Despite having appeared in both Rogue One and Jupiter Ascending, Life marks the first major cinematic role for British actor Ariyon Bakare, and we had the pleasure of sitting down with the talented actor to promote the Daniel Espinosa sci-fi.
We discussed the plausibility of the narrative at hand, and whether that was a selling point, while also pointing towards the sheer horror that derives from the unknown – which the antagonist in this picture(an organism named Calvin) represents.
Bakare also discussed the close-knit nature of the cast and crew, and why he seems to have an inclination for this particular genre – which leads into a brief discussion about shooting the scenes depicting zero gravity, and whether or not he’d ever been tempted to go to space himself one day.
Finally, in light of recent comments made by Samuel L. Jackson concerning black British actors taking on roles in the States, we asked Bakare for his thoughts on the matter, to which he replied:
“Roles are not about where you’re from or your history, it’s about the diversity of the work you do. It’s a strange argument to have because we have Swedish actors taking roles from Americans, Australian actors taking roles in America. It’s about the best person for the role, and if you start fighting about where you’re from, it’s not about that. I don’t even want to get into that discussion, I don’t think it’s an important discussion to have”
Life is released on March 24th
