You met him as a superhero on Watchmen and a supervillain in Aquaman.
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is trying to stay present.
He’s made a habit of moving with each project Atlanta forWatchmen, Chicago forCandyman.
Credit: Yotam Shwartz for EW
“I’m open to embracing the moment.
Unfortunately, the latter’s release date waspushed back to 2021due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
We suspect Abdul-Mateen isn’t fazed by that, though, because he’s nothing if not adaptable.
Yotam Shwartz for EW
Look no further than his rapid rise; Hollywood success wasn’t always part of the plan.
“That was really the seed.
At that time, I thinkarchitectwas a new word.”
Parrish Lewis/Universal Pictures and MGM Pictures
Abdul-Mateen uses the wordimpressionableto describe himself repeatedly.
His openness to other people’s ideas is a crucial component of his character.
So he did, and caught the acting bug.
Niko Tavernise/NETFLIX
at Yale School of Drama instead.
“I think I was sort of blessed with a curious mind and I believed in myself.
So I was always willing to try things and take what I thought was good advice.”
Matt Kennedy/Netflix
He continues: “I’ve always been blessed with people who believed in me.
I probably would’ve understood where they were coming from.”
Looking back on his journey, he does recognize a connection between his two passions.
Mark Hill/HBO
“It’s all creativity,” he says.
Ten days after graduating from Yale the guy moves fast!
Abdul-Mateen hit the dance floor as disco impresario Cadillac on Netflix’sThe Get Down, jump-starting his career.
Jasin Boland/ ™ & © DC Comics/Warner Bros.
“Baz shot me like a superstar….
I began to see myself in a certain way,” he says.
“More importantly, or fortunately, the industry and viewers started to see that in me.”
“I always thought I was built for a very large format,” he says.
“I have an appetite to take up space.”
He never saw himself in a horror movie, though.
Abdul-Mateen auditioned for Peele’sGet Out, but wasn’t cast.
“When I heard his name, I was so excited,” DaCosta says.
“I gravitated toward Anthony because [he] was not a fantastical character,” the actor says.
(Sound familiar?)
“That was going to be important in those courtroom scenes.”
He never bowed his head and he never showed defeat.”
“Right now, I have an appetite for stories rooted in historical experiences,” he says.
So maybe it’s less about being present for him.
Maybe it’s more about prescience.
Watchmen(HBO)
The omniscient Doctor Manhattan is made painfully human in his hands.
