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Actor Jason Mitchell attends the “Tyrel” Premiere during the 2018 Sundance Film Festival at Park City Library on January 20, 2018 Sonia Recchia/Getty Images)
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Live from Sundance: From ‘Compton’ to ‘Mudbound’ and ‘The Chi’ — actor Jason Mitchell is the next superstar

Next up? A ‘Get Out’-like film called ‘Tyrel,’ and he’s in the remake of ‘Super Fly’

Kelley L. Carter @KelleyLCarter
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Movies Mudbound The Chi Sundance Film Festival

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    6:33 PMPARK CITY, UTAH — Come Tuesday morning, Jason Mitchell is hoping that he hears at least two familiar names called when the Academy Award nominations are announced. The Academy Awards, aka the Oscars, are the biggest honor in Hollywood, and Mitchell, who starred in both Detroit and Mudbound, is hopeful that the two women who directed him in those films get their due.

    You likely know Mitchell’s work from his excellent turn as rap icon Eazy-E in 2015’s Straight Outta Compton. Since then, he’s upped the ante by turning in impressive work in 2017’s Mudbound, 2017’s Detroit and most recently in Showtime’s The Chi. It also was announced last week that he’ll be in the Super Fly remake as Eddie; the film will be directed by Director X and also will star Grown-ish actor Trevor Jackson as Youngblood Priest.

    “I’ve been blessed to work with a lot of really dope women,” Mitchell said at the Sundance Film Festival. “And Dee Rees and Kathryn Bigelow are two of those people who are being talked about. It would be good … to see them do their thing [at the Oscars]. It’s not my vision. I just came and did my job — they just told me exactly what to do, and I went over the top. [But] I think it would be nice to see women defy something.”

    Mitchell is at the festival promoting his latest, Tyrel, a dramatic film about being the only black guy on a dude’s trip the weekend of President Donald Trump’s inauguration that is being called “2018’s answer to Get Out.” It premiered Saturday night to a crowd that included Emmy winner/The Chi creator Lena Waithe. Mitchell said he’s inspired by the #TimesUp movement and is ready to see the progression for women in the industry take place.

    “Women know how to … fight for it,” he said, sitting on a couch in the Grey Goose Door Lounge off the city’s Main Street, where actors such as Jeffrey Wright, Debra Messing and John Cho are milling about. “I would just like for female directors to get what they deserve. Not just directors, females in the business in general. It’d be nice to see them on those stages.”

    Kelley L. Carter is a senior entertainment reporter and the host of Another Act at Andscape. She can act out every episode of the U.S. version of The Office, she can and will sing the Michigan State University fight song on command and she is very much immune to Hollywood hotness.