GROWING UP, BOOTS RILEY BADLY WANTED TO become a superhero. Like, a real one. Scrawny and nerdy and on the edge of adolescence, he started to hone his craft-swinging nunchucks, throwing stars, sneaking into and out of rooms without detection. "Had I stayed on that track, I probably would've become a cop," he says over Zoom one recent afternoon. Instead, he discovered Prince, fell into music, fronted the rap group the Coup for some two decades, and then, in his late 40s, suddenly emerged as an in-demand movie director.
Riley, now 52, is talking from his Oakland home, an early-20th-century Victorian fittingly built by a pioneer of art photography. Riley bought the place four years ago, after the success of Sorry to Bother You, his screenwriting and directing debut. An outrageous black comedy set in the world of telemarketing, the movie offered a blistering indictment of capitalist greed wrapped in a surreal bow. And to anyone who saw the film, it marked the arrival of a singular new voice in cinema. The movie went on to earn six times the roughly $3 million it had cost to make, which presented Riley with opportunities.
What, Hollywood wanted to know, would he like to make next?
A superhero story, as it turns out. But not one that the average Marvel fan will recognize.
Less a genre homage and more a send-up, his new seven-part limited series I'm a Virgo (which drops June 23 on Prime Video) is about a 13-foot-tall Black teen from Oakland named Cootie who, after having spent his life in secrecy, ventures into the world for the first time. Riley may have had mainstream money to work with this time around, but that doesn't mean he made a mainstream product. Wouldn't have even known where to begin.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة Summer 2023 من Esquire US.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة Summer 2023 من Esquire US.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
hasan minhaj had a very strange year
The comedian felt the wrath of the Internet AND lost a career-defining job opportunity. NOW he's back with an interview series, A NEW NETFLIX SPECIAL, and a fresh perspective on his COMEDY.
the perfect girl friend
Flirty, sexy, seductive, supportive. Your AI companion can be whatever you want her to be. And now a growing number of men are turning to bots to ease their loneliness or satisfy their kinks. The choices are endless. The emotions are real.
thinker
Andrew Garfield has big ideas about life and death-even a theory about the nature of time. Over an afternoon at one of his favorite New York City haunts, the actor let us into his world.
priceless
At Hermès, Axel de Beaufort will make whatever you imagine. Its value can be measured not in dollars but in the hours spent crafting it and the beauty it adds to the world.
shoes with staying power
The Shannon lace-up from Church's is a study in enduring style
THE MIDLIFE CRISIS? TRY THE THREEQUARTER-LIFE QUANDARY.
Black men's life expectancy is short, thanks to history. At 49, am I on the downslope?
HOW THE DEMOCRATS GOT THEIR GROOVE BACK
They've been flinching ever since Reagan, but the party has finally figured out who they are.
WRITTEN ON THE BODY
As we age, we're fighting a losing battle against memory. Maybe that's why, in my 40s, I've tattooed myself with everything I can't bear to forget.
I Wore This Jacket to Death. Now It's Even Better.
Menswear designer Aaron Levine, who helped revitalize brands like Abercrombie & Fitch and Club Monaco, explains why he reaches for his Carhartt again and again and again
Check Yourself
Todd Snyder and Woolrich have teamed up to create a new breed of wearable luxury fashion. The iconic buffalo plaid remains a staple.
