Bryan Reesman

If you haven't come across Lakeith Stanfield, expect that to change pretty darn soon. He’s been quietly building a rep for himself in ‘Selma’, ‘Get Out’ (he was memorably eerie as a victim of the sunken place) and TV’s ‘Atlanta’. His latest, Boots Riley’s ‘Sorry to Bother You’, takes him a step beyond any of those. An absurdist comedy riffing on race and corporate life, it sees the Californian playing a telemarketer who rises up the ranks by channelling his ‘white voice’.  ‘Sorry to Bother You’ is funny and dark. People are going to be confused as to what to feel.‘Which is good. When I first read this script, I was confused [about it too]. You may have to see it two or three times to find out where you stand.’ How much did you relate to these characters? ‘Quite a bit. They’re all essentially aspects of Boots and his internal struggles. Everybody was real because he was honest enough to give his journey that integrity. I identified with every character.’ This is your third time working with Tessa Thompson. Why do you click? ‘I don’t think we take ourselves that seriously. We’re here to serve the story and we’re not really ego-driven, so it’s all good. We’re supposed to be in love [in this movie], so we fall in love and we make it happen.’ As well as an actor, you’re also a rapper, but there’s a scene in which you have to pretend not to be. What was that like? ‘It’s so disturbing to have a group of white people screaming “Rap!” at you. “Rap! Rap! Rap! Rap!”. It went on so long

Actor and rapper Lakeith Stanfield has explored socially relevant themes in Selma, Get Out, and TV's Atlanta, but Boots Riley's Sorry To Bother You goes one step beyond. In this absurdist black comedy with a wild sci-fi twist, Stanfield portrays Cassius “Cash” Green, a struggling telemarketer who quickly rises up the ranks by channeling his “white” voice. Abandoning his picketing co-workers in favor of a lucrative promotion, he inevitably heads into a moral showdown with coke-snorting CEO Steve Lift (Armie Hammer) and his exploitative white corporatocracy. TOSF: Sorry To Bother You is both hilarious and dark. The audience will probably be confused about what to feel. LS: Which is good. When I first read this script, I was confused about what to feel about any of it. You may have to see this film two or three times to find out where you stand.   How much did you relate to these characters? Quite a bit. They’re all essentially aspects of Boots and his internal struggles. Everybody was real because Boots was honest enough to give his journey that integrity.  This has to be the only live-action movie in recent memory to have additional voice actors for the leads—in this case, the dubbed “white” voices. Patton [Oswalt] and David Cross were such good sports. It was great because we just lip-synched everything [on set] and didn't actually make sense. We knew [David and Patton] were going to come and do the voice, but we didn't know they were going to be as silly as they were.   This