|
|
|
i canāt believe that people still sleeping on tHIS FUCKING MAN
BOY OF THE CENTURY AND NOTHING ELSE MATTERS EXCEPT MY OPINION
#nehemiah prince #roman perrish #jason woolfe
Prudence and Ambrose are the bisexual power couple we deserve.
oh baby he really just did that???
Build NYC interview with Nehemiah Prince, after being asked what it's like working on a show that takes such great care telling LGBTQIA stories: "Weāre in this world where ethnic minorities are 'hot', that makes money, and you have LGBTQIA 'quotas', but what I like about the show and Netflix in particular is they donāt seem to use that as a buzzword or quota. They paint us as multi-faceted individualsā¦ because thatās what we are. It makes sense. Netflix makes global content, they need to represent authentically otherwise whoās gonna watch their shows?"
A lovely anon asked for the transcript to Nehemiah's appearance on Build NYC today. You can watch it here.
Matt Forte: Ohhh goodness gracious, hello world, what is up? Welcome to Build! Iām your host, Matt Forte, and we are LIVE in New York City. You know our next guest for his phenomenal work on Netflixās Chilling Adventures of Sabrina as Ambrose Spellman, and if youāve watched all ten episodes of Part Two like I have, then you know for every question answered there are still a bunch more, especially when it comes to Ambrose.#nehemiah prince #chilling adventures #ambrose spellman #detective pikachu #knives out #buildnyc #transcript #interview
In addition to being awesome on this show, heās also played my personal favorite Miles Morales in the Oscar-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse ā we can applaud for that, canāt we? You can catch him next month in Pokemon: Detective Pikachu, and this November in Greg Newmanās highly-anticipated return to mystery Knives Out.
Heās wonderful. He does wonderful things. Heās here to have a wonderful conversation. Folks, the great Nehemiah Prince is in the building - are you excited? Iām excited. Just had to make sure. Iām not gonna bring him out here if youāre not excited, but it sounds like you are. Uh, weāre gonna do it in just a second. Weāre gonna kick things off, bring him out here, have a chat, itās gonna be great. But first I believe we have a trailer for Part Two of Sabrina, so letās go ahead and rollā¦
ā¦Ladies and gentlemen, give me a ridiculous amount of noise - the great Nehemiah Prince is right here.
Nehemiah Prince: Hey, hi!
Ah, dude, congratulations. I mean, onā¦ life, right now. Youāve got so much going on. Part Two is out. People have watched it, people are in the process of watching it. We all love it. Itās fantastic. Uhh, Detective Pikachu coming out next month. Knives Out is huge! When is Newman dropping the trailer, can you tell us? The fans went crazy for the preview at CinemaCon.
Nehemiah Prince: Thatās crazy, right? Every time someone says something — it doesnāt sink in? And then every time someone says something, itās likeā¦ my stomach just flips. Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, James Patridge, Michael Shannon, Daniel Craig, Toni Collette, Christopher Plummer — and then [gestures to own face, incredulous].
Itās out of control, man. When they told you you got that part, where were you, what happened to your world? Where did you receive this information?
Nehemiah Prince: I still havenāt received this information, if Iām gonna be honest. I havenāt. It was like, 8 AM. I was asleep. My agent calls me and sheās like, "Hello? Oh - sorry to wake you, but uhā¦" SORRY TO WAKE YOU, no, call me whenever, wake me up at 2 AM.
Apologizing to give you some of the greatest news youāll hear. Dude, Iām so ā Iām so happy for you because itās an amazing time in your life. I wanna dial it back ā before we even dive into where we are at present day, and I apologize for asking you to tell a story youāve probably told a bunch, but I only recently found out your road to Chilling Adventures ā¦ it was a longā¦
Nehemiah Prince: A winding road, yeah.
You were on World of Dance — did everybody know this already? — and before that you were a backup dancer for Stazzi. How did that happen?!
Nehemiah Prince: Wellā¦ Dancingās been a huge part of my life for a long time. When I was fifteen, Anaā¦
Stazzi?
