Don’t Even Think About Ghosting Jovan Adepo
In September 2017, on the night of his 29th birthday, Jovan Adepo braved a 10 p.m. screening of It by himself. “Bad idea,” he tells me. “You’re in New York, walking back by yourself…if a clown was trying to come get me, he’d have a great shot.” The England-born, American-raised actor now stars in It: Welcome to Derry, HBO’s terrifying prequel series set roughly two decades before the first film. As Pennywise the clown begins his reign of psychological torture by injecting his victims — a group of susceptible kids — with fear, the show is riddled with jump scares and gnarly horror sequences that may make it the scariest entry in the many adaptations of the 1986 Stephen King novel. Luckily, Adepo is a fan of the genre, and in Andy Muschietti’s vision of the franchise, this iteration deepens what we already know about the Hanlon family (who were first seen in the 1990 It miniseries starring Tim Curry) in meaningful ways.
Adepo plays Leroy Hanlon, a major in the U.S. Air Force who moves to the fictional town of Derry, Maine with his wife Charlotte (Taylour Paige) and son Will (Blake Cameron) to work on the town’s military base. To research the role, Adepo says he consulted his father, who served in the Air Force. He realized Leroy would have had to be an exceptional individual to achieve such a high-ranking position as a Black man in the 1960s: He’s not only hardworking and highly intelligent but a man of high morality amid racism and segregation, within and beyond the military, which the show depicts. Leroy marks a shift from the more scrappy characters Adepo has played previously, like his Emmy-nominated performance as Hooded Justice in the Watchmen miniseries, or Saul Durand, the reluctant Wallfacer in Netflix’s 3 Body Problem. You might also recognize him from Oscar-nominated films like Fences and Babylon. “I tend to enjoy playing underdogs,” he says. “There is no way you could consider Leroy an underdog at all.”
Something we discover about Leroy is his fearlessness. What’s your relationship to fear? I mean, this show is actually so scary…
I really enjoy some of the more recent movies where filmmakers are doing their best to try different perspectives in the horror genre. I have to agree with you as far as this season goes. With the show, we’ve been gifted with time to really build the world and introduce the Hanlon family coming into this new town, with an agenda of building a foundation for their family to continue living hopefully the rest of their lives there, not knowing that that town is alive in a different way than they would ever expect.
Getting into our Rules to Live By questions: What’s your No. 1 rule for a successful dinner party?
A well thought-out charcuterie board and a nice selection of wine. You got to have finger foods for the beginning of the party. You got to have that squared away and an excellent playlist. That’s probably number one, ahead of the charcuterie board, actually.
What’s the last app you downloaded on your phone?
Resy. I deleted it because I wasn’t using that app to book reservations for restaurants abroad. I came back from Budapest and I was like, I’m gonna go to dinner with someone. Oh, shit. And I don’t want to call, the old school way.
What’s your No. 1 fashion rule?
It’s from this big black Esquire book. My dad is a big suit guy. He was like, We gotta get you three good suits when you’re an adult. With suits and tuxedos, those are the only times where I never wear earrings or excessive jewelry. That’s like a classic, old school way of thinking. Fashion is much more forward now, and people can break the rules, but I read that issue around the time The King’s Speech came out. That year Colin Firth’s, one of my favorite actors, and everybody’s suit game was on point. Whenever it’s the Academy Awards or any type of Gala, I always want to pay homage to the classic look, so no earrings, even though I have my ears pierced.
What’s your No. 1 rule for sending a gift?
Send it with a gift receipt, just in case they hate the gift.
Uh oh. Do you consider yourself a good gift-giver?
No, I’m not, man. My mom was just telling me about this a couple days ago because it was my dad’s birthday in August, and he’s so hard to shop for. He’s like me, if there’s ever something that I really want, I won’t hint to anybody else. I’m gonna get it myself. So it’s hard for me to look for clues of what you might want. I usually am just like, What do you want?
You travel a lot for work, especially with shooting 3 Body Problem in Budapest. Do you have any airplane rules you wish everyone followed?
[Scoffs]. Yeah. Being sanitary! Respecting people’s personal space, even though it’s a finite amount of space. I think the thing that bothers me the most is when people are already queuing the line far before they’ve even called anybody at the airport gate. You’re creating more chaos and congestion, that’s annoying. Also when people are rushing behind you to get off the plane, but you still have to get out of your seat to get your carry-on. It’ll take me two seconds to grab my bag. Like, bro, we’re gonna go through that tunnel, and we’re all gonna be waiting to get on the escalator to go through customs and all that. You might as well just chill. Let’s be a unit. But nobody thinks like that. Everybody’s like, I’m out of here, what is going on in my life is the most important thing.
Have you ever been recognized on planes?
Yes, luckily it’s always been really chill. But I was in Brazil for press a few years ago, and this guy had no fucking clue who I was. Gordon Cormier and I were there together because our shows are promoting together, and his dad was like, get a picture with Jovan. The guy sitting behind me only saw that interaction. He didn’t know that we knew each other, any of that. This dude pokes his head up behind my chair, and he’s like, “It’s a good thing you did for that kid, man. You wanna take a picture of my kid too? What team do you play for?” I should have kept the joke going and told him I was the leading rusher for the Eagles or something.
Do you think it’s okay to ghost after one date?
Oh, shit, you’re trying to get me in trouble. After one date, depending on the level of communication before…whether people actually do this shit or not, I think it’s more responsible to say: It was a lovely evening, but I just think the vibe is not quite right for it. And that’s nobody’s fault. It’s much harder to do because you hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I think it’s better to do it that way. When I was younger, I ghosted, and when that karma comes back around, oh boy. I’ve been ghosted a couple times and I’m like, damn, yep, that’s what I get.
What rules do you have around your phone?
I should be on social media way less than I am. Me and my friends just send each other funny memes. I usually do not bring my phone to set unless I’m really trying to focus and I’ll put my headphones on to listen to music, but usually with all of my apps disengaged. It’s just my playlist that’ll get me to focus for the scene.
What’s on your Leroy playlist?
I have two shared playlists. I have one with Taylour for Leroy and Charlotte, but the one that I used the most was just shared with Andy [Muschietti]. There’s a lot of jazz, like Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Johnny Hartman. Some of these songs were used when I was in Babylon. A lot of classical music. Rachmaninoff, that’s a favorite of mine, Arthur Rubinstein. Some of the actual It movie score. Some old war time fight songs. It’s very colorful. Andy would occasionally put his stuff in there where he would just completely disregard what the essence of the playlist is. Like Argentinian funk music. He just wants me to see that he’s contributing to the playlist. [Laughs].
What’s your No. 1 rule while walking on the street in New York City?
To always have a charged phone and make sure my maps are working. I’m always here for press or if I’m filming something and I never know where I’m going. New Yorkers are like, Dude, it’s easy, it’s the grid. I don’t know what the fucking grid means. I don’t live here. I just see a bunch of numbers that are going every which way. God forbid my phone’s dead. I will never make it back. I’ll end up in Jersey or something.
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