Brian Tyree Henry shared that the latest season of Atlanta was particularly difficult for him and his character Alfred “Paper Boi” Miles.
“This season, especially for my character Alfred, was incredibly daunting,” Henry told Deadline. “He keeps rising, keeps rising, he’s starting to do promotions and doing concerts and things like that but he’s in a town that he’s been born and raised in and he doesn’t know it any more.”
He continued, “This season was about restrain for Alfred,” Henry shared, referencing the twists and turns of the 11-episode Atlanta: Robbin’ Season. “You see a lot of him understanding how to navigate this landscape of fame but also still being naïve to it.”
Henry might be nodding to the “Barbershop” and “Woods” episodes, where his character was the focal point, the latter of which director Hiro Murai borrowed from the passing of Henry’s mother to immerse Alfred in the unfamiliar.
“Grief feels like that,” Henry said of the episode. “It feels like you don’t know the land you’re walking on anymore … in this forest of grief, you don’t know where to go.”
Henry is gearing up for the release of Hotel Artemis, where he stars alongside Jodie Foster, Sterling K. Brown, and Jeff Goldblum, calling the film, “very much up my alley, kinda sci-fi, kinda action, kind all those things.”
Hotel Artemis opens on June 8.
