Page 128 - The Book For Men Spring/Summer 2023

“That’s what it’s like to experience something that’s timeless. The immediacy of great art can speak to now and forever.”
JACKET BY DIOR; WATCH BY ROLEX.
Though he cuts an intimidating figure, permanently clad in sleek leather jackets and dark turtlenecks while oozing a controlled menace, Common is quick to locate the family connection that grounds the character. Sims has a son and a wife and desires more than anything to keep them safe. He also has a responsibility to protect the other residents of the silo, which unfortunately might mean suppressing any inconvenient truths that could potentially incite a rebellion or otherwise drive order into chaos. “He has to manipulate things sometimes to keep control, which is something we know that governments do,” he says. “They plan, they are very smart in certain ways, and do things to keep people distracted, keep people in fear, keep people in order. Because the silo’s a difficult place to be in, but also people realise that it’s their way of life, it’s their culture, and they want to protect it.”
The metaphorical timeliness of finding yourself stuck inside, being unsure if the government is lying to you, and feeling as though you are slowly losing your rights is not lost on Common, but he insists that governments have lied to their people since the beginning of our history. There is nothing new under the sun or, in this case, under the dirt. While he allows that the comparison is salient, to him these are larger philosophical questions. “If we think about the silo, people are being told that what’s on the screen is what it’s actually like outside, but they have no idea what the truth really is. And I think that’s one
of the things in society, and I’ll speak to America — people have to discover for themselves what the truth is. Certain things are true: a bird is a bird, a tree is a tree. But individuals have to be allowed to develop their own perspectives too, along with certain universal truths that exist. And in the silo, you get to see how this structure doesn’t allow you to develop your own way of thinking.” The feeling he describes, however, couldn’t be further from the experience of actually making the show. “I feel like I’m working on one of the projects that I’ve been most inspired and enthused and fulfilled holistically.”
The actor also recently completed a run on Broadway in Stephen Adly Guirgis’ 2015 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Between Riverside and Crazy. “All the actors I knew, not to mention acting teachers, told me the stage was going to be the most challenging experience for me as a performer,” he recalls. “Some also said it would be the most fulfilling, and I think both were right.” For someone who had grown up loving theatre, it was a dream come true. He knew he had the acting chops and had certainly rehearsed enough in his acting classes — but until he stepped on that stage, he would never truly know what was demanded of him.
What was incredible for Common from the jump was the amount of prepa- ration involved in the process, not to mention the discipline required to actually carry it out. During early read-throughs, he found it very challenging to sit
128 BFM / SS23 FEATURES / COMMON KNOWLEDGE