It’s difficult to keep up with Jahi Winston. He’s an up-and-coming young actor that continues to keep busy with an abundance of exciting projects being released within the last year. Having previously interviewed Jahi for his role in last year’s release of BET’s hit mini-series, The New Edition Story, Editor-In-Chief LaKenya Norris spoke with him once again to chat about his new film, Proud Mary which was recently released and premiered on January 12th. This is his first major film project and we couldn’t turn down the chance to speak with him again about the experience.
Just now starting high school, Jahi has already had his share of notable roles. He started his professional acting career out in the coveted role of “Young Simba” in the Broadway stage adaptation of Disney’s The Lion King. This lead to his transition to film in 2016 with roles in popular television series such as Feed the Beast and the aforementioned The New Edition Story. Although he considers his time on stage to be one of the best times of his life, his switch to film wasn’t as drastic as expected.
“Production-wise, there aren’t that many differences. They still have your things that you can say and things that you can’t say…and in making it [film], it’s not very different on my end,” he admitted. Now with the current release of Proud Mary, Jahi is tackling his first major role in a feature film and there couldn’t be a better type of project to have for a big screen debut. This is a big budget Sony Pictures and Screen Gems movie featuring some big names such as Taraji P. Henson and Danny Glover after all. He plays the role of “Danny”, a young teenager who just so happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“Proud Mary is about this woman who works for an organized crime family and things go wrong when she has a professional hit and it kind of goes haywire…my character, Danny, is kind of a victim of that professional hit and everything kind of takes a turn and goes from there…The audience will be most surprised by how character-driven it is. Action movies mean so much more when there is an order behind every decision that passes in the film. I’m very excited that audiences will discover the heart of it. It’s one of those movies where you’ll be shouting at the screen, you’ll be crying and you’ll be laughing at some parts,” he explained.
Not much more could be said about the film without reaching spoiler territory. And if that isn’t exciting enough, Jahi can also be seen in the upcoming Netflix dramedy, Everything Sucks! in the lead role as “Luke”. No release date has been given, but the series is set to be released sometime early this year. Although there isn’t much to be said about the show as of yet, but he was eager to comment on his own expectations.
“Everything Sucks! comes out at the top of [this] year. I think my generation will love it…that’s another tear-jerker one. That’ll be amazing. It’s a 10-episode dramedy series and I’m very excited about that one.”
As previously stated, it is hard to keep up with this young artist. His IMDB page is filling up fast with new projects popping up at all times. Who knows? We may need to interview him a third time if he keeps moving at this rate. Either way, it’s always a pleasure to speak with Jahi and his sky rocket to success. Be sure and keep an eye on him because it is only a matter of time before he becomes a household name.
Follow Jahi Winston:
Instagram: @jahiwinston
Twitter: @jahidiallo