“I’m Down to Get Ugly”: Jharrel Jerome, in Conversation With Don Cheadle

Around the time that Timothée Chalamet was romping around LaGuardia High School, another budding actor shared those hallowed halls. Jharrel Jerome studied Meisner and Shakespeare, but not because he thought it would make him a film star, the 27-year-old says. “It was just, “I’m going to study and I’m going to make sure I pass,” he quipped. Come to find out, all that preparation came in handy when he auditioned for the Oscar-winning film Moonlight as a freshman in college. And, shortly after, when Jerome delivered his breakout performance as the emotional heartbeat of the exonerated Central Park Five in Ava Duvernay’s When They See Us. “I wanted to get ugly,” he tells Don Cheadle of that role. “I’m down to get ugly and make sure it’s as authentic as possible.” As Anthony Robles, a champion wrestler born with one leg, the Bronx native channels that intensity once again in Unstoppable, opposite Jennifer Lopez. One person who answered the call was Cheadle, his co-star, who phoned Jerome ahead of its streaming release to talk about obsolete acting techniques, impromptu auditions, and the long climb to the top. 

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JHARREL JEROME: Don dada.

DON CHEADLE: You’re looking good as always.

JEROME: Thanks, bro. I’ve been in the gym this week. I finally had the time to do me, you know what I’m saying?

CHEADLE: Yeah. 

JEROME: You’re in L.A.?

CHEADLE: Yeah, I just walked off a golf course.

JEROME: So you have an addiction to golf, for real?

CHEADLE: I wouldn’t use that word.

JEROME: You have an obsession?

CHEADLE: I feel like you’re using words that lean into pathology and I prefer, like, “I enjoy the game.”

JEROME: You love golf.

CHEADLE: Enamored.

JEROME: You golf every day?

CHEADLE: No!

JEROME: Now you’re answering defensively.

CHEADLE: [Laughs] I take a day or two off. How dare you? You go to the gym every day?

JEROME: Yeah. I’m addicted to the gym. 

CHEADLE: When it starts, it starts, right? Where do you go to work out? 

JEROME: Equinox. It’s 10 minutes away.

CHEADLE: I got a gym here if you ever want to work out together. I’ll go to the Equinox too, I guess.

JEROME: No, do not come to the Equinox.

CHEADLE: Okay, then you come to the crib. Now let’s talk Unstoppable.

JEROME: Yes.

CHEADLE: But before we talk Unstoppable, I would like to have you set the table a little bit, because I’m not just blowing smoke. I think you’re really, super talented. When I think about what you have done, I’m like, “Acting is in good hands. There’s still those out there that are doing it the right way and working hard at their craft.” From Moonlight to When They See Us to this, what started this work ethic and this idea about how to do it?

JEROME: First of all, bro, I’ve thanked you a million times, but every time you say this to me, my body lifts off the ground. It feels almost like imposter syndrome. I feel like, “How is he saying this to me?”

CHEADLE: It’s real.

JEROME: It means a lot. But I guess I pride LaGuardia High School for giving me that sort of militant committed mentality. Most people were in school from 8:00 to 2:00. My high school was 8:00 to 4:30, and that’s because they split the days between acting and academics. Most people first feel that in college when they do an acting BFA.

CHEADLE: Exactly.

JEROME: Acting was school work for me. Freshman year, we did close to self scenes. I was picking scenes that were about romance. I was trying to play the Casanova kid from the Bronx. “What’s up? I’m the cool guy.” As we progressed to junior year, we started doing stretch work. All of a sudden I’m playing Hulk, Miss Daisy, Morgan Freeman’s character, Shakespeare, miming. And my mom was like, “You better come home with them grades,” which meant applying myself in acting classes. And that wasn’t for everybody. I had classmates who didn’t give a damn about it. This was the fun school that they were at. For me, it wasn’t that I was like, “I’m going to become a film star.” It was just, “I’m going to make sure I pass.” And I learned so much that I think a lot of actors don’t know today. A lot of people are like, “What do I need to do to get in front of a casting director? How do I get in a movie?” I’m like, “That’s the last step.”

CHEADLE: That’s a byproduct. 

JEROME: The first part is to go study it as if it’s anything else. I did BFA Acting for a year in Ithaca, and I just learned so much. Prior circumstances, beat changes, shifts, choices—

CHEADLE: Script analysis.

JEROME: Exactly. Annotation, Meisner, Adler, and Stanislavski, and how you can use that to approach a role. That is sort of a lost trade. I don’t want to talk down on any of the acting school programs I went to, but I’ve always felt like I was the only one who cared. And people are like, “Jharell made it!” But if you go back you’ll see it was because I was so dead serious about it.

CHEADLE: So you had a conservatory experience in high school?

JEROME: The building was right across from Juilliard and we did theater. Then I was bartending at 21 and living with my mom, but auditioning for plays and hoping that somebody in the audience saw me. That was the only way I thought was achievable.

