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the Hero), is more of a threat to his Oakland community than its protector.
The experience was physically and emotionally demanding but added an additional layer to Cooties coming-of-age performance.
Having moments where I didnt even know where to look formed Cootie.
Hes still new, says Jerome, who was also an executive producer on the series.
Hes still not a fighter.
Hes still not a villain or a hero yet.
Hes still a lost boy.
As an actor, youve described yourself as a natural comedian and talked about wanting to do more comedy.
What he does just happens to be funny because its so different and weird.
Its not him making a joke; the comedy for Cootie came accidentally.
And although I am naturally comedic, I can admit that I do struggle with comedy onscreen.
The scene where Cootie goes to the club for the first time was day two of shooting.
I did the scene maybe three or four times, and something felt so wrong about it.
I felt like I was doing too much.
I went to Boots about it.
I wonder if he remembers this conversation.
I told him, I cant get it.
I know its funny.
How do I make it funny?
And he said, The script is already funny.
You dont have to make it funny.
Just go and be Cootie.
That was such a great note that he gave me: to just not make it funny at all.
Its definitely a theme Im very interested in.
Three years ago onEmmy Night, everybodys like, Dude, youre the man.
But I was still feeling personally small.
But then I think it also just comes with the age Im playing at the moment.
Im a fan of the superhero genre; I grew up loving superhero films.
But for me, the way into Cootie was his innocence and his naivete.
I threw out the idea that he was 13 feet tall early on.
He wakes up every day and heis13 feet, but thats not a shock to him.
It was playing with the bright eyes it was playing with the multiple facial expressions.
The walk was important for me.
Clearly, I havent walked often, or I havent walked in much space before.
It was trying to find his pigeon toe and his hunched back.
Shooting forced perspective helped me play Cootie a lot more because so often I was very lost.
I didnt even know where to look sometimes.
In the rehearsals, it would be like, This is the greenXmark.
On Cut, Im like, Hey, Boots, man.
Because Im not too sure how that was.
I was so in my head, and I forgot certain things.
I watched the video and I thought,Its gonna be cool.
It sounds like its gonna be fun.But to be honest, sometimes it wasnt fun.
Sometimes it was very hard.
Sometimes it was very frustrating.
Yeah, youve described the forced-perspective set as a carnival.
I remember telling Boots how uncomfortable I was.
Hed say, I can see that, and wed figure out where to go.
There are only a few moments where it wasnt all that bad.
Whenever I was in his room, I felt like I could actually breathe.
Shes arguing, and theyre just going back and forth.
I did the entire scene on the platform.
How did you and Olivia build your chemistry?We had extensive conversations.
We talked a lot about relationships in general.
We were both dealing with relationships separately, and we used a lot of our personal thoughts.
We opened up; we were very vulnerable with each other about feelings that weve never understood in relationships.
Doing that at the surface helped feed all the subconscious stuff.
I was very surprised to see how much we connected without even looking at each other during shooting.
But its been that way since before we were Cootie and Flora.
I was in the rooms doing chemistry reads with all the friends and all the Floras.
How I saw Flora was this very confident, sensual person who has this mystique.
Thats how I viewed it when I first read the script.
She brought in this nuance and this creativity that honestly gave me chills.
Thats all designed and curated by Olivia.
There was awkwardness to Flora; there was a charge behind her eyes.
It was just so layered.
All of a sudden, Flora had this life that was beyond the page.
He loves and cherishes him and has this view of him being this godlike presence.
And you cant ever really … Im trying to word this right.
I love hanging with him funny dude.
Itd be a tight hug as soon as we see each other now.
We were working with green-screen and box sets.
I only went in for one day on it.
So, for me, it was a quick few hours.
You were just so impressed at the detail.
To be honest, I was always like,Dang, this is money!
Eventually, there were just moments where I would just sit back and stare at it.
Conversations between the cast, it wasnt really about How is it possible for the Lower Bottoms to shrink?
It was more so Now that they are shrunken, what does that mean?
And what is the meaning behind them being so small?
Annoyingly and frustratingly enough, I dont think Boots ever gave us any answers.
He would always go, I dont know, man.
Thats his favorite thing to say: I dont know, man.
Its just what it is.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
