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sits in the sunny garden of her l.a. home where she
greets Flaunt over Zoom with a beaming, ear-to-ear grin. Reid certainly has a lot to smile about as of late. A few days before we speak, the Euphoria actor heard that she’d been offered a placement at the University of Southern California. Reid shared the moment via an emotive video on Instagram where she can be seen opening and reading her college acceptance letter. Watching from afar on a separate screen was her mother, Robyn Simpson. “Don’t
cry,” she soothed to her daughter, as Reid announced the news she’d been waiting to hear for months: “I got in,” she relayed, struggling to talk through a flood of joyful tears.
Has the news sunk in now? “Just about!” Reid laughs, lighting up. “I’m still waiting on a few more acceptances,” she reveals, “but I plan to study something in production or acting— that realm of cinematic arts—and then minoring in African- American studies.” A day after receiving her USC acceptance, Reid also received another offer from Spelman College in her native Atlanta. Has she decided where she might be destined? “I’m keeping the decisions close to the nest right now,” she smiles, saying that she is considering all her options carefully. “I’m going to devote my time to both my academics and acting, because they’re both equally as important to me.”
One of the first to respond to her college acceptance news was director James Gunn who replied with a delighted high five emoji in response to an excited tweet from Reid, announcing her USC offer. Just ahead of her college start this fall, Reid will appear in Gunn’s eagerly-anticipated The Suicide Squad summer blockbuster alongside Margot Robbie, Viola Davis, Idris Elba and many more. The film will be released in cinemas (pandemic permitting) this August while simultaneously streaming on HBO Max.
“She is definitely a force,” Storm says of her character, Tyla, who is Bloodsport’s daughter in the film. Her on-screen dad is played by The Wire and Luther actor, Idris Elba. “I don’t know what I can say about it,” she laughs about the still-tightly-under- wraps movie, “but I can say that I’m very excited to see it come out, and I can’t wait for people to see what we did [with Tyla].
It was an amazing experience to film. Idris is incredible. He
has the uncanny ability to just go there, so the scenes I did for him were like tit-for-tat,” she says of their dynamic on-screen presence. “We had such a good time.”
What can fans expect from the film? “I don’t think it’s like the first Suicide Squad at all,” Reid explains, looking relaxed in a comfy outdoor chair as the bright L.A. sunlight glistens against her screen. “It’s so different, so reimagined, and James Gunn
is brilliant—as we all know.” Reid speaks fondly of the director, saying he allowed her creativity to run riot. “He let me have a lot of freedom,” she says. “But also, he would just give me ideas, throw out ideas, and just really try to hone-in and dial-in what we did. He was super-duper helpful. I hope to work with him
again for a longer span of time; he’s brilliant.”
Her pride for the film is evident, as is her excitement for
fans to finally see it after a long year largely bereft of cinema. The teenager is also remarkably grounded, considering she’s about to join one of the biggest comic-book franchises on the planet. Is she nervous about the pressure—and attention—such a high-profile series could bring? “I try to tune all the noise out,” Reid says of becoming “a part of a big universe” like Suicide Squad. “I do a great job of not paying attention to the pressure of people, of the world, of what people want something to be.”
Listening to Reid’s astute responses, it’s easy to forget she is still only seventeen-years-old. But Reid is no stranger to dealing with pressure—as evidenced by her first leading breakout role as Meg Murry in A Wrinkle in Time. Appearing alongside the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and more didn’t daunt her—neither did the reaction she received from people who were, she says, “not for Meg being a little black girl.”
Based on the 1962 novel of the same name from Madeleine L’Engle, an earlier Disney television adaptation of the novel saw Meg portrayed by a white actress. Some of the novel’s early book covers portrayed Meg as a young white girl too. At just thirteen-years-old, when the film was made, Reid knew then this was not only a life-changing opportunity for her, but one that opened a long-overdue conversation about diversity on young people’s screens.
How did she feel, though, when she saw these negative reactions? “It was disheartening and hurtful, but then I’m also a firm believer in, ‘Everything happens for a reason.’ I was in this moment because I was meant to be in this moment, and this opportunity was mine because it was meant to be mine and nobody else’s. Even though it was hurtful, I knew that I had a vision, a job to do, despite all that was going on, whether it was great or not so great sentiments. I had a character and a worldwide range of girls to represent.”
Reid compares it to the reaction Halle Bailey received after being cast as Ariel in Disney’s live action remake of The Little Mermaid back in 2019. “There were even more people upset that she is playing the Little Mermaid, which is so mind-boggling and selfish,” Reid says, firmly, her expression a mixture of hurt, empathy, and anger. “The people saying these things have had the opportunity to see their characters the way they wanted to see them; they got to see them first. The fact you can’t step outside of yourself and want to see a character reimagined for the benefit of others is something that I will never be able to understand.”
She continues: “There will be no change in the world unless people are willing to be uncomfortable. Not only ‘be uncomfortable’ as a blanket statement, but be uncomfortable with themselves. To look in the mirror and say, ‘Wait: maybe I’m a part of the problem?’ I feel like Disney, and so many other big studios, are continuing to highlight and [continue to] give young
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