Splash City, which is scheduled to land in theaters on Monday, July 20, follows Zach Sowers' Elijah and Reed Shannon's Juju, two brothers on diverging paths on the unforgiving corners of San Francisco, living under their relentless single mother in a low-income apartment. Elijah is a basketball prodigy with a big future ahead of him, while Juju finds himself on a bad path, spending too much time on the streets and with criminals as they smash and grab from parked cars throughout the city.
The Direct sat down with Splash City star Reed Shannon, who many will know from his recent role as Ekko in Netflix's incredibly successful animated series Arcane, who spoke about how important role models are to someone's life trajectory and how Juju's lack of one sent him down the wrong path.
Fans of Reed Shannon can also hear more of his voice as Ekko in the recent video game 2XKO.
Splash City Star Shannon Reed on the Importance of Role Models
"It's One of the Most Important Things."
- The Direct: "Can you talk about how important you feel role models are for younger people and how deeply they can affect that person's life trajectory?"
Reed Shannon: I guess maybe I'm a bit biased, but it's one of the most important things. When I was growing up, some of my role models were obviously my dad, my grandfather, but [also] people like Cornel West. When I was in second or third grade, I was in this thing called the Cornel West Academy of Excellence, and he would stop in sometimes to see... [He's] one of the greatest minds ever, in my opinion, just around and sharing love with everybody that really informed [the] very core foundation of who I am.
Reed then opened up about how the actor Sidney Poitier, whom he called "one of the greatest actors of all time," really helped him in his craft.
Shannon: And then to grow up and meet somebody like Sidney Poitier, who is one of the greatest actors of all time, and he poured into me the way that he did, and just told me to be great and go after it. Those are the things that have informed who I am, inside of my craft and outside of it too [and] into the person that I am. And I think you see what happens in Splash City when there's somebody who just never had somebody to look up to, versus somebody who had a goal, had a path, and it's important...
He continued to elaborate on the importance of having a positive role model, as it can affect "the trajectory of somebody's life."
Shannon: It's important you can look at the trajectory of somebody's life who's trying to figure it out all on their own versus somebody who has people that are helping guide them... Not dictating what it is they have to do, but just guiding them and saying, "Hey, this is what might happen if you do that. Is that really what you want? Think about it." You know what I mean? Just thinking about it can change the trajectory of somebody's life, and so it's so insanely important.
- The Direct: "Juju is on the wrong path pretty much as soon as the movie begins. What is some advice you might have for somebody who does find themselves stuck in a similar bad path, and they don't really see a way out?"
Shannon: It's tough because our environments do a lot that do a lot to enforce these ideas of what we think we deserve or what we think we should get. I think that it's important for people, especially younger people, to realize you are responsible for your own actions, no matter your circumstances, no matter your environment. You are responsible. So that means that you are responsible for whether your life goes good or whether your life goes bad, and I think that not enough people echo that message.
"It's very easy to blame our circumstances on anything else," Reed explained, noting that at the end of the day, it's about "believing in yourself" and "choosing to do what feels right."
Shannon: I think that it's very easy to blame our circumstances on anything else, but at the end of the day, it's believing in yourself and believing yourself to be true to what you believe, and choosing to do what feels right... I can't dictate what is right or wrong for anybody, but I can definitely say that the things that I find right are spreading love and like caring for one another, and trying to to build my community back up. And there are very clear things that can either go towards that or go against that, and so I'm always going to take a second and step back and say, "Hey, is this pushing me towards that goal, or is this a vauge direction that I'm gonna have to backtrack at some point?"
- The Direct: "When you were developing your performance, what did you discover was the key driving factor behind your entire character?"
Shannon: I think initially, when I read the scripts, I was overthinking the community, the culture, and this character. I thought that I had to pull up and be, you know, big gangster Juju. You know what I mean, and just be ready to go guns blazing. But what I found is that, and what you can see in the film, is that Juju is just trying to figure out what he wants. Mostly, you know, he's just trying to figure out what seems right to him. He's so young that he doesn't really know. Like, it's easy to say, "Oh, you know, my big brother took a separate path"....
He went on to say that it was very freeing, and "a big gift" for him to be able to let go a little bit.
Shannon:...I think that there's a line in the movie where he's like, "Not everybody has the opportunities that you do." But that's a very singular way of looking at his life and your life. And so it was honestly a big gift for me to be able to come into this thing and say, I don't know everything about this culture. I don't know everything about this community. But I'm here to be a sponge, and I want to amplify what seems right, no matter what decision Juju made. That, I think, was probably the biggest gift to help me as I created that character.
LATEST NEWS
