Kelvin Harrison Jr. Is Acting for Himself

When he was growing up in New Orleans, Kelvin Harrison Jr.'s musician parents encouraged him to take up the family business. After years of studying the trumpet and the piano, he became an actor instead, but he has spent most of the last eighteen months putting his musical training to use, playing both the blues legend B.B. King in Baz Luhrmann's upcoming Elvis Presley biopic and Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, the Guadeloupean composer and violinist who rose to prominence before the French Revolution despite being the son of a slave, in a forthcoming film about his life. Before either of those turns, however, he'll be seen next month in the new musical Cyrano, from Atonement director Joe Wright with music by members of the rock band The National. Opposite Peter Dinklage and Haley Bennett, Harrison plays Christian, the dashing soldier who turns to Cyrano for help crafting love letters when his own talents with language prove inadequate. "I was curious to see if I could turn this character that seemed like a bit of a himbo into somebody that is actually really heartfelt and sincere and special," the 27-year-old actor says. "Oftentimes, I feel like Christian gets discarded because people go, 'Oh he's not that smart,' but maybe Roxanne needed someone that would just love her. Maybe she doesn't need all the writing. Maybe she doesn't realize that yet. We don't always know what we want in relationships or from love or life until it's presented right in front of us."

In this latest retelling of Cyrano, based on Erica Schmidt's 2018 Off Broadway musical, the title character is not encumbered with a preposterously large nose, but instead finds himself burdened by insecurities about his height, despite being both a highly regarded swordsman and poet. Overcome with unrequited love for his longtime friend Roxanne, he agrees to help Christian win her heart with richly imagined letters after the two catch each others' eyes. For Harrison, Dinklage's presence serves to ground the film in reality, converting what can sometimes come across as a simplistic and moralistic fable about not putting too much stock in appearances into a vivid and complicated character study of a love triangle in which all three corners are trapped by their own illusions and expectations. "That's life," he offers philosophically. "It's complicated and it's messy and we often don't know how to communicate to the people we love. We don't really know how to protect those special connections in life. We run away with insecurities and fears and things bypass us. We hope for the best in the end, but we don't really know what's going to happen."

Over half a year into the pandemic, Harrison says one of the reasons he jumped at the opportunity presented by Cyrano, which was filmed in the fall of 2020 in the historic Sicilian city of Noto, was to flex his acting "muscles," which were at risk of atrophying from disuse. "I didn't know how to act anymore, to be honest," he laughs. "I had all this energy and thoughts and creative stuff inside but I didn't know what to do with it." To prepare for the role of the "simple man" Christian, he binged seasons of the reality show Married At First Sight, in which complete strangers agree to get married to see whether they can fall in love with each other.

Harrison, who admits to being "obsessed" with Dinklage, says he was also drawn to Cyrano for the chance to "experiment" with its cast and crew and "learn from that process," and this urge to explore is something he brings to all of his projects. After small early roles in Ender's Game, 12 Years a Slave, and Mudbound, he came to wider attention in the horror film It Comes at Night, which earned him a nomination for Breakthrough Actor at the 2017 Gotham Awards. He starred in three films at the following year's Sundance Film Festival, two of which focused on the strained relationship between Black men and law enforcement, and then led two nuanced and acclaimed family dramas, Luce and Waves, in 2019. "I know it's the entertainment industry, but I'm going to entertain myself," Harrison says about his ongoing quest to push himself in new directions. "That's really what this is about. It ain't about everybody, it's about what Kelvin feels like doing when Kelvin feels like doing it."

To prepare for the roles of historical figures like King and Bologne, as well as Jean-Michel Basquiat for the just-announced biopic Samo Lives, Harrison undertook extensive research about their lives and the circles they moved in, but recognizes that when the cameras roll, he needs to allow his acting instincts to take over. "I'm not going to be playing that person, I'm going to be playing Kelvin's interpretation based on what Kelvin has read about that person," he reasons. "I will do extensive research and I care deeply about all of these people, but there's no way in hell I'm going to be B.B. King or Joseph Bologne or Jean-Michel Basquiat, that's just not the case. Nobody is. So it's my interpretation and I let it go at a certain point." For Chevalier, he practiced the violin for hours a day for several weeks, encouraged along by his father, who used to teach saxophone at the University of New Orleans. "Just getting in a routine and getting into that violin and practicing reading again helped me understand the world and how Joseph saw it and the musicality of it," he adds.

Harrison says that what King and Bologne shared was an astute appreciation for the industry that goes into artistry, something he admits he could use a little more of in his own life as he navigates a new chapter of his career. "What I learned from playing B.B. King that I applied to Chevalier was B.B. was so savvy when it came to business," he explains. "B.B. understood you don't get to do your art unless you understand your business. As B.B. taught me, I need to be better with my business." Still, after his busy reentry and his packed schedule, he recognizes the importance of maintaining a sense of joy as he creates. "I was grateful and I was shocked and I just wanted to do the best I could, which isn't ever the best to do," he recalls about his experience on Cyrano after his longest break in years. "You need to just have fun! That's the thing, having fun. The only regret I have about the whole process is that I didn't allow myself to have enough fun. I took it very seriously."

Cyrano is out February 25. Elvis is out June 24.