Carl
Clemons-Hopkins was fast asleep when they made history. As one of the stars of
the hit HBO series Hacks, they stole audiences’ hearts as Marcus,
the savvy-at-work, vulnerable-off-the-clock chief operating officer to Jean
Smart’s Deborah Vance. It’s a role that earned them a groundbreaking Primetime
Emmy nod for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, marking the first
time an out nonbinary actor has been nominated in the awards ceremony’s 73-year
history. But thanks to Clemons-Hopkins’s seasonal allergies, they snoozed right
through it.
“I was deep in
a Benadryl sleep,” they recall with a laugh. “My partner woke me up, was like,
‘Hey, you need to check your phone right now.’” When they discovered more
notifications than they’d previously thought possible, their first thought was
that someone had died. Instead, it was an unexpected (but well-deserved) dream
come true — and something Clemons-Hopkins is still processing.
This moment is
the culmination of a lifelong dream for Clemons-Hopkins, who’s known they
wanted to act since age 6, when their father took them to see the movie Glory.
“It was wonderful...and one of the first times — and one of the few times —
that a story with that many people who look like me were in a film. In the
early ’90s, this wasn’t a thing,” they explain. This led them to major in
theater and build a career around stage performance. “I’m just a fairy on a
stage swirling. And that’s all I need to do. It’s still the dream, actually,”
Clemons-Hopkins laughs when describing their early career aspirations. It was
seeing the 2016 film Moonlight that inspired them to pursue
on-screen acting.
The role
of Hacks’ Marcus marked Clemons-Hopkins’s biggest role yet — and
the kind of character that actors dream of. “If I’m being very honest with you,
I think I had originally thought it was too good to be true,” they recollect.
That’s because Marcus is about as far from the typical gay sidekick character
as you can imagine. He has a work life and a home life, plus a budding romance
that’s both sweet and awkward. “We will never actually have enough different
queer love stories on film and television,” they say, adding t h a t M a r c u
s ’s romance resonates with them. “I’m really glad we got to bring that kind of
honest human interaction and communication to the
screen.”
While
Clemons-Hopkins’s nomination has earned them a place in this history books,
that’s not what set out to do. “I don’t know about other people, but I never
set out to make anyone’s history and my goal wasn’t a trophy, it was just to
let me be as authentic as I can and do the best work that I can,” they explain.
They’re nonetheless thrilled to be nominated in a year when so many other queer
actors, including Mj Rodriguez, Bowen Yang, and Jonathan Groff, also received
nods. “It’s really humbling and amazing and also bittersweet because it just marks
how far we all, as a society, have to go. But the fact that there’s so much
gender diversity and queer representation and Black representation, and so many
women in positions of power being nominated, that’s really great,”
Clemons-Hopkins says.
Their success
also means people will look to them both as a role model and, unfortunately, a
target for bigotry. “I think that I’m of best service to communities I
represent by simply living. If I put my focus on the amount of pushback I’m
going to receive for existing, I actually forget to exist,” they say. “My
great-grandmother used to tell me never to argue with a fool because the fool
is always right.”
Clemons-Hopkins
is now starring in the Jordan Peele-produced, Nia DaCosta-directed Candyman sequel,
in a role that’s very different from the lovable Marcus. “I’m one who’s not in
the corner of the protagonists, which is one of my favorite places to be,” they
laugh. “[I’m someone] who’s also just kind of an opportunistic weirdo. It’s so
fun.”
When asked how
prepared they are for a potential Emmy win, Clemons-Hopkins answers with their
trademark degree of humility and gratitude. “I never...truly understood the
honor to be nominated. I mean, I got it, I heard it. I can understand people
saying it, but not like viscerally in my entire soul,” they confess. “It’s such
an honor, and I’ve already won right there.”
They’re also
gearing up for the second season of Hacks and, in their words,
a chance to “continue this crazy, wonderful, beautiful, hilarious,
heartbreaking story they’re weaving for America.”
SOURCE: ADVOCATE
No comments:
Post a Comment