Shameik Moore was always going to play Spider-Man. At least, that’s what his journal said. In what’s sure to be a much repeated anecdote, Moore wrote down he wanted to play Miles Morales while he was filming his first breakout role in Dope. ”My friend Kiersey (Clemons), who was my co-star in Dope, gave me this journal and told me to start writing my thoughts. We were on this law of attraction wave, and in my journal I wrote ‘I am Spider-Man, I am Miles Morales.’ And, sure enough, it ended up being that way.”
The thought of Morales came to Moore when he discovered that a black Spider-Man existed, having spotted him on Disney XD’s Ultimate Spider-Man. ”I just remember looking, and being like, ‘Wow, this man is black, I've never seen a black Spider-Man.’
He also saw the physical comparisons between himself and Morales. “It was like looking at myself in the mirror, it looked like somebody animated my face. So I really always felt like I was Spider-Man from that moment.”
JACKET: HELIOT EMIL
PANTS: HELIOT EMIL
T-SHIRT: HERON PRESTON x CARHARTT WIP [COURTESY OF THE WEBSTER]
SHOES: A-COLD-WALL* x NIKE
[COURTESY OF THE WEBSTER]
JACKET: CRAIG GREEN
[COURTESY OF MR PORTER]
VEST: ALYX
PANTS: HELIOT EMIL
T-SHIRT: 032c
[COURTESY OF THE WEBSTER]
SHOES: CALVIN KLEIN 205W39NYC
[COURTESY OF THE WEBSTER]
SWEATER: STONE ISLAND
[COURTESY OF MR PORTER]
VEST: STONE ISLAND
[COURTESY OF MR PORTER]
CHEST RIG: ALYX
[COURTESY OF MR PORTER]
PANTS: DIOR
[COURTESY OF THE WEBSTER]
SHOES: A-COLD-WALL* x NIKE
[COURTESY OF THE WEBSTER]
Morales’s heritage is of importance to the story, as a black and Puerto-Rican kid from New York. Having parents from outside of the USA is something Moore related to, as both his parents are Jamaican — his father is reggae musician Errol Moore. “I personally relate to having family from somewhere else, you know? My culture isn't Spanish, but we are Caribbean and Puerto Ricans are Caribbean, so we're like cousins.”
But while Morales’ background is part of his life, it’s not the full story and Moore is quick to point out that the character is just a kid from New York. “What I really like about this movie is that they don't overplay the black part,” he says. “It’s very relatable. Miles could be more Puerto Rican than he is black — or he could be white for that matter — and the movie would still be the same, but it is powerful that's he’s black. This is just a kid that lives in Brooklyn that loves to draw and his parents love him very much.”
And he’s a kid working alongside a powerhouse cast, including Mahershala Ali and Brian Tyree Henry, who plays Morales father. “It was great to meet Mahershala,” Moore says, noting that he didn’t get to film his scenes in the same room as the Moonlight actor but he did work a bit closer with Atlanta’s Tyree Henry. He states that he filmed the “Dad, I love you” scene shown in the first trailer in the same room as the Widows actor. It’s a scene that encapsulates the heart of the film, showing a tenderness between a black father and son rarely seen on screen. And it’s a relatable moment that allowed viewers to connect with Morales in the same way Moore did with the character years ago.
Moore’s career is relatively short, but varied. The actor and singer has already starred in an animated film — 2011’s Elf on The Shelf — as well as being a lead cast member of Cartoon Network’s Nick Cannon-produced sketch comedy series Incredible Crew. Roles in films such as Joyful Noise and The Watsons Go to Birmingham followed but his breakout role was Dope, where his performance of nerdy ‘90s obsessed Malcolm put him on the map. He followed this up with The Get Down, where he played Shaolin Fantastic — a character a million miles away personality-wise from Malcolm. Is this all strategic? “Most definitely, I'm a strategic guy,” says Moore “I send back roles I don't want to do, or I don't think I should do, all the time.”
And for more, part of this strategy is knowing the power in saying no. “I do avoid roles. I don't want to put my friends on the spot, because they get those parts.” One example Moore gave was of the well-received BET biopic The New Edition Story. “I was definitely supposed to be Bobby Brown,” he says. “The homie that ended up doing it did a good job.” The role was eventually played by Woody McClain, who achieved plaudits for the role. Moore’s reasoning behind his refusal is simple but also a showcase of his confidence.
