Welcome to the ninth installment of ACTING UP, a regular Casting Networks feature designed to call attention to standout roles and performances in television/streaming and film. Each entry spotlights work in projects that have recently been released as well as work in projects being released that same week. The column also covers how those actors and actresses got to where you see them now. Read up and watch these performances as your weekly in-home acting class.
Ninth up: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, who stars in the ABC legal drama “The Fix,” which premiered Monday on ABC; and Haley Lu Richardson, who co-stars with Cole Sprouse in the romantic tearjerker “Five Feet Apart,” which opened in theaters on March 15.
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
THE PERFORMER: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
THE SERIES: “The Fix” on ABC
THE PERFORMANCE: Yes, the man’s name is a significant spelling challenge. But Akinnuoye-Agbaje also happens to be one hell of an actor as he makes clear in this 10-episode legal drama that features Marcia Clark, prosecuting attorney in the O.J. Simpson trial, among its executive producers.
Indeed, any similarity between this fictitious series and that of the actual Simpson case is purely intentional. Picture this: Akinnuoye-Agbaje portrays Sevvy Johnson, an actor who goes to trial on a double-murder charge but somehow beats the rap. As the series opens, it’s eight years later, and he’s under suspicion again— this time for bludgeoning his girlfriend to death.
It makes perfect sense that Sevvy is now a little touchy about everyone thinking he’s guilty before he’s even officially accused.
“You’ll never get me, I’m an innocent man,” he says with perhaps a bit too much menace. “My girlfriend is dead—so I don’t give a damn about your stupid rules!” He also whispers to his young daughter when she sees newscasters implying guilt: “Don’t believe what they say on the TV, baby. It’s just people talking.”
Sevvy even goes after the attorney who got him off the first time, telling him, “Look, you’re not my babysitter, and I don’t need a lawyer.” After rethinking it and realizing he may need a lawyer after all, he pleads, “I can’t go back to jail.”
O.J., are you watching?
THE CAREER: Born in England as the son of Nigerian immigrants, Akinnuoye-Agbaje, 51, started his career as a model in Milan. He earned a law degree at King’s College in London before realizing he wanted to act, not hang out in a courthouse.
He’s done pretty well for a guy you’ve never heard of, logging several seasons as a regular on the HBO prison drama “Oz” (1997-2000), 28 episodes on ABC’s “Lost” (2005-06) and on that network’s short-lived “Ten Days in the Valley” in 2017.
Haley Lu Richardson
THE PERFORMER: Haley Lu Richardson
THE FILM: “Five Feet Apart”
THE PERFORMANCE: In this earnest melodrama, Richardson stars opposite Cole Sprouse as two teenagers afflicted with cystic fibrosis and the death sentence that that implies. They fall in love despite the mandate that they remain at least five feet apart because CF patients can catch each other’s bacteria—hence, the film’s title.
“Hello, world,” says Stella (Richardson) to no one in particular, expressing aloud her innermost thoughts. “My lung function is now down to 35 percent.” She’s pretty much resigned to her fate until she meets and falls for Will (Sprouse), who tells her, “We’re going to do our treatments together, so I know you’re actually doing them.”
It’s love-at-first-snipe for Stella and Will with Stella opening with, “Let me guess. You’re the kind of guy who ignores the rules because it makes you feel in control. Am I right?”
Of course Richardson is intense and affecting in the role, saying things like, “This whole time, I’ve been living for my treatment instead of doing my treatment so I can live” and “After all that CF has stolen from me, I don’t mind stealing something back.” Good dialogue too.
THE CAREER: Richardson, who just turned 24 this month, has paid more dues than we might expect. She starred in the 2014 indie romcom “The Young Kieslowski” as a nerdy Caltech student and in the horror flicks “Follow” (2015) and “Split” (2016). That’s not to mention earning second billing behind Hailee Steinfeld in the 2016 coming-of-age feature “The Edge of Seventeen,” which also featured Kyra Sedgwick and Woody Harrelson.
Moreover, Richardson has a second theatrical dropping this month (on March 29): “The Chaperone,” in which she stars alongside Elizabeth McGovern and Blythe Danner. Nice company to be in.
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