Note: This interview was conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strike.
Steven Soderbergh’s Max series “Full Circle” throws its viewers into a tangled web of moral ambiguity faced by a slew of characters, including Jharrel Jerome’s Aked, a young man whose familial obligation tasks him with kidnapping a teenage boy.
The series, the first four episodes of which are now streaming on Max, parses together bits and pieces of a revenge kidnapping plot orchestrated by Guyanese matriarch Savitri Mahabir (CCH Pounder) — which goes sideways under the watch of her nephew, Aked, when the group picks up the wrong kid — and again when Aked’s girlfriend and her brother, attempt to save him.
With the reasoning for the kidnapping — and its subsequent botching — kept hidden from Aked, Jerome only read through the script for the six-episode limited series once and promised not to do so again.
“It would definitely interfere with certain choices I wanted to make,” Jerome told TheWrap of refraining from reading the full script — written by Ed Solomon — more than once. “Aked has no idea what people think around him, and I think that’s what drives him so crazy. He doesn’t even know what his own family thinks of him … Negating those pages of the script and focusing on my part helped center that aloneness that Aked goes through.”
Despite being shut out from the full extent of his aunt’s elaborate plan, Aked fakes his confidence as he recruits two young Guyanese men, Louis (Gerald Jones) and Xavier (Sheyi Cole), for his kidnapping scheme, as Jerome calls his character a “walking lie.”
“If you really watch you can see in certain situations, he’s the boss and [in] certain situations he’s not — those are the most dangerous people — the ones that are so chaotic and sporadic, and have no idea what their real place is,” Jerome said. “I wanted to play with that — one moment Aked is this sharp, easy-going [guy] … and then, the next moment, he might be in front of his aunt, and he looks like he’s a child again.”
TheWrap: What first led you to want to be part of this project?
When Steven Soderbergh calls you pick up and you say yes to whatever he’s got for you. It felt like a team that I could trust, and the script is just so intricate and complex. I remember it being so dense that I felt like I was reading an actual novel. All those [factors] invigorated me and made me realize that this will probably be very challenging, and it was.
Exactly how much does Aked know about the plan? Does he realize the connection to Quincy’s death?
I don’t think he knows anything. I think he pretends he knows so much, but he doesn’t know much at all. I think he starts to piece it together, but by the time he figures it all out, it’s too late for him, and it all goes downhill for him. I think it drives him crazy not knowing much, but as opposed to acting like he doesn’t know he overcompensates and does certain things unnecessarily to try to lie.
What would Aked do if he did know the extent of the plot?
He would go nuts. I think Aked was dead before the show started — he had no shot. The arc wasn’t so much as him coming to terms with himself and him learning who he is, it was moreso him realizing that everything is too late, and that he won’t ever come to terms with himself and he won’t ever learn who he is.
Why does Aked choose to trust Louis and Xavier in this mission?
He barely trusts them. He trusts them out of desperation — everything Aked does is out of desperation — he loves his aunt and family out of desperation, so he’s not alone anymore [and] he feels heard and seen. I think he just blindly trusts these two guys out of desperation that it’ll all work out.
It’s also rare that he gets to have people he gets to be the boss of and control, and he’s so used to being controlled that the second two people are in front of him that he gets to control, he has fun with it — too much fun with it — and that comes with trusting too much, and so it just bites him in the butt.
Does he feel any hesitancy about what he’s about to do?
He does, but can’t show it. Everyone around him has so much hesitancy so what’s the point if he shows it? No one’s really down for it .. If anything, he was the most down for it, but the most unaware of the consequences. I think everybody was so aware of what the consequences would be, and he wasn’t until midway [through].
Aked seems like he’s trying to work with Derek before his phone dies, if it were up to him would he extend the time for Derek?
Aked has some sort of heart — he doesn’t necessarily want to hurt anybody. He just doesn’t want to fail or disappoint anybody more. He doesn’t love himself as much as he loves his family, and his family doesn’t love him as much as they love themselves. So he’s just stuck in this world of hurt all the time.
I think if it was up to him, the whole plan wouldn’t have even happened. I think that he would have given up before it could happen. I think he was just pushed by outside influence a little too much.
As he learns more about his aunt’s plan, what is his opinion of it?
He’s just hoping that he’s not being fooled. Loyalty is his favorite word. But if you’re loyal to the wrong person, you might not ever realize that because of how strong loyalty is. So Aked cared, I think. I think his world really falls apart when he realized that no one was loyal to him, and he was the one person preaching it the most.
Out of everybody in the show, he has no one to talk to — [everyone else] at least has somebody to lean on [and] have a conversation with, he has nobody to talk to — he’s either being told what to do, or being told that he’s going off the deep end. So it’s very frustrating for him, and there’s nowhere he can turn to to get help or reassurance that he’s doing the right thing. So he just continues to do the wrong thing.
“Full Circle” is now streaming on Max with new episodes streaming Fridays.
