibly all-encompassing. “This story is very much about a black family in a specific city, in a specific neighborhood, in specific circumstances,” says Adepo. “But everybody who sees this film, no matter what part of the world they’re in, can relate to it.”

For him, Wilson’s poignant portrait of the limitations and complications of American ideals of life, liberty, and gratification through a mid-twentieth-century African-American perspective resonated long before the chance to audition came about. “I believe I was in my sophomore year at college when I read the story for the first time. Just the language the characters were speaking I understood because I had uncles who sounded like [Washington’s character] Troy, and I had grandparents and cousins who sounded like [Viola Davis’s character] Rose. It’s about culture, family, and relationships,” Adepo concludes.

As Cory Maxson, Adepo plays an aspiring teenager in his final year of high school whose chance at playing high-grade college football is sharply contested by his overbearing father. Of his character, Adepo acknowledges a particularly strong connection, naming Cory as the most significant role he has thus far had the opportunity to explore. “Cory is a character that I could understand. I could understand what he was going through at that stage of his life and I was able to relate to that because of my life experience and being a former high-school athlete and also scholar,” he says.

It is early afternoon and mere hours from the film’s New York premiere when we speak in December and, above all, Adepo’s thoughts fall upon the play’s author. “I think it’s a good time for August Wilson more than anything,” he says. “August has a really distinct voice and style of writing and a lot of people aren’t aware of that and that’s important because he’s one of America’s greatest playwrights. I stress that people understand who he is and the type of content that he has put out for us over the years.” And of working with Washington: “Denzel was an incredible director, he was very mission oriented and this wasn’t a project about highlighting any of his talents or anything like that. What he wanted to do more than anything was to expose a wide audience to the poetry and to the words of August Wilson,” Adepo says.

It goes without saying that in his relatively short run on screen, Adepo has landed the types of roles most newcomers could only dream of. “I think I’ve been spoiled with my last two jobs, if I’m being honest, with the type of rich material that I’ve been exposed to,” he says, adding that his experiences on set for Fences and The Leftovers have left him more discerning than ever. “It’s made me look at scripts and stories much more carefully and tactfully, so I’m really waiting and searching for something that’s going to speak to me and excite me. It’s the old theater saying: if it’s not on the page, it’s not on the stage,” he says. It also doesn’t hurt that on screen, a moment involving Adepo arrives with no less than effortless authenticity and a level of raw intuition, which serves to emphasize the conviction that the emerging talent has landed exactly where he needs to be.

As of right now, a project with filmmaker Darren Aronofsky has a firm hold on the rising star’s attention. Known for his directorial success with films including Requiem for a Dream, Pi, and Black Swan, Aronofsky’s next film casts Adepo alongside industry heavyweights Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem and is set for release later this year. And beyond that? “I’m doing what artists do,” Adepo says. “We look for more stories.”

Fences is out now.