LaKeith Stanfield on ‘I Love Boosters,’ Collaborating with Boots Riley, and His New Musical Endeavor

Snacking on an assortment of charcuterie delights, LaKeith Stanfield greets me from across our meeting room’s table, sporting warm-tinted sunglasses and a pair of ripped jeans.

A major scene stealer in many of the 2010’s most influential films—Get Out (2017), Uncut Gems (2019), and Knives Out (2019), to name just a few—before becoming a pivotal presence of the last decade, Stanfield has executed a broad range of complex, unpredictable characters since breaking into the filmic consciousness with Destin Daniel Cretton’s Short Term 12 (2013).

Chief among these is his leading turn as Cassius Green in Boots Riley’s surreal workplace satire Sorry To Bother You (2018), a singular examination of code-switching and corporate culture’s decimation of identity. Portraying the aptly named Pinky Ring Guy in Riley’s latest I Love Boosters, the Judas and the Black Messiah (2021) Oscar nominee expressed gratefulness for this collaborative reunion with the Oakland director, reflecting on the larger thematic implications of his character and hinting at an upcoming foray into music. 

Damian Danemann: I was really curious to talk about just what a hyphenate of a character you’re playing. I mean, model, fuck-boy, soul-sucking demon. What went into crafting, and combining all these elements from the time you saw it in the script, all the way to personal input and the final film?

LaKeith Stanfield: Well, Boots is such a great collaborator. I come with some ideas. He lets me throw things around. The first thing I thought about with this character was the hair. I was like, I want him to be Johnny Depp mixed with a little bit of Prince. And he was like, “All right, perfect.” So we found that with the help of the brilliant hair team, we were able to come together with this really cool wig. And I just thought this would set it off and create a good foundation for me. Funny enough, sometimes I start at the head for the foundation. And then I worked into … I always viewed this character as a symbol for love, connection, loss, greed, sort of obsessive behavior, ownership and lust and sort of a vampiric essence, which sometimes can happen in toxic relationship dynamics. And I thought it was a good opportunity to explore that.

So instead of it being like a one note, like “I’m just here to take,” I wanted to give some indication that this dude was struggling with something inside, because I think all bullies are just like a hurt child somewhere that didn’t understand how to process it. So I hope that I could give him a little bit more layers even at a glance that, yeah, he’s kind of a fuck boy, but also maybe there’s something that needs to heal within him. Because I think that’s a little bit more interesting than you just being the symptom of whatever it is you’re going through.

DD: For sure. Related to again, embodying and creating the character. I heard he pitched the character to you before he pitched the film. Is that correct?

LS: Mm-hmm.

DD: Why do you think he saw you as Pinky Ring Guy, especially considering I feel like we’ve never seen you do a character like this? And what parts did you see of yourself in him, if at all?

LS: I think that’s Boots is just looking for our next opportunity, as I was, for us to just work together. And he thought that this character’s a cutie pie and he’s like, “You’re cute.” And I’m like, “Thanks.” And so then we were able to come together. And so, for me, love has been a thing that I have had to learn what it is and what it means. And harken back to when I was a child and my parents and what kind of love I felt I received or didn’t receive. And I had to survey a lot of that for this character. And so for me, I knew it would be therapeutic to do that and to interact with what love means to me today, to be married to one of the most beautiful people I’ve ever met in my entire life.

And to know that love is a real thing that you can be captured by and who also was able to act across from me. So it actually ended up being very kismet and symbolic. She’s one of the people that opened me up to a whole new meaning of love. And now we get to explore this through this character who’s having such a challenge with it. Almost feels like a version of me that was left in the past, that didn’t understand what real love felt like, now gets to be realized through me now, who does understand a more healthy version of that. So it was sweet.

DD: I found that to be really interesting, the visual and the physical references. I literally wrote down “the hair, the voice, the puppy eyes.” Was there any inspiration also with anyone you know, whether in a shady way or not, in terms of the character and creating those elements?

LS: Yeah. No shade, but no, I’m just kidding. No, I think everybody at some point has to learn how to love. It’s like you find it in your infant stages in life. And I think sometimes in your pursuit to connect with others, you don’t always realize in the thick of it that you are hurting someone. But just because you don’t realize it doesn’t mean that it’s not happening. And sometimes we’re lucky enough to get perspective and time to reflect and realize like, okay, I was growing, but I’m not a bad person for the mistakes that I made, but the fact that I’m recognizing it now means that A, some healing is taking place, and that more healing can possibly take place. And I think we’ve all been on both sides of that coin to some extent. So I think it’s good to have a character like this that reflects for everybody.

Hopefully there are some kids or young people that could see that in this character and avoid becoming that fucking person because that can also be avoided. So yeah, I was always hoping that this character could be symbolic, this sort of symbolic fuck boy to speak to what happens when you become unchecked in your struggle for love.

DD: Yeah. And I think that also connected to a lot of the capitalist elements of the film too and capitalist temptation and all that. Do you feel like that was something you viewed into the character from the beginning, or how do you feel like you navigated those elements of the character as well?

LS: That’s a good point. I think maybe this character is a microcosm of the macro issue with greed and the need for more and not knowing when to say “enough is enough.” And I think we see some of that reflected in the world today. Always wanting more causes to hurt so many. And I think this character maybe represents that, the sadness of that. And so hopefully it can inspire us to check in with ourselves and be like, “What am I doing? What kind of game am I playing? Is it fair to others? Is it fair to me?”