Nehemiah Prince: Yes. Our families have always been close, sheās known me pretty much since I was born. Told me if I got my grades up I could perform with her in Mexico. Nothing motivates me like a challenge. So, my little brother tutored me. Oh ā he has an album out, Free Spirit, yāall should buy it. Watch Sabrina first, right? But then buy it, stream it, because without him there would probably? be no Ambrose.
Your brother is Nykko, right? The R&B singer?
Nehemiah Prince: Yup. Yeah.
Iāve heard it, itās good!
Nehemiah Prince: Yeah, heās disgusting.
Your family has some serious talent in it. Your Dad is Titanicās Jack, for crying out loud.
Nehemiah Prince: Weāre disgusting. But ā so, my grades were good, and Ana was like, "Well, shit, Iām stuck with him now." Nonono, she wasnāt like that! I mean, maybe she was like that, but not to my face ā and we went to Mexico. It was amazing. Life changing. Legit, life changing. This was her second tour, already a pro at it, but she really took a risk bringing me with her and like ā thatās not the kinda thing you forget, ever.
Thatās so cool. Obviously you impressed because youāve been touring with her ever since.
Nehemiah Prince: I love doing it. Sheās a great person to experience something like that with. Working with her on Enigma has been a highlight, for sure. When I was putting the crew togetherā¦
Yeah, tell us a little more about that. You have this dance crew in Los Angeles, We The Prodigy, that you founded when you were sixteen?
Nehemiah Prince: It started out as an extension of these classes I was teaching in Dallas during the summer. I had it in my head thatā¦ What I wanted was to make a collective ā of very talented people, very driven people. A place for us to go, collaborate, support each other, create. So, over time it got bigger and bigger, and eventually I started teaching in other cities ā Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Toronto ā and, bigger and bigger, but it didnāt really take off till I rooted myself in LA. The dance community is huge. Weāre like a family. When we were on World of Dance, we had people messaging us from all over, "Hey, we saw you on this..!"
Now that youāre acting ā kind of, transitioning into this new phase of your life ā will you keep doing the dance thing?
Nehemiah Prince: In some capacity, yeah, I think so ā I hope so ā but, at the same time itās likeā¦ there are only so many hours in a day? Where do you choose to spend them.
Sure, sure. Youāre a busy guy. Unlike me, who binge watched Part Two in a single sitting. Pretty cool thing some people might not know, the role of Ambrose was written for you, right? Is that flattering? Is it a lot of pressure?
Nehemiah Prince: Itās enormously flattering. One of the first auditions I did was for Jughead on Riverdale, and it was a self-tape ā I knew I got real close, I was sending in tape, after tape, after tape. Round after round. Finally they were like, "No, sorry, but you were close," and I was justā¦ alright, good feedback! But it wasnāt till I was doing screen tests for Sabrina that Roberto pulled me aside and was like, "Brother. Do you know how close you got?" And I was like, "No, tell me!" It was between me and maybe, I donāt know, three or four other people. So then, yeah, he remembered me and he wrote the role of Ambrose with me in mind. Itāsā¦yeah, enormously flattering for someone to say, "Iāve been thinking about you for two years and youāre the only one who can do this thing." Youāre kinda like, oh God, I hope I can do this thing?
Does that mess with your head a little bit? For someone to sit there and tell you, "I thought about you for two years. And I thought of this character that only you can play. Here you go!"
Nehemiah Prince: Oh yeah. I have a meltdown before every project I do. People ask what your process is and itās like, thatās it. Guys, I meltdown. The first day, first shot, first anything Sabrina, it was like a ā thereās this monologue I do in an episode, and I was messing it up so bad. The words ā itās like I forgot what English was. Roberto comes in, "Brother. This is one of the most important monologues of. this. episode."
I love your Roberto.
Nehemiah Prince: [Laughs] Heās like, "I need you to sayā I need you to get it right."
No pressure.
Nehemiah Prince: Baptism of fire.
How appropriate. When you received that phone call, did you get an apology for that one too?
Nehemiah Prince: Oh nah, that was much more ā it was very LA. I got it by DM.
What! No, justā¦
Nehemiah Prince: [Valley girl accent] "Congratsss, totes proud of you."
You got told through emojis!
