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Damson Idris spent six seasons portraying Franklin Saint, a young street hustler and entrepreneur in search of power, on FX’s Snowfall. While BET Awards and NAACP Image Awards nominations were common for the show and his role, this year marked the first win for the actor, who took home the Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series.
Speaking of the honor, he told Essence, “Robert De Niro once said, ‘Just be calm when things are going well. Don’t think you are on top of the world.’ That win definitely has me struggling to do that. For the fans, Franklin and co-creator John Singleton, it feels like so many of us won.”
With the show now wrapped up, Damson’s focused on other projects, including a Formula One film in which he plays a young rookie driver named Joshua Pearce opposite Brad Pitt. He tells the mag, “[I]t’s going to be a huge film that’s not only great for the movie business but great for the culture.”
If he was ever casted for a rom-com, Damson says he’d want the subject to be “love — but just real life. Everything we experience today.”
“Love is something everyone can relate to, no matter their background,” he continues. “I tend to play really dark characters, but it would be fun to be in the Bahamas on a beach, wearing a bunch of oil.”
As he continues to work and hone his acting in Hollywood, there’s one lesson he’ll take with him along the way.
“The biggest life lesson I’ve learned is to remain humble,” Damson says. “I love the saying, ‘The giant looks in the mirror and sees nothing.’ Humility is such an important thing that can take humans far.”
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The night of April 9, Warner Bros. released the teaser trailer for Joker: Folie à Deux.
Starring Joaquin Phoenix — who won an Oscar for playing the title character, aka Arthur Fleck, in the blockbuster 2019 original — the sequel also stars Lady Gaga as the Clown Prince of Crime’s eventual queen, Harley Quinn.
The trailer is set to a rendition of the Burt Bacharach/Hal David song “What the World Needs Now Is Love.” First we see Phoenix’s Fleck in prison, where he meets Gaga’s Harleen Quinzel, who is clearly an admirer.
“I’m nobody,” a bedraggled-looking Harleen tells him. “I haven’t done anything with my life like you have.”
We then see Joker in full makeup onstage, clutching a microphone, while Harleen and Fleck seem to watch from the audience. “Let’s get outta here,” she whispers to him. Suddenly, she’s in full glam, waltzing with Joker, intercut with footage of her wearing her normal clothes, waltzing with Fleck in traffic, oblivious to the chaos on the street around them.
Actor Steve Coogan, seemingly playing a prison counselor, asks Fleck, “Tell us, what’s changed, Arthur?”
“I’ll tell you what’s changed,” Fleck replies. “I’m not alone anymore.”
What follows is a montage of music and mayhem, including a striking shot of Fleck laughing maniacally while standing in the rain.
The clip closes with Harleen seated across from Fleck, a plastic prison barrier between them. She draws red lips on the barrier with lipstick and says, “I wanna see the real you.” He lines up his lips with the lipstick, until he looks like Joker — and then flashes an evil grin.
According to Variety, director Todd Phillips says the film isn’t exactly a musical, though it will feature song and dance, and music will be “an essential element.” The film arrives October 4.
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