“I am an artist as well and I haven't put out my music yet. With me executing that role as if I was Bobby Brown, it would have been very convincing, and then people would relate my talent to Bobby Brown after that,” he says. “So when I drop my music, the reaction would be ‘Oh he's trying to do his own thing now.’ And I wanted to control that perception. Basically I would have done too good of a job.”
While this is definitely a bold statement from the actor, it’s clear that his plans for his music are just as ambitious as his plans for acting. “My goal is to be Denzel and Michael Jackson in the same body,” he says. ”I want that big Denzel movie, or three big Denzel movies coming out in one year, and then I want the major Michael Jackson performances on every awards show in the same year.”
The mention of Denzel Washington isn’t an accidental choice, with Moore seeing his roles as differing from other actor/singer hybrids. ”I see myself more along the lines of a Denzel-type of actor.
The actors/singers that we have right now are more funny, and they do different types of roles than I do.”
He expands on this, using Donald Glover as an example. “Donald Glover, he makes people laugh and he's great at what he does in Atlanta. He's got his thing, but the movies that you expect from a young Denzel, like Devil in a Blue Dress, you're not going to see Donald Glover in those — at least in my opinion — but you would see me.”
Devil in a Blue Dress is an interesting example from the actor. While not Washington’s best known work, it showed the actor in a light that Moore would clearly like to emulate. In the film, Washington plays a man who’s sucked into criminal activity by circumstances outside of his control. It’s a role that’s thematically similar to what Moore will be taking up in Cut Throat City, where Hurricane Katrina’s devastation on New Orleans leads to Moore’s character resorting to drastic measures. The similarities are one part of what attracted him to the story, but another was more big-picture focused.
“I really thought the idea of Wesley Snipes playing my dad was a good look for me in the bigger story,” he says. “You know with him playing Blade and everything else he's done in his career, I was like, "If he's playing my dad, that's really cool.” He was also drawn to the film because of RZA directing it and the opportunity to play a character with a darker edge. “Blake has to be a bad boy for a little while. Strictly because of Hurricane Katrina, which had taken out our neighborhood, and now I have to provide for my family — by robbing some casinos.”
During the conversation, Moore’s confidence in his own abilities is clear, but he does admit to being worried about doing justice to the city of New Orleans. “That's the only thing I'm scared about with Cut Throat City, I hope I represent them in spirit. I never got the super authentic accent. I'm representing New Orleans in the heart more than vocally.” In fact, one of the only times when Moore’s confidence seems to truly waver is when The Get Down’s cancellation is mentioned.
“It is canceled but The Get Down was only supposed to have one season, it got one season” Moore says. But that’s not to say that that wasn’t a positive overall experience for the actor. “[The show] was supposed to be like six months and ended up being two years. But that was two years of college for me. There's people that pay to go to college that don't get the knowledge that I got out of The Get Down.”
It was working with Luhrmann, creator of the Netflix show, that inspired Moore’s current self-sufficiency. “He's always inspired me to do things on my own, which is why I'm a do-it-yourself type of guy. He's always told me to ‘write the stories Shameik’, and saying ‘You don't really need all that, you just need a camera, music and a speaker and you can make a video.’ He really believed in me and allowed me to see how a true respected creative works.”
It’s this belief that Moore is taking into his future projects, which are as grand as you’d expect for a young actor who’s already played Spider-Man. “Writing films, writing original content. I want a romance film, I want an action film, I want a scary film, I want a superhero film. Well, I have a superhero film now, I'm Spider-Man, but I still wanna create my own. I want all these things.”
He’s also taken Luhrmann’s advice seriously. “I’m directing my music videos, and starting there, and ultimately, I'll end up…” he trails off, but it can be safely assumed that directing films is a goal. He also has larger plans, some of which he’s reluctant to share and others not.
One dream he shared was an eventual hotel on an island — not an unlikely goal seeing as it’s a reality for the likes of Francis Ford Coppola.
”This is grown Shameik, when I'm about 52, and I'm ridiculously powerful and rich, but still humble. I’m going to humbly open up the greatest vacation experience to ever be created. I'm also gonna open amusement parks, you know? Like Six Flags, but better.”
Moore’s journal, judging from the Spider-Man role, is clearly one of premonitions, so it’d be wise to put in a pre-booking for his private island hotel and amusement park now.
Spider-Man: Into The Spider Verse is out now
