‘I understand the mission’: Actor Jesse Lipscombe represents Black in the film

Over two decades into his successful film career, actor, producer and activist Jesse Lipscombe describes the act as his “lifetime love”.

It was a relationship he stumbled across at the age of 14, when his mother was scouring the classifieds from their home in Edmonton, and noticed a call to recruit a “noisy and disturbing” black teenager. hate”.

She told her son he would be “perfect,” and as it turned out, he was.

“I started to understand what this profession was, to understand that it was really a very difficult profession,” Lipscombe said in an interview.

“I thought it was like a war of attrition – it took me a while to figure out what kind of situation I was in, but I fell in love with it.”

Lipscombe, now living in Vancouver, is known for starring in the 2017 film, It’s not my fault and I don’t care either. His performance in the Canadian comedy-drama earned him the Rosie Award for Best Performance by a Alberta actormaking him the first Black to win.

He is also an executive producer of the sketch comedy show, little plastic man, was nominated for three Canadian Screen Awards in 2015.

Throughout his career, he says he’s worked hard to advance as a Black representative. in the film and improve the quality of roles for Black actors, who – in an industry dominated by whites – had to “get better and compete for less work”.

“I understand the mission, I accept said mission, and hopefully more people will be able to walk that path a little easier after I finish it,” Lipscombe said.

2:08
Famous movie star Sidney Poitier dies aged 94

One of his mentors was the legendary Bahamian-American actor Sidney Poitier.

Poitier was the first Black person to win the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in the 1963 film. Lilies of the Fields. He died at the age of 94 in January.

“When I met him, I had no idea who he was, how great he was — he just felt like the great uncle who would tell the story,” Lipscombe said.

“But ever since that time, I have always understood the responsibility that I have to take on the roles I choose, the responsibility on the path I choose.”

Lipscombe added: Showing off in the movie is more than just a “check-box” exercise.

He said he understands it can be difficult to write a screenplay through a different “lens,” but that film and television executives need to understand that casting actors of all backgrounds, in roles that are intentional and makes sense, will lead to actually better content.

“It’s weird to say, ‘take the risk,’ but that’s how a lot of executives feel,” Lipscombe explains. “You’re risking a different look at a superhero or a different look at a top man, and then the risk pays off and then people follow.

“It’s just that we’re at a point where we need people to make those bold decisions and moves, and I think audiences crave it, too.“

2:15
This is BC: Indigenous documentary filmmaker makes the leap to feature film

If no one makes space for him, Lipscombe says he will make space.

There have been improvements in film performance during his lifetime, and he said Vancouver is doing a “good job,” but there’s more work to be done.

Moving to the city gave him an opportunity to “use its horns” and better position himself to craft the material he wanted to create.

Despite the pandemic, Lipscombe said he’s always auditioning, he’s writing an album, and will start producing some of the series he’s recently written.

“There’s a lot of creative work and often speaking at different conferences for different companies and different schools, trying to provide those tools to make us the leaders,” he said. daily activities”.

His wish for Dark History Month“Everybody understands that Black history is collective history,” he told Global News.

That history is much more than slavery, he added, and so much of the beautiful things that all people today have to go through are the result of the achievements of Black people.

“Change happens at the speed of empathy,” he explains. “The closer and faster we can achieve the feeling that we are all connected… That is when we see change happen at a rapid pace.”