Dreams come true. At age 24, classically trained, Cleveland-born stage actor Josiah Cross won his first major screen role: playing an uptight 17-year-old opposite the formidably talented Teyana Taylor as his desperate mother in “ “A Thousand and One.” For Cross, now 26, his heartbreaking performance as Terry proved to be a spectacular display of his growing acting skills.
The actor phoned from a busy Brooklyn coffee shop to chat about the role that changed his life.
You’re pretty amazing in the movie. Can you talk a little about how you prepared for Terry’s many deeply emotional moments?
I come from the stage, so a lot of my work character development comes from a lot of traditional, craft theater venues. But this story was undeniably true and personal to me, almost identical to my real life…particularly the single mother aspect, the only child aspect, and being young and black and navigating a metropolitan, impoverished city. But my mom didn’t kidnap me! [Laughs]
[That said] I don’t think it was so much a cathartic experience as a way to explore what empathy is really like. And that’s how I really connected. Because despite how close he was to Terry, he was still disconnected in a way. For me, that empathy was probably the most important touchstone.
Given that other actors play Terry when he was 6 and 13, were you aware of how each of them portrayed the character when you started filming?
No. And I think the brilliance and genius of [writer-director] AV Rockwell was what kept us apart. We didn’t see the newspapers. We didn’t have any interactions because we’re not in any scenes together. However, because of the level of authenticity that AV encouraged, supported and championed, I think the three of us came to understand the [story’s] across the line and continuity between time periods.
What was it like acting opposite a powerhouse like Teyana?
Teyana was stripped of her celebrity, so her being vulnerable in that sense and me being vulnerable in such a frontal role, we just threw ourselves away for the moment, we surrendered to it. Her approach was different than mine, but I think a lot of our chemistry came from that place where we were “dance partners.” I would have control and then she would have control. I would follow her example and she would follow mine. Simply, like ping-pong, back and forth, whatever the moment required. And I really respect her as an artist: she can do it all. Seeing her be so agile and flexible in her art allowed me to do the same.
