Page 49 - Flaunt 171 - Summer of Our Discontent - St-John

I
f the past three months of rachel hilson’s life were a color, they’d be purple. an
amalgamation of the placid blue of quarantine and the fiery, impassioned red of social reform. The 24-year-old actor, who stars as Mia Brooks on Hulu’s Love, Victor—a young adult series which sprung from hit film, Love, Simon, and the rocky road of coming out as a teenager, among other challenges—spent the first month of the pandemic grasping for a sense of routine in all of the chaos. She found it in her kitchen.
A connoisseur of colorful vegetables, Hilson’s social media feed is riddled with photos of her culinary masterpieces, with notable shocks of violet—potatoes, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and even homemade tortillas. But her true pride and joy is the purple pesto she creates from Osmin basil leaves from her local farmer’s market, where she also volunteers every Sunday.
“I think by April, I kind of got into the swing of things. I go for long walks and make myself tea every morning,” she says. Though quarantine has undoubtedly required a new way of life, Hilson’s desire to keep creating has led to surprising new endeavors, namely writ- ing and learning the ukulele. “I got the ukulele before quarantine started, but I have definitely gravitated to it probably more than I would have, because I just have more time. It’s extremely meditative and therapeutic to just strum and play.”
The relative calm of March and April, as we all came to terms with the unfolding health crisis, undoubtedly engendered the sociopo- litical unrest of June, as the Black Lives Matter movement swept the nation in response to the murders of Black Americans by unlawful use of police force.
“It’s been a rollercoaster of emotions,” admits Hilson. “That first week of June was extremely rough. I’ve seen what’s happened and what’s happening to Black people in the U.S. and beyond my entire life, but to kind of see everything at once and have people sharing videos and statistics and photos and all at once—it is a lot and kind of traumatizing. And I think that first week was really hard for that reason. Just watching everybody come to [an understanding] about what’s happening. These feelings don’t really go away. I think it’s all very painful.”
As a Black woman working in an industry known for whitewashing and self-congratulatory white saviorism, Hilson is determined that this time around things will be different. “I hope,” she says. “I hope this movement sticks and continues in Hollywood and beyond.”
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PHOTOGRAPHERS: UNGANO + AGRIODIMAS AT SEE MANAGEMENT. STYLIST: ERICA CLOUD AT THE ONLY AGENCY. HAIR: BRIAN FISHER AT THE WALL GROUP USING R&CO. MAKEUP: LOREN CANBY AT A-FRAME AGENCY USING PAT MCGRATH LABS.