Harrier Landing

Following her big break in Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlans man with a starring role in Tom Hanks’ new film, Laura Harrier ’s career is soaring. Here, the American actress talks to Jane Mulkerrins about red-carpet fashion, reshaping romcoms and the power of speaking out

It’s Friday lunchtime in the busy restaurant of a stylish hotel in New York’s Tribeca and Laura Harrier isn’t mincing her words. ‘Dick pics are unsolicited sexual advances, and nobody wants to see them,’ she sighs. ‘Keep your clothes on until you’re with somebody in a consenting situation, and then you can take them off.’ Recently, the 29-year-old actress went viral on Instagram calling out men who send her unwelcome shots of their genitalia. ‘When I posted that, I was really pissed off, but I also just thought it would be funny,’ she recalls. ‘Then, all these young girls were writing to me, being like, “Thank you so much for saying that. I hate it when that happens.” Teenage girls have to put up with so much.’

Sipping a cappuccino in our leather banquette, Harrier goes seemingly unrecognised by the fashionable hordes. I can only assume that the extravagant Afro wig she sported in Spike Lee’s Oscar-winning BlacKkKlansman, has thrown them off the scent of there being a rising star in their midst. I’m not sure she’ll be able to enjoy a coffee in such uninterrupted anonymity for much longer. Harrier’s short but impressive career to date is a testament to savvy selectivity; she followed up her 2017 film debut (as former love interest Liz Allan) in the blockbuster Spider-Man: Homecoming with BlacKkKlansman, and has just finished filming Bios, a science-fiction drama with Tom Hanks, set for release next year. Her first independent film, Balance, Not Symmetry, was released in July.