Come Feb. 1, Aaron Pierre joins the ranks of storied British thespians — Daniel Day-Lewis, Cynthia Erivo, David Oyelowo — to play icons of U.S. history. This trend has rankled some American performers in the past. But, as the 29-year-old sees it, he’s just as qualified as any Black actor to tackle Malcolm X.
“My perspective has always been that we are one diaspora,” says Pierre, who stars as Malcolm X in National Geographic’s Genius: MLK/X. “I have always been somebody who’s felt a deep emotional response to any hardships experienced by someone who has the same skin as me. And Malcolm’s legacy, his tremendous ability to empower and his skill as an orator, that found its way to where I grew up.”
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Where Pierre grew up and first dabbled in theater as a teenager was South London. And despite an increasingly stacked résumé (M. Night Shyamalan’s Old, the recent Prime Video feature Foe) that’s taken him across the globe, it’s where the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art grad remains based. Maintaining ties to the U.K. proved helpful during the actors strike, when he kept busy by narrating the BBC nature documentary Big Little Journeys.
Previous iterations of the Genius franchise dramatized the lives of Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso and Aretha Franklin. As the title of the latest installment suggests, this one is a two-hander — Pierre portrays Malcolm X, while Kelvin Harrison Jr. plays Martin Luther King Jr. — which separately examines the two men’s personal histories and conflicting approaches that led up to their one and only meeting in 1964. Initially overwhelmed by the abundance of research material at his disposal — not to mention a certain Spike Lee Joint starring Denzel Washington — Pierre opted to avoid previous screen depictions, instead reading Malcolm X’s autobiography and watching a documentary helmed by his widow, the late Dr. Betty Shabazz.
The actor booked the role after catching the eye of executive producers Gina Prince-Bythewood and Reggie Rock Bythewood, and it’s not the first time in his relatively fresh career that he’s impressed major Hollywood players. He booked an unknown leading role in Mahershala Ali’s Blade update with Marvel before the project was thrown into limbo. And Barry Jenkins — who cast him in Underground Railroad after seeing him in a Globe Theatre production of Othello — is reteaming with him on his next project: the lead voice in the Disney prequel Mufasa: The Lion King, out Dec. 20.
It’s a surreal moment for Pierre, who was born the year the first Lion King came out and counts original Mufasa voice actor James Earl Jones as an inspiration, frequently watching old clips of his Tony-winning portrayal of Troy Maxson in August Wilson’s Fences. “I’ve never spoken with him,” Pierre says of the 93-year-old actor. “So if you can arrange that, I would be deeply grateful.”
This story first appeared in the Jan. 26 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
