(Laughs) A lot of the time, I come and support the kids. It’s always funny to hear children curse. Does the generational tug-and-pull form the show ever show up on set? A hallmark of this show is how there are great actors of all ages, so no one part of The Chi feels less engaging than the other. There’s also generational tug-and-pull between people from the old and new Chicago. People want to help him out of it, but it’s the reality he lives in. That dark cloud that’s over his head, I wanted that to be so prominent. I wanted to take that and just put that in his everyday life. You can always cut this tension with a knife that’s in the air. But, when you lose somebody and you kind of don’t have closure…He knows who did it, but he doesn’t really have closure. With having input into how your character is shaped, how did you approach playing Brandon this season?
So digging deep and going into who this character can be is a real question.īrandon seems to be tougher and stand his ground more this season.
When she approached me with that, it kind of puts me in a different mind frame. You know exactly where this character is headed. Not that it was far-fetched, but normally in film, you have this beginning middle and end structure. Initially, she came to me and she was like, “Where do you see Brandon going?” To me, it was the wildest question I had been asked as an actor.
Jason Mitchell: It’s interesting because it’s always a group effort to make these things happen. VIBE: What are some things that Lena Waithe spoke with you about, in regards to season two and what’s happening with Brandon?
#Jason mitchell newton kansan editorial series#
Speaking with VIBE before the season two premiere on April 7, Mitchell discusses how Lena Waithe put together the new season, what The Chi can show us about Nipsey Hussle’s murder, and the most emotionally challenging scene of the series so far. That was our fault.’ because was our fault.” “We can have the heart to say, ‘Okay, I’m going to take that L. “I hope with shows like this we’re not only able to create jobs, but we’re also able to create this truth for ourselves, as black people, that we can understand,” Mitchell explains. For Mitchell, he’s not that divorced from the views of his character and hopes The Chi can be more than something to watch on Sundays. That temerity leads the prodigious chef to question the authenticity of everything around him, including the racism against their own that other black characters have internalized. He grows into a man whose resolve is unshakable because any indecision could be the difference between life or death. In the first season, Mitchell’s character, Brandon Johnson, dealt with the death of his brother Coogie Johnson (Jahking Guillory) and how gun violence can ensnare the innocent in the insidious until “right or wrong” are replaced with “survive or die.” In the upcoming second season, Brandon’s optimistic disposition begins to be hardened by the cold reality of the streets. Jason Mitchell has been central to some of the show’s most morally complex commentaries on the world, and the 32-year-old actor has a few of his own. On the new season of Lena Waithe’s critically-acclaimed Showtime drama, you’re as likely to see the elderly beaten to a bloody mess as you are to see a handcuffed black, pre-teen boy in prison garbs escorted to a judge by police. To watch The Chi is to commit yourself to a world that’s rarely forgiving, but always authentic.
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