From her magical nook in New York, Zazie Beetz is immersed in a space of digital warmth. She has a comfortability that, despite not being in the same room, feels as if I can easily sit cross-legged on the floor with her. Beetz speaks gently, but with full intent. She showcases decorations in her home that all carry an intention. She curates her own interior space like a form of catharsis. Beetz says adamantly, “Everything to me has to be functional and beautiful. Every single thing. I want nothing that has zero function or beauty.”

Berlin-born and New York-raised, Beetz’ foray into acting started with a few short films and a mini-series. All of that later expanded into a gamut of characters and a highlight reel that lives in a class of its own, with notable credits as Vanessa Keefer in Atlanta, the transcendental series from Donald Glover, and Sophie Dumond in Joker, which, looking back, was a role and performance that could be said to have helped break the mold for Black women leads in the universe of superheroes and supervillains. Beetz’ latest role is in Black Western The Harder They Fall, a film based on historical figures with a hint of fictional interpretation. Beetz plays the role of Stagecoach Mary opposite film greats: Regina King, Idris Elba, LaKeith Stanfield, and Jonathan Majors.

**ETRO** suit, **SAINT LAURENT BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO** necklace, **BONHEUR JEWELRY** earrings, and talent’s own bracelet.

**LOUIS VUITTON** sweater, **BONHEUR JEWELRY** earrings, **SAINT LAURENT BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO** necklace, and talent’s own bracelet.

Any search engine will prompt tea-stained, grainy images of Stagecoach Mary poised with a gun in her right hand and a commanding demeanor. Beetz reflects on playing a role that contains ripples of historical resonance, “The story itself is fictional, the way in which we pulled from the historical figures is also minimal. Because we had to fill in a lot of the gaps on our own. I did a lot of reading for Mary, and I read a lot about the other characters as well, and even other characters beyond the ones we had in the film. I tried to take an amalgamation of everyone, and I essentially built my character around all of these people.”

When Beetz read the script for The Harder They Fall, each word resonated with her. “As I was researching for this film,” she shares, “it was a different take on a Western and a different energy that I thought engaged me. There are so many subversive ways to do things. And even non-subversively,” she adds, “a good story is a good story, and I don’t want to snub my nose at anything.” Meanwhile, on a BBC Radio panel, the film’s director, Jeymes Samuel, noted that his take on a Western switches the subservient conventions that have defined a woman’s role in this genre. In sharp contrast, Stagecoach Mary is not a bystander to a Western patriarch—she is moved by her earnest convictions. Beetz states, “What I really love about my own character in the film is that she doesn’t really need Nat Love, and while they are still the lovers in the story, and there’s a sweet element to that, I believe that she would thrive and be okay without him, and I resonate with that.”

Beetz expresses that being self-accepting and emotionally aware allows a great facility to love and, in turn, be loved. “I believe that I am an independent individual,” she says, “and I enjoy my freedom and independence. That being said, I have a long-term partner, and we’ve been together for over seven years, and we have our inherent connectivity. We are linked, but we are both also very much independently motivated. I think that Mary has that as well.”

As a young girl, Beetz found herself mesmerized by the likes of Josephine Baker (entertainer and civil rights activist) and the eternally powerful culture lightning rod Nina Simone. “My heroes are people who just carried on in their truth.

I really like Josephine Baker because of her fearlessness. I admire her courage, and I admire that, despite criticism, she created her own type of entertainment.” Similarly, Beetz adds that she honors Nina Simone as someone who persisted despite the pushback she received in being both a deep humanitarian and a politically potent activist as a Black woman.

In the same thread as Nina Simone, Beetz was intent on pursuing whatever made her heart sing. Certainly, unequivocally, a principal guide in her life and a gift to her current wisdom is that of her mother. “My mom shaped me greatly and shaped how I would love to raise my own children someday,” Beetz shares. “She never questioned my interests, she always supported me in everything I did. I truly believe that her interest is my joy. She is a warm blanket that I can always come to. She had a tougher road than I did, yet still approached raising me with gentleness and warmth.” And she beams with a grateful smile, “I just thank her for that, endlessly.”

Often, you see words such as ‘headstrong’ and ‘ambitious’ interlacing in a sentence when describing the characters Beetz portrays. In an episode of Atlanta, art reflects life when Beetz’ character Van sings along in a confident cadence to Donald Glover’s character, Earn. “I want to be in a committed relationship, where I’m valued as a human being and not an accessory,” she says. As if to bring the authored line into real world focus, Beetz echoes this, touching on the notion that she wants to pivot into roles that are tender-hearted as a means to metabolize vulnerability.

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**PRADA** cardigan, vest, shirt, skirt, shoes & bag.

“I am kind of hesitating to play really strong, independent people,” she explains, “because I am not only that as an individual. I want to be able to explore what it is to not be that. In my heart, I feel like I’m a very vulnerable person, but I sometimes have trouble expressing that vulnerability. I find that a lot of people think I’m a lot more,” she pauses to laugh about others’ misguided perceptions, “secure in myself than I actually am, and I want to explore those things. For me, the bottom line is A) would I watch it? and B) is the script good? In any genre, even genres I don’t gravitate towards. For example, I don’t watch a lot of action movies, I don’t find them that interesting. But, Deadpool is really funny. That was a really fun opportunity for me, and I loved doing that. So I don’t want to ever not leave it open for anything, because anything can be interesting.”

