When an actor talks about “doing homework” for a role, we usually assume that means delving into a character’s backstory, maybe researching a script’s historical references. But when Kelvin Harrison Jr. discusses all the ways he prepared to play the complex riddle of a title character in the provocative new film “Luce,” it becomes clear that he’s actually talking about, well, homework.
A high school term paper figures prominently in the film’s central plot, which was adapted from the hot-button 2013 off-Broadway JC Lee play by the same name. Luce Edgar — played by Harrison, 25, following his breakout role in “It Comes at Night” — is a former Eritrean child soldier who was adopted at 10 by a well-meaning, liberal white couple in Arlington, Va. (played by Naomi Watts and Tim Roth). Now 17, Luce is a poster boy for the American dream of transformation: a popular star athlete, award-winning debater and all-around overachiever. Everyone assumes Luce is on his way to great things after graduation.
但他的恒星的名誉遭受质疑when Luce’s history teacher, Harriet Wilson (Octavia Spencer), grows disturbed by a paper Luce turns in on Frantz Fanon, the radical political philosopher who espoused “violence as a cleansing force” to counter the oppression of colonization. Harriet’s suspicions lead her to search Luce’s locker, where she finds a stash of illegal fireworks.
So, was Luce simply writing in Fanon’s voice as an academic exercise? Or, is it possible that under his inscrutably calm exterior, Luce harbors pent-up rage toward the mostly white community he now calls home? This is the character-building homework Harrison was hit with.
“There were so many things that helped me understand and get into the psyche of a guy as complicated as Luce,” Harrison said by phone from Los Angeles. “I watched documentaries on child soldiers to understand the specificity of the trauma, and did a ton of reading, including Fanon’s ‘Wretched of the Earth’ and ‘Black Skin, White Masks’ to understand what Luce’s relationships are with his white parents, and with his black teacher.”
But Harrison also wrote the actual 20-page term paper Luce had assigned to him.
“Not only did Kelvin write the paper, he then turned it in to Octavia,” said director Julius Onah (“The Cloverfield Paradox”), who co-wrote the script with playwright Lee. “Octavia read it. She graded it. And that was the actual paper we used as a prop in the film. It’s not often you can tell the props people, ‘We’ve got this. Our actors have it handled.’ ”
Onah said that’s just one example of how Harrison impressed him with his dedication to embodying such an enigmatic, challenging lead part in “Luce,” the rare character drama that plays out with the taut pacing of a thriller.
“I come from a theater background, so as I did auditions I thought that because of the script’s (dense) language I’d maybe find a great, young, theater-trained black actor from the U.K., someone like a young David Oyelowo,” Onah said. “Then I had breakfast with Kelvin (who is from New Orleans), and he was actually quite shy, asked a lot of questions about the script and I wasn’t honestly sure if he got it. But then his audition tape came in and it blew us away. I realized he absolutely embodied Luce. He led with an image of himself as one thing and yet used all the information he’d gathered from our meeting to get the complexities absolutely right.”
Onah said he was drawn to the story because of the way it grapples with race and identity, specifically the question of who is granted the freedom in society today to really be themselves in others’ eyes, “with all the complexity of being a human being living within a spectrum of shades of gray,” said Onah, and not just to conform to others’ narrow expectations.
The director encouraged Harrison to watch President Barack Obama’s speeches and to think about “the use of symbols and firsts in our society.”
“Whether it’s the first black person or first woman to do something, it can be incredibly inspirational, but symbols in and of themselves don’t create systemic change,” Onah said. “As much as Luce wants to believe he can be anyone he wants to be, he better be prepared for a world that isn’t ready for that and might not accept it.”
Or as Luce’s friend DeShaun (played by rapper-actor Astro) says in the film, “You can only have one Obama, right?”
“That incredible charm Obama has, his ability to be nonthreatening at all times, to approach people so they feel safe, that all ties into the baggage of race in this country and the heavy expectations Luce feels,” Harrison said. “He knows he has to do a little more, be a little more perfect, just to get by, to be accepted.”
Harrison mined the culture shock he felt when he started attending a private high school, a feeling he “just amplified to understand Luce. There were like five other students of color in the grade. You adjust, but you’re always aware of people’s expectations.”
Harrison met at least one person’s expectations. He’s reunited with co-star Watts for another movie, “The Wolf Hour,” opening later this year. Watts floated the idea of working together again while on the set of “Luce.”
“I was like, ‘Naomi Watts is asking me if I want to be in a movie with her?’ ” Harrison said. “On the outside I’m playing it cool. But inside? I was — ‘Yes!’ ”
“Luce”:Thriller. Opens Friday, Aug. 9, at Bay Area theaters. (R. 109 minutes.)