Nehemiah Prince: Yeah, the film emoji and the thumbs up emoji. Nah! David Rapaport just sent me, all caps: CONGRATULATIONS! And my manager called just, ten minutes after that, and I was like, "This is great, but I gotta call you back, I gotta call my Mom." She picks up, and I just started crying ā that was all she needed, she goes, "What! You got it?" and all I could say was, "Mom," and we cried on the phone together forā¦ I donāt know. I think she threw up.
What! Thatās sweet, and gross, just the thought that your body is so consumed by this emotion that it just kindaā reacts. Pretty amazing. My God. How did she take the Oscar nom? Is she alright?
Nehemiah Prince: Everyone close to me lost their ā lost their minds over the Oscar nom for Spider-Verse, because it was such aā¦ powerful moment for all of us, but nobody loses their mind like my Mom does. That time I think she threw the phone. It was like, "Mom, youāre never gonna believe," and then there was a crunch and the line went dead. Itās like [mimes hot potato] uueeghhh!! But she hypes me up like nobody too, after the Oscars, after we won, I'm sitting there and my phone is just ā vibrating, nonstop. Heart emoji, heart emoji, kissy, hatching chicken, kissy, heart, heart, heart. That FaceTime was something else. She hosted a littleā¦ screening, a party, for the kids in our neighborhood to come watch it andā yeah, it was nice.
Thatās beautiful. The pastā¦ eighteen months of your life have just been a complete rollercoaster, havenāt they, man?
Nehemiah Prince: Completely. My life just underwent rigorous astronaut training, man, itās been flipped upside-down, left, right, forwards, and back. Itāsā¦ yeah, itās changed.
And youāve developed a ā as you can see here ā a very devoted and passionate fanbase, very excited fans, um, have you reached that point yet, are people stopping you on the street and asking for photos, have you gotten there?
Nehemiah Prince: I mean. I mean, yeah, itās like an everyday thing. I canā¦ I can go everywhere, itās just [laughs] Iām stopped everywhere. Itās amazing, I always welcome it, you know? It shows the love and support people have for this thing we all love, and for someone to be moved to be like, "Yo, I need to stop you to tell you, I love this show, I love your character." And to even see just, like ā Iāve had all kinds of people come up to me, sometimes theyāre shaking, grown men almost moved to tearsā¦
You promised you wouldnāt tell anyone I did that in the green room.
Nehemiah Prince: Like, once I had this bigā¦ big dude walk up to me, and in the back of my mind Iām like, "Oh, shit, whatād I do?" And heās right up on me, starts shaking, just goes, "Oh my God, dudeā¦"
Yeah, you guys, the show is just so great and itās connecting with people in a lot of ways. The other thing thatās really fascinating is because itās on Netflix, you worked on it forever and itās like all of a sudden thereās a light switch ā boom ā and the whole thing is out there for a global audience. So itās a very, uh, crazy experience for you guys to be going through together.
Nehemiah Prince: Yeah! Um, one of my father figures, heās a stunt guy, he was working in Budapest, right, and someone comes up to him and goes, "Your sonās a famous actor!" He called me up right away to tell me about it. So, itās there. Itās everywhere? I get messages from Japan, England, Russia, Serbia, Chile, itāsā and I read everything. Trust me, I read everything. Everything.
You said that in such a way that a few people got real nervous in this room, like, "Oh shiā he read eeeverything?" Um, okay, so letās get into Part Two, man. Iām real excited to talk to you about it, and Iāll do my best toā hang on, have we all watched it, or watched most of it? [Laughs] Somebody over there got real mad at me for asking that, she looked at me like, "YES, we watched all of it, what are you doing asking us that?"
Nehemiah Prince: "Hunny, please!"
Alright, so, weāll do our best to talk about this without spoiling it too much, but weāve all presumably watched it, and itās been out for, uh, a, little over a week now I suppose. Uh, I talked to Kiernan and them last week ā that Lupercalia episode, man. Wow. You were kinda like the ringleader of all that, manā¦
[Nem and Matt dap]
Nehemiah Prince: YUP.
They got you blowing the horn!
Nehemiah Prince: Booty horns!
Got you blowing the booty horn! People are going crazy. Talk to me about when you read that script, when you saw what was gonna happen, because thatās a wild episode.
