Lakeith Stanfield has given us many reasons to love him over the past couple of years. Aside from stealing every damn frame of every single TV show and movie he’s starred in, he also gave us this red-carpet moment that I will never forget. It was the moment I really, truly fell in love with Lakeith Stanfield.
That guy? That guy’s a star. So far, however, Lakeith has played the guy in the orbit of other big stars. He slayed his roles in two of the most brilliant works of the last couple of years – Atlanta and Get Out respectively— but in both projects, he’s in the shadow of Donald Glover and Daniel Kaluuya, understandably. Lakeith Stanfield has a beautiful body of work but he has yet to have his own breakout moment in a project where he is number one on the call sheet.
Well, that moment is here. The trailer for Sorry to Bother You, co-starring my girl Tessa Thompson, is one of the most exciting trailers I’ve ever seen, mainly because it’s not at all what I was expecting. I had read a bit about how weird and wonderful Sorry to Bother You was after its Sundance premiere in January but I avoided knowing too much because spoilers. The idea of Tessa and Lakeith together is already exciting (especially after they played Monica and Chandler in Jay-Z’s Moonlight video) but Tessa and Lakeith in a trippy comedy by writer-director Boots Riley that already has me laughing out loud from a 2-minute and 34 second sneak peek is another level of excitement.
Lakeith Stanfield plays a Cassius Green, a dude living in his uncle’s garage who gets swept up in the high-stakes world of telemarketing. Ha. My favourite bit of the trailer is Cassius finding his “white voice” with Danny Glover. After Cassius masters code-switching, his telemarketing career skyrockets. Sorry to Bother You is clearly mixing in social satire with its hallucinogenic humour. Think Spike Lee meets Seth Rogan but, you know, way better than that sounds.
There were so many things in this trailer that made me squeal with delight: Tessa’s hair! Tessa’s earrings! Tessa’s entire IDGAF demeanor!! Terry Crews! Armie Hammer playing the role he was born for – a douchey, shady rich guy with a drug problem! Lakeith Stanfield finally getting his shine!
I am not sorry that Sorry to Bother You is going to propel Lakeith Stanfield from that guy in everything who shuts down red carpets to that formidable leading man/comedic genius. Sorry to bring this up but he’s only 26 years old. Lakeith Stanfield was born in 1991. That is UNFAIR.
Attached - Lakeith at the Oscars last week and Tessa in Miami the other day.
