Jason Mitchell first caught the mainstream eye in 2015 for his critically-acclaimed performance as an ill-fated rapper Eazy-E in the NWA biopic Straight Outta Compton. Then, in 2017, he delivered a heartbreaking turn as the ill-fated Ronsel Jackson in Mudbound. This year, he stars as Tyler in Chilean auteur Sebastian Silva’s latest Sundance premiere, TYREL. Tyler is a black 20-something urbanite whose real name you may well confuse with the film’s title. (Tyrel. Tyler. Get it?)
Stuck celebrating the birthday of a friend-of-a-friend in a remote Catskills cabin – as the only black dude – Mitchell gives us an accurate portrait of a millennial outsider, caught between trying to fit in and trying to figure out his own identity. He does vulnerability, comedy, authenticity – and totally nails it. Here, we catch up with Mitchell on the carpet right before his world premiere and talk improv, the unique shoot.