Nehemiah Prince: Iāll show you what happened when we all read the script. So, weāre all sitting, all of us sitting around the room reading the script like this, and we all just look up at each other likeā¦ and thatās it! You got Kaden there, and Kaden actually goes, "Maaaan! Why canāt I be a warlock?"
Missing out! We laugh and joke, and that episode is wild, but you end up in some dire circumstances in one particular section of Part Two. How much of your arc are you aware of coming into this show? You talked about day one, but whatās it like further down the line when youāre like, oh my God, I gotta be in these dark places and deliver these dark things. How do you prepare for something like that?
Nehemiah Prince: Well, itās like, Roberto is one of those people who is veryā¦ he wants to collaborate with you, hear your ideas, but at the same time he keeps his cards close to his chest. One of our ideas early on was to really, just, make Ambrose go through it. He liked that, we went with it, so ā I mean, I know significantly more about Ambroseās arc than you guys do, but I think youād be surprised at actually how little I know? I know where heās at in the beginning of Part Three, and I have the history behind us of, like, where heās been and the layers weāve broken down so far in order toā¦ let him continue on this arc.
So, Ambrose is one of those ā thereās a lot of history to him. How much of that do you know?
Nehemiah Prince: I know enough for relevancy. Everything you know is what I know, plus maybe twenty percent more than that, I guess, but itās tough ā the writers want flexibility, they donāt want to tell me something about his history and then get locked into it because then I take that and work it into the character, reflect it in his mannerisms, behavioral patterns, the lens heās using to see these events through. They give me hints. Breadcrumbs. Ambrose has a very, very rich past. I worry more about the emotional journey of the characters than the facts and bullet points, like, whatās brought him to this emotional place and how can I build on that?
Thatās why Iām curious about this, because you need some kind of foundation upon which to build ā you need a lens for him to view these experiences through.
Nehemiah Prince: Right. But this is also serialized tv, so to expect the writers to cast anything in concrete when you have ā I mean, anything could happen, anything could happen in real life that perhaps they wanna reflect in this story. They canāt do that if they plot points a through z beforeā¦ yeah, I think itās fair to keep it open. All I need is whatās relevant to him in that moment, what I need to access in that moment, and the trust is there for the writers and Roberto to help us get there.
Tati was here a few days ago. Ambrose and Prudence have this sort of natural ā they feel like a good fit.
Nehemiah Prince: Shout out Tati!
And she had nothing but great things to say about working with you, of course. Were you excited to see that pairing come down the pipeline? Do you think they make sense together?
Nehemiah Prince: Yeah, I mean, from that very first scene they have together thereās tension, right? It does make sense. They have similar traumas, theyāve experienced similar things. Where Luke was able to kind of, open up certain aspects of Ambrose? I think, Prudence has been able to heal some of these older traumas. They both have these, um, nonexistent or strained relationships with their fathers. Ambrose, in that his is totally absent; Prudence, I mean. Yeah. So, I do think theyāre a very good fit there, especially if theyāre gonna ā ah, I canāt spoil it.
Yeah, no, we canāt spoil it, but we know exactly what youāre talking about.
Nehemiah Prince: Yeah, when they go to the place with the thing.
Totally. You mentioned ā hereās another thing that I think is so great about this show, that even amongst all the wizards, and witches, demons, and the fantasy and all that stuff. The showā¦ I think of like Theoās character arc and Ambroseās sexual fluidity ā this is a show that, with all these characters who arenāt technically human, theyāre still telling very human stories. Itās gotta be exciting to work on a show where you get to delve into all of these things and tell the stories of all these different people, and be a part of that. Whatās that like?
Nehemiah Prince: They donāt brush with broad strokes. Theyāre detailed in their approach. Uh, itās ā deeplyā¦ artistically, and personally gratifying to be able to play whatever part in pushing these authentic narratives. You know, itās likeā¦ weāre in this world where ethnic minorities are "hot", that makes money, and you have LGBTQIA "quotas", but what I like about the show and Netflix in particular is they donāt seem to use that as a buzzword or quota. They paint us as multi-faceted individualsā¦ because thatās what we are. It makes sense. Netflix makes global content, they need to represent authentically otherwise whoās gonna watch their shows?
