LaKeith Stanfield recently sat down for an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, where he detailed getting into acting as a kid after his high school drama teacher recognized his talent. He then spoke about playing " two guys who were in love," and he added that "it would just be fine." LaKeith then stated, "I’ve always wanted to play a gay role. Because I wanted to experience and feel and understand what that meant."
From there, LaKeith enrolled in the John Casablancas Modeling Career Center in Los Angeles, and at 17 he was cast in Short Term 12, a 21-minute San Diego State University film school thesis project. The film was a hit at Sundance and won the 2008 Grand Jury Prize for a short film. Stanfield also starred in the feature version of the film, alongside Mr. Robot star Rami Malek. He went on to play Jessie Lee Jackson in Ava DuVernay's Selma, Snoop Dogg in Straight Outta Compton, along with a starring role in Sorry to Bother You and in the hit FX show Atlanta.
While speaking about the often talked about "Teddy Perkins" episode of Atlanta, LaKeith revealed that he was the only person on set who didn't know Perkins was Atlanta creator Donald Glover in prosthetic makeup. He explained, "I wanted to know more about [the actor], so I started asking him questions. And Donald had a whole history prepared. He was saying he’s been acting for a long time. And I was like, 'That’s funny, because this is a very small business … I would not miss your face.' So I started asking around on the set, 'Who the f**k is this guy?' And then someone finally just spilled the beans, which now I’m kind of mad about, because I wish the illusion would’ve gone on a little longer."
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