Boots Riley’s return to narrative filmmaking for the first time since 2018’s breakthrough hit Sorry to Bother You is now streaming, with I’m a Virgo premiering on Prime Video today.
The story focuses on Emmy-winning actor Jharrel Jerome’s Cootie, a 13-foot tall teenager living in Oakland who ventures out into the world for the very first time having been hidden away his entire life, only to discover the trials and tribulations of society affect a lot of people in the same way regardless of how large you are.
A genre-bending blend of coming-of-age drama, absurdist comedy, and biting sociopolitical satire, I’m a Virgo is unlike anything you’ll see on the small screen this year. Ahead of the show’s debut, We Got This Covered had the chance to speak to star and executive producer Jerome about the project, the uniqueness of it all, and his approach to playing a character twice the size of his scene partners, which you can check out below.
You’re playing a character that requires a lot of effects and perspective work to bring to life. Did you find that daunting at all, knowing that it was going to require a type of performance that wasn’t shooting opposite scene partners in the usual way, or is that the type of challenge you relish as an actor that’s always looking to test themself?
Yeah, the second part of that question is definitely correct. It definitely. it invigorates me, and excites me so much. When something like this gets put in front of me, I mean; obviously terrified, nervous. But I think those challenges that stretch you as actor is what makes the actor, and a lot of my favorite actors have taken the time to completely dive in and challenge themselves. So it’s cool to try to follow in those footsteps.
There’s a lot of different genre elements in play at any given time, so how do you go about preparing for a role like that after reading the scrips, and knowing your performance needs to take so many twists and turns from moment to moment, while always staying true to the spirit of the material?
I think a lot of it was having conversations with Boots, and I really spent a lot of time fleshing out who Cootie was. I know that he told me Cootie was inspired by the younger version of himself, and so I wanted to play with that idea and that thought a bit more, and pick his brain on what he meant by that.
So I think just over time, having several conversations with Boots himself, I got to kind of fall into the idea of who Cootie was, and that’s somebody who’s incredibly naive, I think. Someone who’s 19 years old, but carries a 13 year-old spirit with them; but at the same time is very intelligent, very well-read, and truly believes that he knows what he’s talking about. So there’s just a lot of different nuances in Cootie that were fun to try to flesh out. But it definitely was a big 50/50 process between Boots and I.
Like you said about working closely with Boots; you’re not just the star, but an executive producer as well. Was that something that happened early on in the process, because Boots said he began writing the series as early as 2019, but it wasn’t until the following summer that your involvement was revealed, so were you right in on the ground floor?
Yeah, pretty much. I got an email personally from Boots Riley in late 2019, where the title of the email was “13-foot tall, Black man in Oakland.” And that’s it! And so, it was incredibly intriguing. So he – kind of from the ground up – had me in mind while he was writing the project.
So I think that allowed the sort of space for me to come in from the ground up with him, and try to put certain pieces together with him. And I am grateful for him, because he trusted me, and he believed in me as an artist enough to bring me in so closely to come up with more than just the performance, but also certain creative elements that made the entire show.
I’m a Virgo defies categorization, even though it’s got plenty to say on a societal, cultural, satirical, and thematic level. It’s something different audiences are going to interpret in different ways depending on who they are, where they are, and how they watch it. But, for you, how would you best describe the indescribable
It’s definitely very hard to describe! But I’d say this is a it’s an incredible anti-social piece.. I think that it deals with a lot of the system that we’re in, so it’s a strong political joyride. I love the word “joy ride,” Boots had once called it “an episodic joyride.” And I think that’s exactly what it is. There’s no one genre in here, is a it’s a roller-coaster ride, and a politically important one, and a culturally important one.
I’m a Virgo is now streaming on Prime Video, and be sure to check out our review of the series here, as well as our exclusive interviews with executive producer Michael Ellenberg, stars Allius Barnes and Brett Gray, as well as fellow cast members Olivia Washington and Kara Young, and Carmen Ejogo.