‘The Harder They Fall’ Star Edi Gathegi’s Battle to Not Be Just Another Dead Black Guy in a Movie
Virtually every actor, at some point, has to face their death on screen or on stage. There are some, like Sean Bean, whose very presence conjures a knowing anticipation of their eventual fall. Others, like the multitude of Black characters in horror films, speak to the history of racist violence against Black people both within and outside Hollywood, where actors big and small, owing to a dearth of opportunities, are compelled to jump on stories that recognize them as props and not people.
Edi Gathegi knows a little bit about death on screen. He’s died a lot. Perhaps more than the average actor might. From The Twilight Saga to X-Men: First Class, the Kenyan American actor has reckoned with his demise in ways that are both frustrating and illuminating.
“There’s almost a spiritual element to dying on screen,” he tells The Daily Beast. “You have to get to a space mentally where life leaves you over and over again.” And while that “meditation,” as he calls it, is one that most actors have to deal with, Gathegi also knows that his deaths haven’t always meant much. During his younger years, scrapping for work meant that a gig was a gig, an opportunity to put food on the table and hopefully be considered for more work. But those times are changing and he’s become more selective about how his characters’ death might contribute or take away from any one story.