The Big Picture

Jharrel Jerome discusses his trust in Steven Soderbergh, saying he would say yes to any of his projects. Jerome describes Soderbergh’s unique directing style, where he shoots the film himself and balances directing the actors and working with the crew simultaneously. Jerome shares his experience working with co-star CCH Pounder, calling her a powerful spirit and admitting to feeling intimidated by her presence on set.

[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Full Circle.]From director Steven Soderbergh and writer Ed Solomon, the six-episode Max series Full Circle follows an investigation into a botched kidnapping, the individuals connected to it, and the secrets that have long been hidden. As the puzzle pieces come together, revelations make the three seemingly unrelated storylines take shape as a more intertwined crime drama that runs as deep as the ties that bind family.

During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, Jharrel Jerome (who plays Aked, the nephew of Mrs. Mahabir who becomes more emotionally unstable the harder he tries to impress her) talked about how he would say yes to any Soderbergh project, the environment that Soderbergh creates by being right on set while holding the camera himself, how shaping Aked compared to shaping Cootie for I’m a Virgo, working with the powerful spirit that is CCH Pounder (who plays Mrs. Mahabir), and how he feels about his character’s fate.

This interview was conducted prior to the start of the SAG-AFTRA strike.

Collider: This is one of those projects where, as the audience, we start not knowing what’s going on or how any of the pieces, which really are these characters, fit with each other. How much did you know? Were you able to read all the scripts, or do you just have to trust Steven Soderbergh and Ed Solomon?

JHARREL JEROME: It definitely was trust, 100%. Once Steven calls you, you pick up and you say yes to every Magic Mike. The script is very dense. It was heavy. It was about 300 pages long. It was very complex and complicated. I got to read through it, but after reading through it, it wasn’t all the way in my head, with the magic behind the script and the complexities of it all. Once I realized that it was so intricate, I decided to step back and not overwhelm myself with any other storylines because Aked is in his own world the whole time and he doesn’t know what’s going on. He doesn’t even know the opinions of his own family towards him. So, for me, I decided to shut that world off and focus on his. I spoke with Steven a lot, personally, about the arc, and that helped me.

Image via Max

Is it really a situation where, when Steven Soderbergh calls you, you do whatever it is, even if it is Magic Mike? Is that really the deal? And do you have a list of filmmakers that you would do that with?

JEROME: Yeah, I think so. There’s a certain level of respect earned, to trust anything that could be done. When it comes to Steven Soderbergh, it’s about what you bring to the table and the rest will be done correctly. As a director, he’s a mastermind and he could put together anything, in any genre. If you’re the artist who’s painting with him, it’s just about fully bringing what you’ve got to the table. So, if Steven were to call me tomorrow about some crazy nuts thing and I had no idea what it was about or what it even was, I would still wanna do it with him because I think that he understands film and he knows how to make a project. He’s been able to hit some of his projects a bit harder than others, but a lot of that comes with things around him, not the writing, the production, the acting, or the editing. As far as, personally, how I feel about him as a human and as an artist, I’m always on board with what he has to do.

How long is that list of filmmakers that you would do anything with, and how is that balancing out with the list of those filmmakers you’ve actually worked with now?

JEROME: They’re starting to balance more and more, as I get older. I hope it continues to blend that way. I’d say that I have a solid list. I think there are so many great directors. There’s an hour-long conversation that we could have about everyone on the list and why they’re great. The list is probably very long, but I hope to keep moving them to the list of people that I’ve worked with.

How does a Steven Soderbergh project work? Do you just get on set and go to work? Does he have rehearsal time? Does he have conversations with the actors, or does he give you room to find it yourself?

JEROME: It’s straight to work. He’s a very different director. If you go back to any actor who’s worked with him, they’ll say the same thing. He shoots it himself, and he’s his own DP. His brain is pretty much split in two, and you have to adjust to that. His brain is split between the direction he can give to the actors, and then the direction he can give to the actual camera crew and the sets and props. And so, when working with Steven, it’s about trust. He trusts the actors that he allows to be in his films because you have to come ready, you have to come memorized, and you have to come prepared. There’s very little rehearsal time, if any rehearsal time, at all. For example, my first day on set was shooting the scene where I’m in the restaurant telling the boys what to do. I had this long monologue in the scene, and I thought I was gonna get a rehearsal in. I sat down, Steven was behind the camera, and he was like, “Hey, good morning. You’re gonna sit right there. All right. Are you ready? And, “Action!” I was immediately jumping into the line and the dialogue. So, it requires a lot of focus. It comes with a certain pressure that doesn’t weigh you down as much as it invigorates you, to up your game and do the best you can.