DD: Oh, yeah. Something that I also asked Eiza and Poppy earlier was about their personal connection to fashion, and in particular for your character, also modeling. How did this influence your approach to the character as well?

LS: Yeah, some of these really big industries that make a lot of money have to contend with the fact that in any capitalist design, somebody has to suffer. And I think that that’s important for us to be reminded of and think about as consumers, as well as people that are companies and people that run companies. It’s like somebody has to hurt in order for us to have this much profit. And at some point, it becomes ridiculous. When you’re a trillionaire, I just feel like some things could probably be helped by you.

So all of these people that really benefit, and I’m talking about really benefit, how could we change the world and make it a better place? Hopefully one can be inspired to think about this because it’s important. Let’s try to put a little bit more good into the world instead of divisiveness. And that’s another thing at the center of this is we fucking need each other.

So why are we fighting over dumb shit? “Oh, your hair is this color, your skin is this color.” Come on. There’s so many bigger fish to fry. We’re literally sitting on all types of bombs and uranium and crazy things. It’s like, let’s find a way to coalesce because we need that and also laugh because we need that. And this film gives all of those different things. And so I thought it was beautiful that … It’s a good question too, because these big industries, big businesses, it all ties into also what my character is going through. Sometimes in the need for more, the need to feel connected, which these companies need because they want profit and connectivity is what we’re all looking for, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

And sometimes us trying to connect to each other causes us to harm each other. Also, you can look at social media and the internet as an indicator of this. As we’re supposed to be connected and closer together, sometimes we have a way of exasperating issues. So before we do that, maybe we need to engage in a little bit of checks and balances with this stuff. Maybe use it in moderation, the internet. Maybe if you’re making a whole bunch of money, maybe you can be siphoned into a way to help people. So that way, the homelessness problem isn’t as bad as it is. Maybe there are ways that we can share a little bit more than we take. So hopefully that’s something that trickles through.

DD: There’s a lot of overlapping elements between this film and Sorry to Bother You. Were there any that particularly stood out to you the most this time around? Anything just about Boots’ approach or your own approach or anything from the moment you read the script?

LS: Yeah. I felt like his imagination was now on steroids. If anybody watches Digimon… they were Digivolved… I feel like this was a Digivolved version of Sorry to Bother You. And he’s talked to me about some of his other ideas after this and he just keeps getting bigger and keeps getting grander, but also more specific. And so I’m really grateful for his voice, and I’m glad that here he had a little bit more real estate to play with because it meant that he could just explore even more. And so he’s somebody that if you let off the chain, we’re going to really experience something new. And so I’m glad to be around that and inspired by it.

DD: For sure. In terms of a big ensemble like this, was there also anything that stood out compared to other projects where you’ve had big ensembles that maybe weren’t as comedy-focused or as socially conscious?

LS: Oh, you know what? I think the casting was really great because not only are these all really great performers, but everyone actually has a heart and cares. And that’s not something that you always find in a cast, unfortunately. But with this one, we found that everyone actually cared about social issues and wanted to put something in the world that made the world a little bit a better place. And it really worked for the cast because what we were fighting for inside of the movie, we were also really fighting for outside of it. So we were lucky about that. So people like Poppy, she’s a big activist and her playing Jianhu was just kismet because her character’s fighting for something important, and Poppy the person is too. So that’s nice.

DD: Eiza and Poppy mentioned the same thing too, where it felt like Boots was very intentional with the casting and making sure that it was people who felt a larger connection to the characters and what they represent.

LS: For sure.

DD: Yeah. Is there something in particular about the character you want people to take away from in terms of not just connection, but in terms of your career or your ambitions?

LS: I think pleasure is important, but it’s not the end goal, and it also cannot be the overall aim in any relationship. It can’t just be about your personal pleasure. It has to be about sharing and making space and being accountable to. And I think if we can take that and apply it to bigger things, that’s beautiful because that’s what it’s all about. We all got to share. We all got to be in this shit together, and we all got to be willing to compromise a little to affect change.

DD: Is there anything else you feel like you want people to get out of the movie or out of your performance?

LS: I am making music now.

DD: Oh, wow.

LS: … and you’re the first person I really talked to that about. But I’m making music and the music reflects some of the themes that we’re seeing in the film, like love, connection, loss, and how to deal with some of those things. So I hope to, as well as in the movie and its music, which a lot of it is original and performed by Keke and written by Boots’ daughter, which is amazing. I’m also a musician, and I make music too, so hopefully people can also enjoy that.

DD: For sure, yeah. Do you look forward to maybe collaborating with a lot of these people in the music as well?

LS: I hope so.

DD: Yeah!

LS: Hell yeah.

NEON will release I Love Boosters only in theaters on May 22.

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Damian Danemann

Damian Danemann is a lifelong film aficionado, starting his awards predicting journey at 5 years old and never letting go since. He was raised in Mexico and moved to the United States during the pandemic, a transition that was essential to his growth as a writer. A student at UC Berkeley, he spends his time producing short films, getting involved in campus organizations, and making good use of his AMC A-List membership.

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