- You know, if you ask my mother, she is convinced

that the motivation was watching Hannah Montana

and I love Miley, but I don't believe

that that is the reason why.

I feel like when I thought about acting,

the only thing that I really thought about

at the time was theater and Broadway,

film and TV honestly didn't sort of come

into my view until college.

I am Dominique Thorne and this is On the Rise.

(gentle upbeat music)

I went to a Greek Orthodox Middle School in Brooklyn,

shout out to A. Fantis parochial school

of Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Cathedral.

Our second language there was Greek

and I think I realized I had a talent

for acting when I had my first Greek speaking role.

I played Kýpros which was the island of Cyprus

for the Orchidéa play.

(speaking foreign language)

Little rough, but it's alright.

I think that was the first time

that I really felt some like power on the stage.

You know, some onus like, oh this is mine to shepherd.

The age at which I first started playing around

with the idea of claiming actor

as my title was probably around high school age.

That's when I first started acting seriously

or learning the many techniques.

The first role that I ever had was Puck

from a Midsummer Night's Dream.

My freshman year of high school

at the Professional Performing Arts School.

That is a role that is so dear to my heart.

That was the true like moment or I guess like birth

onto the stage, and it was such a physically involved role.

Puck, as we know, is sort of

like the little mystical creature lurking throughout.

So I was like, I would appear at the back of the stage

and then run down like the side hallway to the back,

across the back of the stage

and go upstairs to make my next entrance at the other side.

And then I'd appear in the back on the top

of like the theater seats and like sort of crawl over people

and get to the front and jump on top of the proscenium.

Like, it was such like what a way to enter.

That's probably my favorite role to this day too, actually.

I think a part of the reason why I committed

to being an actor is because there was so much emotion going

on in here that I didn't have the words for.

And it wasn't until I started acting

and especially until I started performing

and learning Shakespeare truly that I learned that,

oh, there are most certainly words for every thought

and feeling that I have going on in here.

And I think from that moment I've been very particular

about the words that I choose to express myself.

One thing that my teacher says

that I sort of have always taken with me is

that you're giving people the opportunity to be changed.

And I think that from that moment I was able to get involved

with theater and also films that have been very thoughtful

in the messaging that they want to give to people.

But it was doing Shakespeare that taught me

that giving people a rest from the stresses of life,

giving people the opportunity to enter into something

that is so different from everyday life is also a gift

and is also powerful.

Learning that, creating that, like training my voice

and my body and my mind to learn these lines

and do that thing felt like the first time

that I think I felt alive.

Whatever it is I'm meant to do in life, I am, I'm awake now.

Like what is my next mission?

Playing Riri Williams I think is the opening

of a door in the universe.

I think that it's allowing for a whole other like,

untapped side of Marvel to sort of run through with force

and the fact that she's being introduced in Wakanda

which has been such a like a home going,

I think for a lot of people,

to see Wakanda represented on screen,

but also just folks in general sort of like,

oh, that dude kind of looks like me.

She kind of looks like me,

like these superheroes are from places

that are familiar to me.

Or at least that's how I felt learning about Riri

and especially getting to tap into her and play her.

So I think that Riri is the first step

of many into a new world.

Stepping onto the set of Wakanda Forever,

probably one of the deepest full circle experiences

I've had the pleasure of feeling to date.

Seeing that iconic panther statue,

to working with Angela Bassett

and also to be directed by Ryan Coogler,

whose film Fruitvale Station was the first film I saw

that showed me for the first time

that film has the exact same power and potential

that I believed and believe that theater has.

So to be there in the room,

on the set of a Marvel show,

playing a Marvel hero felt like I was doing something right

and that maybe, just maybe I should continue

to trust the Lord above and see where this takes me.

So receiving the role of Riri Williams

in Black Panther : Wakanda Forever

also came packaged with the opportunity

to play her in her own titular show

about Ironheart the character itself after Wakanda Forever.

And so I am currently what, one week away from wrapping

that show, which is insane to think about.

So yeah, man, let's all strap in, shall we?

Okay.

The biggest high of my career thus far is really

an amalgamation of different moments.

Playing Riri Williams in Wakanda Forever has given me

sort of a perspective I definitely did not expect to have.

Being in Wakanda Forever within a cast

that I think by nature meant that I had to be as supportive

as possible in terms of supporting the story,

in terms of supporting my castmates,

in terms of supporting my fellow actors

who are in the process of mourning,

came with the knowledge that at some point I will then

be the one who will most likely need support

from others as the title character.

And I think that playing Ironheart in Ironheart has meant

that I've had to show up just sort of beyond the ways

that I was able to show up in spaces prior to.

It was collaboration in a way that I've never experienced

to date because I had never been in that position before.

I'd never been number one on the call sheet before.

That experience only exists because of my time

in shows like Beale Street and Judas

where I was able to witness people

that I look at as titans in this industry do that for me.

To even consider this moment as a high,

I have to consider those as well.

My role model and inspiration is also a two part answer.

I think the first part has to be my parents,

my mom, my dad and my grandma.

Three immigrants that came to America

and from the jump showed me as a child what it is

and what it means and what it looks like

to create the life that you envision for yourself

while also realizing that you are not

in control and ultimately submitting the reigns

to God and letting him do what he gotta do.

On the other side of that,

I'd have to say the late great AJ Crimson.

This is the first person that I met

that really showed me how to carry myself,

once in the spaces that I had dreamt of being in.

(silent screaming)

It wasn't until meeting and working with him

that I had the desire to make somebody else proud.

So much of my pursuit of being able to call myself an actor,

was a solitary journey.

I love the hustle and the skill and the mindset

and the reverence for God that my parents

and my family sort of naturally imbued into me,

but figuring out how to navigate this world was something

that they couldn't help me with.

And the first person to really help me was AJ Crimson.

(silently) Yeah!

So those are my role models for sure.

If I was not an actress, I would probably

be doing something related to my degree

which is in human development,

specifically in social and personality development.

I was super into the human bonding aspects of that field.

So I think I would probably have continued to do research

in that field that would probably

be where I got comfortable.

When I was younger, Tiger Beat magazine would come out

and they'd have like all the celebrity crush sections.

And as much as I loved me some Tiger Beat,

I always wanted to rebel against a celebrity crush.

Like I don't have no celebrity crush,

but I did have like a celebrity role model.

And it started with watching that same boy

that used to play up on Degrassi,

Mr. Aubrey Drake Graham.

Seeing him on the Degrassi reruns that would show

and then follow that up years later in 2015

when he like dropped this album and was on GQ covers.

And I was like, wait, if he's doing this, I could do this.

And he kind of became my blueprint

for like the way that you carry yourself

between spaces and applying the right kind

of finesse for where you are in life.

I don't know if I'm like fully aware

of what exactly the platform is

that I have or what that looks like, but I do think

that I'm very excited to see what new opportunities come up,

to continue to do what I guess is sort of my mission.

About giving people this opportunity to like feel something

or to learn something, or to be changed in some way.

My dream scenario of my life in five years,

I'd probably be traveling the world honestly

and continuing to see the world the way

that I want to see it.

And to take my family along with me

and to continue to give them different opportunities

to see the world.

And prayerfully, in five years

I will also have played some characters

that are starkly different,

that no one could imagine I would've stepped into

after playing Riri Williams or Judy Harmon.

I hope that I get to do something super fun

and genre blending and gory and action packed.

I hope I get to keep playing

with the full gamut of emotions that lies ahead of me.

(gentle music)