Precisely. Thatās the beauty of it, theyāre telling real stories. Itās not tokenism, itās not putting someone there just to be there. You got a good point. Alright, I see the counter running downā¦ however, one thing I do have to bring up that is not, technically ā no, actually, it is not at all related to Sabrina ā but I saw it and I got pretty excited over the idea, there is a small, but very lively part of the internet, thatās looking at you for Tybalt in the Prince of Cats flick optioned by Legendary last year.
Nehemiah Prince: What? No shit, thatās wild. I was just ā thatās wild!
Are you in talks for it?
Nehemiah Prince: Uhh, no, but I wanna be, so likeā¦ come through, internet.
Honestly, I canāt think of a good reason why you shouldnāt do it. I think you should be Tybalt. For those of you who are confused right now, Prince of Cats is like a ā how would you describe it?
Nehemiah Prince: Ronald Wimberly already described it for us dude, itās the b-side to Romeo and Juliet. But itās likeā¦ 80ās Brooklyn, hip hop, sword fighting, ultra stylized. Start a petition, man, Iām here for it.
I have some other things to show you, too. I went on Tumblr and I found all these ā let me just ask, how do you handle the love and adoration pouring at you on a daily basis because, I gotta say, these were not very hard to find. "Yeah, but can we talk about how cousin Ambrose is everything I never knew I always needed?" People just absolutely, totally vibing with your character and your performance. What does that mean to you? How do you react to something like this?
Nehemiah Prince: I love it. This is what you want, right? You pour your heart and your soul into your job and to see things like this, itās likeā¦ very validating, it tells me Iām on the right track with what Iām doing that people are connecting so much with him. I donāt know. I melt when I read this stuff. I donāt think you can ask for a better reception.
Fantastic. Kate, do we gotta wrap things up? Donāt blame Kate, sheās just doing her job. We gotta get outta here, but, guys, if you havenāt already go finish watching the rest of this incredible show. If you havenāt watched any of it, I donāt know why the hell youāre watching this, go watch the show! Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is now on Netflix, parts one and two. Parts three and four are coming soon ā have you guys started working on them yet?
Nehemiah Prince: Uhh, we start pre-production beginning of May!
Ooh, beginning of May. Beginning of May we get to see you solve mysteries with Pikachu. Alright! Weāre gonna get everybody a group hug in here, but everybody, come on make some noise, this is Nehemiah Prince right here.
Nehemiah Prince: Thanks you guys!
i'm gonna be in town 18th thru 20th (thu-sat). can you meet me friday at 2p? i wanna go over that list of candidates you sent me last week and schedule follow ups with our top three on saturday.
you think this is the right thing to do too, right? i have a feeling everybody does. telling them i'm stepping down is gonna be fucking hard, but it's not fair to do a slow fade on something like this. y'all haven't been getting enough of me for two years, it's not gonna get any better.
trying to think of how to say i'm sorry without it sounding like bullshit. i am sorry. i feel guilty about this. but new york is where i gotta be right now, and this is what i gotta do right now, and i don't want to limp this along when what it fucking needs is a giant's strides.
are you sure you don't want it? think about it some more, please. you been with me since the beginning bro, i know you'd do everybody right, you're so talented it's stupid and you got a big, big... heart (š¤). no but, you're the only person i'd feel 100% leaving the crew with. it'll always sting, right, like, this isn't exactly what i wanna do, but at least if you're the guy i know it'll keep evolving, keep growing whether that's on the path we set together or a new one you make yourself.
i trust you, i love you, i'll see you.
-n
.
.
.
here he is super ecstatic to be out in the desert with me at 9a cleansing that root chakra. also pictured, him when he was cute. may we all embrace ourselves the way he embraces these plaid pants in this the year of our lord two thousand and nineteen.
Load more comments
stazzi fuckin leo crystal tarot motherfucker
camilla uhhh, where was my root chakra cleansing invite?? i just?? šæjk jk i love you both and THIS IS SO EXCITING!! big big biiiig congrats @nykko, cannot wait to see the show ā¤ļøā¤ļø
alinabaraz @nykko š¦š§ luv u
logic Damn I'm so stoked for you bro!!
empressof THAT'S MY HOMIE šøšø
nykko we're staying on these no 1s bro thank you thank you - everybody else can come get this pic-nic