There's a reason Zazie Beetz doesn't make you laugh in Atlanta Robbin' Season, the triumphant, challenging return of the best damn show on television. With its second season, Atlanta is easily doing what it did the first time: Subverting your every expectation, making killer comedy out of black fury. As Van, the only woman in the core cast, Zazie Beetz has, at times, carried the full dramatic weight of a show that's often billed as a comedy. In one of television's most surreal landscapes, Beetz exists at the collision of every culture and idea that Atlanta targets, tugged in endless directions as her baby's father, Earn, attempts to scheme his way to success. For this reason, while she isn't in every episode, Beetz is frequently present for the very best Atlanta has to offer.
It's also why she's been cast in some of the most exciting projects coming to theaters. She's in talks to star alongside Jon Hamm and Natalie Portman; to do a biopic, The Pale Blue Dot, with Kristen Stewart; to star in a thriller, with Armie Hammer and Dakota Johnston. This year she'll be Slice, an indie horror film with Chance the Rapper, and next year she'll star in a Soderbergh film. And of course, there's Deadpool 2, in which she'll play the ass-kicking mutant assassin Domino next month.
This week, GQ caught up with Beetz to talk about her killer year, Atlanta Robbin' Season, and what it feels like just before you become a superhero.
GQ: You recently wrote about struggling with anxiety in a recent essay for Glamour. Do you mind if we talk about that a little bit?
Zazie Beetz: It's interesting because it's a little like [I have] two separate lives going on. I have my private life, and what I feel in my home on a day to day basis. And then it feels like, to me that there's surrounding white noise of other people having opinions or the expectation I think of how to feel about certain things.
For example, when we got the Golden Globe for Atlanta, I thought that was exciting but I also felt kind of blasé about it? Like, Okay! Next thing. You know? I don't feel so much attachment to the identity of celebrity lifestyle. Not to say that it doesn't come with interesting perks and interesting privileges, and also an interesting way of approaching life. My day-to-day is unusual, and never boring and I have a very routine-less life.
But I also, in my own body, struggle with anxiety. It's a big part of who I am, and a couple of years ago I had an experience with it that changed my life to this day and I had to really kind of rearrange how I thought about my management of that, and what that means for my day-to-day in terms of what I eat, in terms of exercising, having a breathing practice and engaging in meditation practices. For me it also flows a little bit into insecurity with my work, and I think that's just something that over time, will hopefully—I'm sure it'll never completely go away, but to where it doesn't overwhelm me, and kind of take over my emotions.
Depression and anxiety are real, and don't evade fortunate people. You can still have good fortune and deal with that in terms of what goes on in your life. Everything might circumstantially be good: I'm in a healthy relationship, I have a loving family, I'm doing well in my career. But when I go home at night I still struggle with this, I still have good days and bad days. I have to tell my boyfriend, OK, I'm having anxiety today and we'll need to work through that together.
You've talked in the past about trying to sort out the circumstances of your good fortune, is that something you still think about a lot?
I sometimes worry about what did I do to deserve this or earn this. I have so many people around me who I feel work so much harder than I do or had to—not that I didn't. I also had an extended period of time where I was working and doing this at the same time but I was able to put that behind me faster than some people... I didn't grow up rich at all but my parents were just so loving. I think about that. In ways, I didn't have to overcome much to get where I'm at right now. But that's also an overstatement.
I grew up here in New York, but I didn't have anything special. My dad's a cabinet maker from Germany, moved when he was 25, has a high school degree. My mom, she's got a master's but works in social work and administration. I didn't make it happen for myself, where I am right now, but with a foundation of support. I don't know! I just want to know that where I am, I deserved it. I earned it. That's something very important to me.
There's also a frailty in this moment, where you wonder, How long will people continue to be interested in nonwhite/male voices?
Yeah! I was talking to Carla Gugino, on a film I did with her. She's been acting for so long and she was saying, “The feeling of like, will I ever get a job again? never goes away.” [laughs] It really can change and shift. Checks come in as you get work, it's essentially freelancing I guess. It's also exciting—I get to travel through work, I get to have a month off and be with my family. I work hard for a couple months and get to be home again. I think that's really lucky, and really special.
But then also I think, again, my career began during a time that was interesting because there is suddenly this concerted effort to focus more on minority stories, whether that is in terms of race, ethnicity, skin color, shape. It's shifting from the one version and telling generic stories using people that are just white, beautiful. We all fall under different places in that spectrum. I think my career would look very different even ten years ago. I really do. I also sometimes question if I'm being hired because we need a black face in this? Or am I being hired because I earned the role? That's a big thing for me that I kind of think I just need to let go of. I think it's really important to tell these stories, but for myself I want to know that I earned it, that my work earned it.
When talking about Atlanta, you're very clear that you're playing a very specific character with Van. But she's also a character that we don't see represented a lot of on television. How do you negotiate that?
I completely acknowledge [that], and maybe I'm just sort of scared of that responsibility, right? Of having this platform, of having an ability to have a voice for other people. It's interesting, just having access, access to people. There was a time in my life where I was like, I would just love to drop this person a note, about anything. But now I could. It's interesting, and a weird power. Like Spider-Man, you know? With great power comes great responsibility, and maybe I'm hesitant about the responsibility.
Particularly in Atlanta being a more male-driven show, I think I feel honored to have this female lead, and I'm glad they have a prominent female voice in the show. Last season I talked to Donald [Glover] about wanting to expand her story with other women too. In the sixth episode, which was my drug test episode last year, I loved being on set with another woman and having a friend and seeing what Van is like having a female dynamic. (There were a bunch of women on set, so this is in terms of acting and performing.) And that's something that we continue exploring later on in this season as well. I think it is important to see intelligent black women who are also struggling with their partners. [laughs] You know what I mean? That's all part of this larger narrative of what's going on in the media and in film and television in general. But her story isn't everybody's story. I don't want executives in studios to be like, “Oh, we have to do more exactly like Van." Because, like, Insecure! That's a whole other thing, that's another version, that's another black woman. I am just careful of taking on or feeling that we have found representation in you, Zazie, and Van. Because there are a lot of other dope woman putting stuff out.
