Place In The Sun

American Assassin’s Sanaa Lathan brings the heat in Cabo San Lucas​

- Gina Mcintyre

GET READY, AMERICA. SANAA LATHAN IS READY TO REDEFINE the brainy action heroine. And as the versatile actress has proven time and again over a prolific 21-year career, when she sets out to accomplish something, it’s best just to get out of her way.

Ever since Lathan skyrocketed to critical acclaim with a fearless performance as an aspiring athlete in the 2000 indie sports romance Love & Basketball, she’s tirelessly pursued challenging roles in film, television, and theater, building an enviable résumé that underscores her versatility as a performer. She’s done big-screen action (AVP: Alien vs. Predator), drama (Out of Time, Contagion), and romantic comedy (Brown Sugar). On television, she’s appeared on the plastic surgery drama Nip/Tuck and the Chicago political series Boss, and she’s voiced wife and mother Donna Tubbs on Seth MacFarlane’s animated series Family Guy and The Cleveland Show.

Now she’s flexing her muscles—acting and otherwise—in American Assassin, the globe-hopping espionage thriller that opened September 15. Lathan plays CIA Deputy Director Irene Kennedy, a woman who uses her keen intellect and wily resourcefulness to prevent acts of terrorism on U.S. soil. Tasked with ferreting out new talent to execute covert operations at home and abroad, she discovers an especially promising prospect in an angry, agile young man named Mitch Rapp; she recruits him to serve under her command, training him to become a singular, deadly asset.