Anna Daniels
It should come as no surprise that, after Moonlight‘s Oscar triumph, casting directors for major productions sat up and took notice of Sanders’ talents. The actor slowed down for a couple of years, appearing only in a pair of short films and a Chloe x Halle music video for “The Kids are Alright” before scoring his next feature role in 2018’s Dead Women Walking, a little-seen film that powerfully dramatizes the last days of several female death row inmates.
That film might not have attracted as many eyeballs as it should have, but Sanders’ next couple gigs saw him starring opposite a couple of absolute legends in high-profile films. First, he appeared in The Equalizer 2 as Miles Whittaker, a troubled young man who enlists the help of retired Marine and “equalizer” Robert McCall. In it, Sanders shared the screen with the great Denzel Washington, who he says mentored him on set. “[Washington] just told me to really trust myself and follow my instincts and the relationship that [we] had developed with the characters, to focus on that and play in that world,” Sanders told Entertainment Weekly at that time. “Denzel and I, we both worked really well off each other, and there was a definite mentor relationship.”
The following year, Sanders starred opposite John Goodman in the sci-fi drama Captive State, and he also picked up the lead role in his first-ever TV series, the HBO drama Native Son. The TV gig must have agreed with Sanders because, later that same year, he accepted another role in a television series, one that saw him transition from starring opposite legends to portraying one.
Written by: Looper