Throughout the show, Van is in the middle of a lot of opposing forces—between class and wealth, race and culture, motherhood and independence—constantly being pulled in directions by people who believe them to be binary choices. What's it like to process and portray that struggle?
I asked myself that a lot, when we first started shooting. What is her point of view on things? Even with like, her thing of wanting to be careful with money. But then we have whole episodes of us going out and spending it. I talk to my boyfriend and say, “You need to meditate more” and I don't meditate everyday either! That's just the complexity of humanity, right? And what's lovely about Atlanta is that all the characters work within that space. If you think of Alfred [Brian Tyree Hill’s character]—I think a lot of people have this sort of archetype of who he is, this expectation he's somebody who's craving fame, but that's sort of exactly what his character is struggling with. His storyline is something that is close to my heart. In terms of engaging in this business, [doing] interviews and photo shoots. All of it, it's fun—I'm beginning to work on higher profile films while still straddling this concept where I don't want to lose my privacy, I don't want to lose my anonymity. Over the past couple months it's something I'm really fretting about, in terms of the release of Deadpool.
I'm so excited because we worked so hard on it, but I'm very nervous about how my life is gonna change. And I don't know specifically what's going to happen. I'm trying to set up more security. I've been getting mail to my house—I don't know how people get my address. That's already happening! Are people going to show up at my front door? I don't know! I have no idea... Like, do I want a simpler life? Am I engaging this very complex, nuanced, strange beast that is fame and living under more scrutiny? I can continue to make those choices as my life goes on and as I see what I like and what I don't like, and I can take a step back if I want to. That's good for me to remember.
The men in Atlanta are disenfranchised and going through a lot but also privileged in the ways they can be uncompromising, and that kind of comes to a head in the season's fourth episode, "Helen." You're finally getting to take Van outside of Earn's world.
A lot of people are saying "Helen" reminds them of Get Out because it's not just this location that feels weird but they're also in a relationship that they're stuck in, that they can't get out of. Neither of them really want to compromise—that was a really interesting thing in the episode—Van really felt like she was always having to compromise, and didn't think Earn was taking the same measures for her. And they are making this decision to get out [laughs] of that situation, for each of them themselves, but I think Van captains that ship. And this season is her deciding to not lower her expectations for the kind of life she wants to live, that she wants more emotional fulfillment than she's getting. Earn is a big part of that, and that means pushing him a little bit out of her life until she can get whatever she's seeking.
There was an essay on Black Girl Nerds about how rare a character Van is as a young black mother on TV that is also a full person, is that something you think about a lot?
Playing a mother is always really interesting to me, partially because I'm not one? So it's just an interesting place to explore, where I don't carry that identity. And also because it's something I really want to do in my life. I feel really strongly about wanting to be a mother, but there's always this—I feel like I'm very quick in like, movies to pin when somebody does not seem like a parent to their child. It's something I really try to portray realistically—the monotony, the frustration of having a child while also having to juggle work, and grocery shopping, and the emotional exhaustion of having a partner and figuring all that out at the same time. In a lot of [shows], people are a lot more caring and doting and babyish with their children, when the reality is you just kind of swing them over your shoulder and get into the car! You know what I mean?
That was a big thing for me. I wanted Van to be like, I'm the mom, this is my life, it's not necessarily inconveniencing me, this is my life, and Lottie is a part of that. Which is also I think why, in "Helen," she gets frustrated. Because people kept pinning on to her "you're the mom, you're the mom, you're the mom" and she felt "but I am also more than that!' Which is what I try to do with her. I think a lot of people are now wondering, Well, what's going to happen to their relationship, or even the character if they're not together anymore. Will they even see each other? I mean, yes, of course, they're co-parents, so Van is still around. [laughs]
There's definitely a reluctance to accept a relationship like this on TV, where we're used to will-they, won't-they. But there's an honesty to that scene—it really feels like Van and Earn are really over.
It's probably also like, when you watch a TV show—which is why I think people are so fascinated by Game of Thrones—usually, somebody's in like a car crash or something like that and you're like, “Well they'll be fine. Maybe I'm emotional right now, but nothing actually happens to the characters.” But like, in Game of Thrones, people die. You're like, “But you're the lead! You're dead!” [laughs] And I think people maybe feel that way about the breakup. Like, “Well Earn and Van are gonna be on-again, off-again, on-again, off-again.” It's how it's described in the blurbs about the show, when it's being quickly summarized. And now it's just off. Maybe not definitively so, but also, in a way where it was really talked about, it wasn't just an argument. And people are maybe like, “Oh, what else could potentially change?”
Before we go, I want to ask about Deadpool 2, and Domino! You're an action hero now—have you always wanted to do something where you kick ass and take names?
Yes and no! I'm more of a drama girl. Drama and crying, stuff like that. But it's pretty cool! To have, like, the super suit. For me, costumes are always a big thing. I like costumes. It always gets me into a role, especially something like that, which is so specific. I don't know, I never thought I'd do something like that! It's surreal, I don't know it's completely sunk in yet.
Are you nervous about people yelling "Domino!" when they see you on the street?
[laughs] Yeah! I really wonder what that's all gonna be like. I'll find out soon enough. Maybe it won't be that bad at all, maybe it'll be totally fine. There are enough famous people who lead very lovely lives.
Makeup by Ralph Siciliano/The Wall Group; Hair by Lacy Redway/The Wall Group