CHEADLE: So one year at Ithaca and you’re like, that’s enough?

JEROME: I got real lucky. At LaGuardia, after four years of training kids, they host a showcase. I got into showcase and it was a blessing. The manager, Perri Kipperman, who I’m with to this day, was there, and she loved my performance. We had a conversation that my mom was incredibly against at first.

CHEADLE: Please say more.

JEROME: I’m 17 years old, coming on up freshman year at Ithaca College, and I’m like, “Ma, this lady wants to sign me and put me in movies.” She looked at me like, “Nah. Does it involve you going to college? If it doesn’t, then there’s nothing else to talk about.”

CHEADLE: Right.

JEROME: Perri took me to a burger spot after school and she sat there and we talked for three hours. She saw something in me. At the end of the conversation, she didn’t even want me to sign a paper. To this day, I haven’t even put ink on paper.

CHEADLE: I love this story. It’s such a similar story to mine.

JEROME: And look at us now.

CHEADLE: I begged my mom, “Please let me have this manager.” Because when you remember that feeling before you had representation…

JEROME: Going in circles. Ultimately, this is what I went to LaGuardia for. So flash forward, I get to college. It’s October 9th, my 18th birthday, and I have an audition to do and I’m already complaining. I’ve done maybe 25 to 30 in the span of a month. I’m sending in all these tapes and it’s all, “No, no, no.” But my roommate just looked at me and said, “Bro, just bang it out.” It took me three hours, so I didn’t bang it out, it stressed me out. But it was the audition for Moonlight.

CHEADLE: Wow!

JEROME: It was just one of seven or eight auditions I did that week alone, and it was my birthday. I don’t want to say it was my laziest audition because I put in the thought, but it was my least prepared.

CHEADLE: Isn’t that funny? Probably your most natural and free in some ways.

JEROME: In every other tape, I made sure the background was black or white and the lighting was nice. For this one, I was in my dorm room with my books behind me. My bed wasn’t made, and I did the entire beach scene from Moonlight on the floor next to my bed. 

CHEADLE: And it was real as fuck, I bet.

JEROME: The next Friday I got a call saying, “We’re going to fly you to Miami on Monday.” Barry [Jenkins] ended up telling me on set, ”We were so shocked to find your tape so last minute.” I pretended there was a joint, which is funny because I learned in audition technique class to never mime because it is a distraction. But I did. I was licking the joint and pretending there was a lighter, and it ended up being Moonlight. But I still auditioned again and got nos for the rest of the year. 

CHEADLE: When it came out, it was different, right?

JEROME: The game changed. It wasn’t this big flood, but it was an extra bonus point in audition rooms. When I auditioned for a TV show called Mr. Mercedes, a Stephen King show that ended up taking me from school, it was like, “That’s the kid who was just in Moonlight.”

CHEADLE: It’s word of mouth based on a standout performance.

JEROME: I think it’s a standout film. It changed all of our lives.

CHEADLE: Absolutely. It was different in such a special and understated way.

JEROME: I got really blessed to do two gorgeous projects back to back, with When They See Us.

CHEADLE: Take us to Ava [DuVernay]. How did that come about?

JEROME: I went back to school and within the first few months of sophomore year, I booked that Mr. Mercedes show. That took me away from school for six months in Charleston, South Carolina. It was the biggest change in my life at that time and such a culture shock. I was alone while all my friends were finishing off the semester. My plan was to go to school for the fall, but then I did a movie called First Match and a movie called Monster. I didn’t care how big. I was like, “Man, I’m booking roles.” My friends would ask, “Are you coming back this semester?” I’m like, “You wish. I got a show to do.” It felt great. By season three of Mr. Mercedes, I’m chilling on my phone and I go on Instagram and I see an article from a friend of mine and it says, “Casting Central Park Five story.” It was the first and only time actually I’ve ever searched for something I wanted to audition for.

CHEADLE: Yeah.

JEROME: I auditioned on tape with this thick beard from the show that I was doing. I looked grown, but I was reading for young Korey. Ava sent back a note saying, “It was great, but can he shave so we can see him look younger?” But I couldn’t because of continuity, so I’m like, “Damn.” Months went by and I finished the show so I called my team like, “Hey, did Ava cast the young Korey?” And it turns out she hadn’t. So I flew to New York to actually see her. I don’t know who set that up, but I auditioned right in front of her. She gave me the older Korey sides, which set me for a loop. I shaved my beard specifically to play this, and all of a sudden I’m learning these lines? I was terrified. It was a heavy monologue. It was the moment older Korey finds out that his brother passed away. There’s no way I could learn this. So I half-learned it and did it, but I played looking down at my script within the scene. I incorporated it as if it was pensive. I lowered my voice a little bit and I squinted my eyes lower, putting the brows down and looking like you’ve been through something. Ava said she noticed that subtle shift. The same night she called me and she said, “I would love to offer you the part of young Korey.” I said, “Oh my god, I would love that.” Then she goes, “I would also love to offer you the part of older Korey, and I want you to play both because you have the ability to do it.” That was actually the first time I got in the gym, man. I had to work out.

