A couple of days ago, Kaiser covered Alex Skarsgard’s amazing photospread with Italian Vogue. We got to see his beautiful arms, his shaggy hair and tuggable beard, but we did not get to see him shirtless! These photos of John David Washington are an absolute treat and may have made me bite my lip a few times. He’s promoting Tenet of course, which makes me a little sad for him, although he has Malcolm and Marie with Zendaya in the pipeline. I hope he becomes a huge box office draw, just like his dad Denzel, if/when that’s a thing again. They did him dirty on the cover with that wide-eyed shot (who chose that awful photo? He looks like he has a thyroid problem) but the rest of the photos are lovely. I like the one where he’s staring at the camera and of course the shirtless photo in the coat is my favorite. The interview was an excellent read. He gets a little deep talking about his spirituality and I especially liked how he described his approach to work that was instilled in him by his father. The last time we talked about John David he said he had moved back home with his parents in LA during lockdown, but he’s since returned to NY.
On what he learned from his father
“My father taught me to hunt,” but not in the sense of killing animals, he explains. “Instead, it’s about being relentlessly scientific about your approach to life and work. It’s about developing a system and putting in the hours, because nobody’s going to hand you anything – you have to get it yourself. That’s how a hunter lives.”
What was it like returning home and sleeping in your teenage room?
“It brought back some of the best memories of my life. Like when I was 12 and my father took me to see the Lakers versus the Chicago Bulls at the Los Angeles Forum. We beat the Bulls and after the game I got to go to the locker room, where Michael Jordan signed the shoes he played in that night. I’ve still got them hanging in my room.”
Do you like writing?
“Lately I’ve been writing a journal about my experiences of being back in LA. But I’m not consistent with it. It depends on what’s going on in my life. I was heavily into writing when I started acting. I’d write my prayers down, literally the words that I was thinking when I was talking to God.”
Usually it’s saints who write prayers.
“It was about the process of getting from my heart to my head to the pen. It made me more concentrated on what I was asking for and being grateful for. It was interesting reading those prayers again a few years later. I was embarrassed at some of them, but as I kept reading I realised where I was in my life at that time, how hopeful I was with this new frontier of acting. Praying is also a way to manage my expectations and to know I can achieve my goals if I believe in them, even if they’re beyond my understanding.”
I love how he described what he learned from his dad, that he should come up with a system and work hard to apply it. My dad taught me something similar. I think about it almost every day when I’m making lists and checking things off. I also like how he answered the writing question. He could have gone in any direction with that, but he talked about how writing is part of his spirituality and goal-setting process. This makes me think that I should be keeping a journal. A friend has been telling me how helpful journaling has been to her to process feelings (I know she’ll read this!) and this is even more encouragement that I need to start. I’ve become a lot more spiritual in the past few years due to meditation and I know it’s worked for me to achieve things. I think the writing piece is what’s been missing. Ooh now I need a pretty new journal.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pLHLnpmirJOdxm%2BvzqZmb3BjZ39ze8mon6eXlJbDqrC%2BsJisoJmjtLW7zZigrJejnbazwMueqqyXmaOsrcHOpqaYrp%2Bcwqar05qjpKuPn7y2vs2ao6Kml2Q%3D