Speaking of Deadpool, it ought to be mentioned that Beetz dons the Domino moniker in Deadpool 2. This has given way to young girls clad in DIY Domino attire at Comic-Con, and yes, even action figures resembling Beetz’ likeness. Ultimately, the gift for Beetz is that she embraces her stature as a mirror for others, but makes note that it’s often a daunting task, one that isn’t without its faults. As with all her work, both politically and artistically, she entrusts that her audience understands that she is not perfect. “It feels like it’s a lot of responsibility,” she considers. “Wanting to do right by people who do feel represented by the kind of projects I do, while also not feeling tethered to that responsibility. Women are also vulnerable, and they have weaknesses. I want to represent everything in its full truth. I want to make people proud, but I also want to do my own thing. I think about that a lot, about how people will see whatever role I take, but I also want to honor myself.”

**LOUIS VUITTON** sweater, skirt and boots, **BONHEUR JEWELRY** earrings, **SAINT LAURENT BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO** necklace, and talent’s own bracelet.

Lately, possibly through this desire to honor her true self and not a Hollywood image, Beetz finds herself yearning for the ebb and flow Berlin lifestyle over the rigid doctrine of the American checklist. “What I like a lot about Berlin is that it is a little bit grungy,” she says. “I always think Berlin feels like it has an energy of what I imagine New York was like in the 80s.” And for Beetz, Berlin’s appeal is in that quintessential European joie de vivre. “The friends that I have there are in school, in a career, and have children,” she continues. “I think it’s very American, really, to have that school to career to family mapped out pipeline. Berlin, at least, it feels a bit more fluid.” Here in New York, she witnesses the drawbacks of global capitalism, watching co-working spaces sprout up over family restaurants. “While I love New York so much—it’s the most creatively stimulating—I do believe New York is becoming more and more corporate. I think most international big cities are. I think Berlin is becoming more corporate as well. But with New York, I feel like there’s a little bit of magic that is getting lost. My partner and I want to move to Berlin, perhaps permanently. I like that fluidity, and it feels a lot more human to me.”

Beetz clearly possesses more creative tools than acting, as evidenced by her Beetz Talks Climate, a series on Instagram that fuses her commitment to environmental policy with her ability to command a camera. Through the camera, she broadens the audience’s knowledge about the natural world. With rising environmental concerns, she gives way to concrete actions that can aid movements. In discussing counteracting ecological unease, Beetz states, “I honestly believe that one of the biggest things you can do is—and in some ways one of the easiest things you can do—calling your local representatives. I do believe making your own small shifts is impactful to a degree, but what really needs to shift is corporate culture, and I think legislation is what will do that.”

Beetz’ compassion punctuates each syllable as she continues, “In New York, we fought for housing and called our representatives and legislation in forcing buildings to reduce their emissions, which will affect millions of people versus me not eating one thing or another. That being said, I want to emphasize that I am not perfect, I don’t think any of us have to be perfect.” Amidst the New York skyline in surrounds, though, one can, and should, still embrace the engagement of rooftop communal gardening and perhaps adopt Beetz’ suggestion of nourishing your own body and mind. She warmly laughs when I mention her own at-home experimentations in kombucha making. “I don’t exclusively use the things I make from scratch,” she says. “It’s playful for me, and I do that for fun and experimentation and to see what I can make in my own home. Sometimes I feel like I live in this society where we’re so interdependent on one another—whether you’re in a village of ten people or in a city of millions.”

**TOD’S** coat, **SAINT LAURENT BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO** necklace, **ALEXANDER MCQUEEN** belt, and **BONHEUR JEWELRY** earrings.

Beetz muses on reworking familiar objects in her own home that combat the insatiable consumption echoing in society, “Sometimes I wonder ‘Wow, I don’t know how to make this or do this’ and I’m always interested in how would I engage in this, how would I make my own stuff. And that, to me, is an interesting exploration and me wanting to simplify.” In service to her own growth, everything she engages with is meaningful, down to the content in scripts that come across her desk. She is currently knee-deep in scripts for future projects, but when I ask for her book rotation, she nearly gushes, “Oooh, I am reading Love in the Time of Cholera, Sense and Sensibility, and I just finished a book called The Great Mortality which is about the Black Plague—it’s a fascinating read.”

When asked about the words of advice the now 30-year-old actor would impart to her 16-year-old self, her eyes move from side-to-side, caught in a thoughtful vacuum of nostalgia. “Firstly,” she declares, “I would say follow the fear. If you do things that you are scared of, it will feel uncomfortable. All the things that you are scared of then, you are going to be scared of later. The only way to minimize the fear is to just do it, then it will be desensitized to you. You can hold onto these fears forever, or you can just dive in and go for it. Secondly, that pain and sadness is fleeting and changes. Change is the only constant, so don’t fixate on things that are difficult. Carry on and feel them and process. Don’t feel like it will be the rest of your life. Lastly, in the same vein of fear, be active and be the captain of your life, don’t let it happen to you. Believe you can be the captain.” Through her life affirmations, her project selections, her words of wisdom, Beetz remains gifted in her purposefulness and wonder. All aboard.