Laura Harrier Is The Hollywood Star With A New York State Of Mind

By Crystal Bell


Laura Harrier never dreamed of becoming an actor; it was more of an abstract fascination.


Growing up, she put on plays and skits for her neighbors, eventually funneling that flair for exhibitionism into a successful teen modeling career. Any time right after high school she moved from the Chicago suburbs to New York City — she was accepted to New York University nevertheless never attended, deciding as a substitute to pursue modeling full-time — she thought she had her future figured out. Although that's the funny thing about dreams: Some days you don't take them seriously up until a tangible possibility arises.


Right after several small-budget student films plus a usual role on One Life to Live, Harrier felt the creative pull of Hollywood. It took years of supporting indie roles and abandoned pilots up until she landed her breakthrough role in Spider-Man: Homecoming. One Spike Lee movie as well as a reluctant cross-country move to Los Angeles later, Harrier is currently the star of Ryan Murphy's Hollywood, Netflix's fantastical tale of an audience of marginalized dreamers in the late 1940s who rewrite Tinseltown's history with a sole film. For Harrier, who stars as actress Camille Washington, the first appeal of the project was simple: "If Ryan Murphy is making something, I think, as an actor, that's an instant yes," she tells MTV News.


Nevertheless she seen a lot of herself in Camille, also. Camille's dream of starring in a major motion picture and the adversity she faces to be the initial Black woman to do so were relatable for Harrier — and thus was the realization that for ladies of color in Hollywood, in 1948 or 2020, it's routinely so much bigger than one role or one film. Over a phone call with MTV News, the L.A. Resident with a New York state of mind reflects on her dreams, working with Janet Mock and Queen Latifah on the set of Murphy’s revisionist drama, and why her Hollywood expectations match, or don’t, her reality.


MTV News: Hollywood depicts a lot of the sacrifices people make for their dreams. Are there personalized sacrifices that you've made to really make things happen in your own career?


Laura Harrier: Leaving New York. That was not something that I really wanted to do although felt required, and I'm rather pleased in Los Angeles. I do like living here soon after a little bit of hating it. It certainly felt like a sacrifice, moving across the nation and relocating to a place that was more conducive for my career, nevertheless probably not where I initially wanted to be.


MTV News: I feel like everybody says that moving from New York to L.A., People find L.A. To be really lonely, at least in that first year. It's really hard to adjust.


Harrier: That's really how I felt. At first it really feels isolating. Honestly, I didn't realize how different it would because I was like, "Oh, it's really all of the same people that you visualize in New York." However it couldn't be more opposite. There is a lot of loneliness, especially right now with the coronavirus. Although I just celebrated my second year [in L.A.], And yes it certainly feels a lot more comfortable.


MTV News: In a interview from 2019, you said that you mention no to a lot of assignments. So I was curious what you mention no to these days and what made the material in Hollywood stand out? 


Harrier: Well, the reality of being a person of color, and especially a woman in Hollywood, is that a lot of things that you receive plus a lot of scripts that people send are [for] stereotypical roles. I'm fortunate that that's happening far less right now in my career. I've worked with astonishing people and been segment of astonishing assignments. So for that, I'm really grateful. Nevertheless that's where a lot of the nos come from, just roles that don't feel totally rounded or feel like a stereotype. However then, you get a person like Ryan Murphy or Janet Mock who really is aware how to tell stories in a way that's exhilarating and fun and cute to look at, nevertheless at the same time has that weight and history and knows representation.


MTV News: What appealed to you about it outdoors of getting to work with people like Ryan and Janet?


Harrier: If Ryan Murphy is making something, I think, as an actor, that's an instant yes. I have been watching his work for really long time, from Glee to The Assassination of Gianni Versace to Pose and American Horror Story. He's so smart. Yet honestly, going into this, I didn't know what I was auditioning for. It was a funny Hollywood story in itself that I got this audition about per year ago. It just mentioned "Untitled Hollywood Project" or something like that, and so they gave me dummy sides from a movie from the 1940s. I went in and did the scene and didn't hear anything at all. So I just sort of figured that it was another job that I didn't get. And four months later I got a telephone call saying that Ryan Murphy wants to meet me and that I'm going to do a chemistry read with Darren Criss. So I went in the second day and met Darren for the opening time, and Ryan was there sitting silently in the corner. I was super, super nervous. However I guess it went pretty well because, the next morning, I got a telephone call providing me the segment of Camille.


MTV News: Having a writer and director like Janet, while also having writers who can speak to a diverse spectrum of experiences, is really key. Did you get the chance to sit down with the writers and talk about Camille's arc? 


Harrier: Janet and I worked with each other really closely while in this process. I am so appreciative of her, her creativity and her intelligence, nevertheless also, I think she is really able to connect with Camille's story in a deeper way than other directors might have the ability to, being a woman of color and having gone through so much adversity and worked so hard to get to where she's at. She really worked for it and was marginalized and had a lot of adversity in her way. So working with her, if anything, I was able to deepen Camille's experience because we were able to talk about it in a way that I may not have with another director.


MTV News: Did you visualize a lot of yourself in Camille? The through line for the characters in Hollywood is that they all have dreams of making it. Camille dreams of seeing herself in a leading role on the big screen. Is that something that you can relate to?