CHEADLE: Bulk up.

JEROME: Yeah, man. And then When They See Us changed my life. Not only career wise, but mentally and emotionally. Spending time with Korey, going to Harlem to see him, getting pizza with him. He bought me a pair of sneakers. We bonded. It made me realize that if I’m going to become an actor, this is the work I want to do. It sounds cliche, but I want to do the  inspiring work, the work that actually makes a shift in somebody’s perspective. I watched him just allow me in and I was like, “This feels like acting.” And now I’m doing this here with Anthony.

CHEADLE: What a segue. Now you’re having these similar amazing experiences with Anthony, who now is your boy. I was the last person cast, but you have been on this for a minute. The strike happened, shut it down, and picked it back up. COVID shut it down, picked it back up. Talk to me about your experiences with that.

JEROME: It’s such a mind fuck, man. It really bent my mind and it still does to even think about the fact that I was 21 years old when I met Anthony. I remember living right near the World Trade Center downtown and I was getting these packaged meals delivered in these huge boxes every four days. I’m stuffing my face like, “How am I going to do this?” Getting in the gym, doing the wrestling, then it all shutting down. Honestly, I didn’t think it would ever happen. Anthony and I shared a few texts. “I hope this happens. I hope we can do this.” But it felt like such a shot in the dark. I started doing other things like I’m A Virgo and Full Circle. Then, two years later I get a call and it’s a whole new operation. Ben Affleck is on it, Matt Damon too. What was once a nice Disney-esque flick for a smaller audience all of sudden a felt like I was doing a real movie.

CHEADLE: Yeah.

JEROME: I found out in one call about the whole cast. I almost fell. I was happy, but I was also terrified. I was like, “Damn, I got to get back in the gym. I got to get back to the meals.” And that’s why it messes with my mind. I have put myself through such grueling mental places for this project. I think I’ve developed body dysmorphia. The idea that you’re just never content with where you’re at. I always had these eyeballs on me. I had maybe 15 people in a thread checking in on my physique for seven months.

CHEADLE: Man! And you’re looking at Anthony and you’re like, “That’s not going to happen.”

JEROME: I know I’m never going to get there. I need the needles right now if you want me to really look like that. This dude is just rock solid.

CHEADLE: It’s crazy.

JEROME: I’m in a text thread and it’s like, “Hey, can you take a selfie? Can you show us your shoulders?” You know what I’m saying? It was understandable. Like, we chose you. I felt that pressure. I’ll wonder later how much it really taught me.

CHEADLE: That’ll take a look back.

JEROME: I’ll be there in two months. I don’t know yet.

CHEADLE: You’re still in it. But clearly this is an incredibly emotional journey, and the pressure of having this person who you now have a personal relationship with has entrusted you to tell his story. What bag are you dipping into to find that?

JEROME: The same bag we were talking about at the top of this conversation, the annotating and the prior circumstances. I even went as far as to work with a vocal coach on his voice because I thought if I didn’t speak like him, that essence was gone. His voice is important and it’s a big part of who he is and how he commands the room with how crisp it is. So I asked the producers to get me a vocal coach, and I went back to my high school and I did the International Phonetic Alphabet.

CHEADLE: Get that diphthong corrected.

JEROME: Yep. I put in that sort of work. I didn’t just pull up and flash a pretty smile. I wanted to get ugly. I’m down to get ugly and make sure it’s as authentic as possible.

CHEADLE: And you and Jennifer [Lopez] work really well together, too.

JEROME: Thanks, man. I’ve been hearing that the chemistry between you and I and me and her was really great. But that’s acting, we feed off each other. I got to really feed off Jen and Bobby [Cannavale]. That’s the best feeling about working with an “A-list cast.” It’s not because you’re going to get more famous or look cool, but because you’re going to get your best performance out. I want to speak to other actors who have done close work with you, Don. You have this thing within your eyes that is so magical. It shuts off everything on the set. Everything. It’s like a light switch. I just see darkness around me and it’s you and I. I got to work with a lot of great people, and the difference is that light switch.

CHEADLE: It’s drugs. [Laughs] 

JEROME: It is drugs.

CHEADLE: But we shouldn’t give up all the trade secrets on this thing.

JEROME: The amount of drugs you do allows for that darkness in your eyes.

CHEADLE: Exactly. I spike your things and you’re like, “Oh, the room went dark. All I can see is Don.” 

JEROME: Can you imagine?

CHEADLE: I just ruined two careers in one joke.

JEROME: No, you’re a cemented man. You can’t ruin your career.

CHEADLE: I love you, man.

JEROME: Love you, bro.

CHEADLE: I hope everything that you deserve comes to you and we’re going to do it again.

JEROME: Thanks Don, and I’m glad that you were the one to do this.

CHEADLE: No doubt, papa. I’ll talk to you soon.