Edi Gathegi: How He Won The West

MUSA Where are you from?

EDI I’m from all over the place, a citizen of the globe. I was born in Nairobi, moved to the Bay Area when I was a baby. And then we moved back and forth between the Bay area and Tallahassee, Florida. Then I got my education in New York. Now I live in Los Angeles. And because of the nature of the business I get to live all over the world. But Los Angeles is my place of residence.

MUSA Has being African and growing up in America helped your career at all?

EDI I just happened to be an actor. I do believe that I was put on this planet to be one. I don’t think it matters where I was born or raised but it definitely is a part of my identity. It influences my life but the spirit that is me is a storyteller.

MUSA Who were the actors that influenced you?

EDI You can’t mention Black actors and not mention Denzel Washington. He’s everybody’s favorite, the G.O.A.T. Black, white, he’s the best. Aside from Denzel, there are many other greats. Don Cheadle was somebody that I saw myself in, a dark skin brother, handsome, not classically the way this world tells you classically handsome is supposed to be but singular, and he’s just extraordinarily talented. Meryl Streep took my breath away. Daniel Day is another icon whose process and craftsmanship I was attracted too. Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Jeffrey Wrights earlier work in Basquiat and Shaft is a sight to behold. Most people don’t know Jeffrey Wright is in Shaft. He played a character Peoples Hernandez, completely transformed himself, a magician, and chameleon, when he acts God is working through him. The list of greats goes on and on.

MUSA You’ve been in a number of films; Twilight, XMEN: First Class, Caged and StartUp on Netflix. How do you prepare for these different roles? Is there a process you go through?

EDI My process is to listen to what the role requests of you. Sometimes it requires more of you and sometimes less. So the role dictates my preparation. My preparation is never the same from one project to the next.

MUSA Tell us about what it was like playing a historical figure, Bill Picket in the hit Netflix movie The Harder They Fall?

EDI The thing that initially attracted me to the project as a whole was the premise. This is a western and every page that you flip through you realize that it’s all Black people. As you continue the story you realize all the characters have agency, they have great lines and they’re all strong. So you come to realize you’re reading a superhero movie. Then you realize these were real figures and now your even more intrigued. So to play Bill Pickett I felt it was an opportunity to be a part of a commercial film that people would watch because it was entertaining but also contribute to the inclusion conversation. About stories that don’t have to rely on the white gaze, to remind people that contributions to cinema from Black people has been stunted. So we need to continue creating opportunities for Black people and people of color and of all gender identities and all that. It’s a conversation the world is having and I was excited to have this film enter that conversation.

MUSA What is your dream role?

EDI One of the reasons Hamlet is a most enduring character is because of his dimensions. He’s a character that gets to show all the sides of humanity. So I don’t have a dream role per se but I want to play Hamlet in different genres.

MUSA What advice would you give a Black actor just starting out?

EDI The advice I would give an actor just starting out, it’s a war of attrition so don’t give up. If somebody says to you “this is too hard of a thing find something else to do” and you listen to them, that means you were never supposed to be an actor. You have to develop your steel because you’re going to be rejected every single day and you can’t take things personally. It’s a business of rejection. For Black actors it would be the same thing, except like what Momma told you, “You gotta be twice as good to get half as much.” So even more so you can’t let anybody force you out of this industry.