Harrier: I could certainly relate to Camille and I think, had I been place on Earth 80 years earlier, maybe we would've had similar lives. Like Camille, I didn't come from a place where I knew people in Hollywood. I certainly wasn't place on Earth into it in any way. So I could certainly connect with her [and] her understanding that this is about more than herself. Naturally, she wants to be in films and she wants to be an actress, nevertheless she also realizes the weight of her being the opening and why revolutionary it could be for a Black woman to be seen on screen as intelligent and strong and glamorous and cute. And that had never happened before. Prior to that, Black ladies had only been playing maids. So she would have recognized how this is about more than herself, that little females watching her on screen can wish to do something more than society has previously told them that they can be.


MTV News: I particularly love the scene in a later episode between Camille and Hattie McDaniel, played by Queen Latifah. That really depicts how it's so much bigger than one role. 


Harrier: Exactly. I was so excited to find out that Queen Latifah was going to play Hattie McDaniel. That was a surprise for all of us. I have been such a fan of hers and loved her for such a long time, since I was a kid in the '90s. It was really such a dream to get to work with her. There really are a lot of parallels in that scene. Queen Latifah's been incredibly successful however she certainly went through a lot of adversity to get to where she is currently. And I think she's somebody that I admire so much. So I really could just sit there and listen to her story, the same way that Camille listens to Hattie, someone she looks up to. I just had to be present in the moment because it was all right there.


MTV News: Was being an actor habitually the dream for you? 


Harrier: I certainly did not grow up wanting to be an actor. I didn't know that was an alternative, honestly. I grew up in the Midwest to a very typical middle-class family member and that just wasn't something that seemed inside of the world of possibility. It wasn't up until I went to New York to go to school and had companions who were in film school at NYU that it became a possibility for me. Although no, I certainly wasn't that kid who wanted to be an actor. Maybe subconsciously. I was habitually putting on plays and performing for everybody and making everybody sit down to watch me, routinely putting on a show. So, it was something that I think was routinely there, however I just didn't know that it was in the realm of possibility.


MTV News: Was there a specific role or an actor that you remember feeling inspired by any time while you were younger?


Harrier: Halle Berry was the hugest movie star As soon as I was growing up. I think I was 12 any time if she won Best Actress, and seeing a Black woman win Best Actress at the Oscars was incredibly inspiring. It's crazy that it took up until 2002 for a Black woman to win Best Actress. Nevertheless I certainly felt inspired by and looked up to her and felt represented by her in a way that I was thinking about a lot for Camille. What would it have been like if that had happened in the '40s and Camille knew the weight of that moment and why key that could be? What that would mean for representation, what that would mean to so several little brown ladies growing up in this nation, if they had been to be able to see that the way that I was to be able to see Halle Berry having that.


MTV News: Did you rewatch her speech in preparation for Camille's?


Harrier: So several times. And I'm crying. I cry every time I watch it. It's moving and thus powerful, and she's just so lovely.


MTV News: There's a moment in the finale where Camille gets to deliver her own acceptance speech at the Oscars, which I would imagine for any young actor is a dream scenario. What was that like?


Harrier: It was pretty cool. I'm not going to lie: It certainly was nice standing up there with that little gold man. Like I mentioned, I was coming at it from a place of this is exhilarating and something that every actor wants and something that Camille would've wanted for herself, although at the same time, I know just how revolutionary it felt once it happened 80 years later. Just knowing how crucial and groundbreaking that would have been and why it would have really changed history had there been a Black woman winning Best Actress in 1948, I think the world could be a very different place and certainly Hollywood would've been a different place.


MTV News: I think a lot of the show is this idea of what you think Hollywood is versus what Hollywood actually is. As someone who has packed her bags and moved across the nation to chase her own dreams, what's your expectation versus the reality of Hollywood?


Harrier: I had no expectations because Hollywood's something that everybody grew up seeing. Each person grew up watching movies and seeing these actors. And I certainly still have those pinch-me moments of being in the room with every person that I ever grew up seeing in movies and being at the Oscars. It certainly feels surreal at times, and weird, honestly. Some days I have these experiences, yet at the same time it's all completely different because, from the outdoors, it's pretty and glamorous and everything's exhilarating, however then being there, you notice that folks are just people and each person is real and has insecurities and emotions and has shitty days and doesn't wake up looking like that all of the time.


MTV News: Any time was your last pinch-me moment?


Harrier: It's been so long since I've Been outdoor. Yet certainly last year doing all the awards season stuff with BlacKkKlansman. That was my first time being at all of these ceremonies. And I went to all of those. So that was a pretty surreal few months of sitting in the room with all of those actors that I've fancied for so long and being there with a Oscar-nominated movie. And I got to wear a lot of really pretty dresses. That all certainly feels a little bit like a dream, especially given the current state of the world.


MTV News: all the characters are working towards something, nevertheless what are you working towards? What's your dream now? 


Harrier: I just hope to continue doing it! I have been so fortunate to work with astonishing people like Ryan and like Janet and Spike Lee. That's really it for me. Getting to collaborate with these incredible creatives and with these artists who have been at the forefront of their career and of Hollywood and of storytelling for so long, that's what I adore the most. So I just hope to continue, hopefully getting to work with astonishing people.


MTV News: Does it make you hope to tell your own stories?


Harrier: That's something that I've Been thinking about. I'm working towards beginning to develop my own assignments and beginning to think about the stories that I'd like to tell. That's certainly an objective of mine.