He seems like he really wants to be a part of it, right in the middle of it all.

JEROME: Yeah, he is the camera. Whatever you’re seeing is through the eyes of Steven himself, and he’s a very visceral director. He doesn’t sit back and watch. He really is gorilla style, on the ground, ready to get it done.

Image via Max

How did you view your character? Where did you start with him and how did you approach shaping him?

JEROME: As opposed to Cootie in I’m a Virgo, I didn’t have as much time to prep for this role, and that’s not to say I’m not absolutely proud of the work. It’s just to say that there was a rushed understanding of him that I got to, and I think that actually helped inform the character. Aked is very lost and very confused. He speaks on values that sound great, and he believes in family and trust and loyalty, but he has no idea what the words really mean. He doesn’t even know if he’s part of a system or a family that he can trust and that is loyal to him. He feels like he does everything for his aunt, but maybe she doesn’t do things back for him. And so, for me, it was a lot of pulling from my real life. Doing this was like having a therapy session. I was just in therapy, every day. How often can you wake up in the morning, wave a fake gun around, and yell at people in a cramped van?

So, as opposed to spending a ton of weeks or months, trying to figure out his given circumstances and who he is, I spent more time diving into my darker side, and the angrier, more frustrated side of myself, splattering it out along the way. I’m a Virgo and Cootie was more meticulous and planned out, with the physicality, voice, and everything. With this one, it was just straight aggression. The voice for Aked mattered to me, though. He’s from Queens, so the New York dialect was important for me. I also wanted to make sure that the rhythm of the Guyanese cadence was there too. The Guyanese cadence has a flow and almost a musical rhythm to it, and a lot of the sounds go up. I spent maybe three weeks with a dialect coach, just pinpointing what a Queens, New York accent sounded like, with the underlying Guyanese rhythm to it. If I had more time, I would have made that come across a bit more, but I’m happy with where everything’s at.

Aked is an interesting character because, quite quickly, he’s in a frantic existence.

JEROME: It’s interesting, with most villains, you get the backstory first, and then it festers and you see it, and then they’re evil and they’re the villain. But for Aked, it’s reversed. He’s a villain and he’s evil, but as it goes along, he starts to become this lost, softer, almost pathetic being. I don’t mean to say pathetic because I love all my characters, but he’s desperate for love, desperate for attention, desperate to succeed.

What was it like to have scenes with CCH Pounder? There’s just something about her, to me, where you want to listen to her when she talks. What’s it like to be in the moment with her?

JEROME: She has a very powerful spirit. I probably would have never admitted this to her, but it was honestly pretty intimidating, working with her. She is he crème de la crème of actresses. She’s done such strong character work and she’s made a lot of characters come to life, and characters who may not even have come to life. She has that ability. Working with her honestly felt like I was doing a play. It just brings you back to your roots. It’s what acting is about. It’s about connecting. It’s about making different choices. It’s about playing with each other via eye contact. And every time I was on set with her, I felt this pull from her that felt natural. My character mentions her character in every scene, but there are only a few moments where you really get to see him in front of her. And it’s in those moments where you get to see a bit more of who Aked is. He lightens up a little bit. He becomes an entirely different person.

Image via Max

How did you feel about the fate of your character? What was your reaction to learning about that?

JEROME: It’s terrifying. You love all your characters and you learn from all your characters. This time around, I didn’t really wanna learn much from Aked. I hope that there is enough of a difference between me and him. I think he went about certain things in a way that led to his own downfall. It gave me the realization of how there are certain choices that you make out of anger or frustration or vengeance that will honestly bite you back. It’s one of those things where, if you get pushed down, maybe it is better to stay on the floor and wait until the problems dissolve to get back up. Sometimes you get pushed to the ground and you wanna get back up and strike, but you’re still loopy and recovering from the fall. I think Aked is an example of someone who could have taken certain things a different way, and he would have had a different outcome, if he did.

Full Circle is available to stream at Max.