Street Dreams

Naomie Harris gears up for fall—and her forthcoming role as a rookie cop—in bold nineties-inspired looks

- Britni Danielle

On-screen Naomie Harris has just about done it all. After bursting onto the scene in the 1987 British kids’ show Simon and the Witch, the North London native went on to play a badass zombie slayer in 28 Days Later, a mystical goddess in Pirates of the Caribbean sequels, Winnie Mandela in Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom and Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond franchise. And in 2017 Harris was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for her portrayal of Paula, a mom struggling to kick her drug habit, in Barry Jenkins’s Oscar-winning film, Moonlight. While Harris has depicted a cross-section of characters over the past three decades, one principle has guided her entire career: representing Black women.

“I love to play strong, independent female roles, and I love to portray positive images of Black women,” Harris says. Her latest film, director Deon Taylor’s gritty action flick, Black and Blue, allows her to do just that. In the movie she plays Alicia West, a rookie cop who inadvertently records a fellow officer killing a drug dealer in cold blood. When West decides to do the right thing and break the blue wall of silence, the dirty cops in her department try to take her out. The result is a fast-paced, heart-pounding film with Harris in the middle of the action. “I was on the edge of my seat, thinking, Wow, this is such a roller-coaster ride,” she says of the first time she read the script. “I didn’t know what was going to happen. I was hooked.”