This Bay Area singer encouraged a ‘Sinners' breakout star to audition
Vallejo R&B singer H.E.R alerted Caton, a Brooklyn musician, about the role in Oakland director Ryan Cooglers ' latest project while they were touring together.
'She called me one day after we got back from tour, and she was like, 'Bro, somebody was in the crowd watching you, and they want you to audition for this role. I think you'll be dope,'' he recalled during an interview with Variety earlier this month. 'I was like, 'OK,' not really knowing what to expect.'
Within a few weeks of auditioning, getting a call back and sending in a few videos, the role was his — marking his first acting gig.
Caton has been singing since he was 3 years old and joined H.E.R. on her 'Back of My Mind' tour in 2022 when he was still in high school. He also performed alongside her when she opened for Coldplay's 'Music of the Spheres' world tour. After the trek, he returned to school and graduated in 2023.
The 20-year-old actor plays Sammie Moore, the son of a local preacher and the teenage cousin of identical twins Smoke and Stack (Michael B. Jordan), in Coogler's latest box office hit. The film folds the supernatural into an allegory about racism in the Jim Crow South and has been embraced by moviegoers since its release on April 18.
'When I first got the script, it was like a tiny side (role about) a kid playing the guitar and I read a couple of lines. I didn't know everything I do now, but I was like, I'm just gonna try and see where it goes,' he said. 'Then actually getting the whole script was just like, wow.'
The horror film made $63 million globally during its opening weekend, setting the record for the highest-grossing debut of an original movie not based on existing material in the 2020s.
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