Speaking to Kelvin Harrison Jr., I put it to him that he’s had a pretty damn good run of things of late. “It’s been sick!” laughs the 25-year-old. “I took a shower this morning and reflected, ‘2019 was lovely’, it’s been nice.”

In 2019, the Louisianan played the lead in the critically acclaimed thriller Luce, a complex tale of racism and the pressures of black exceptionalism. His new film Waves was also released in the States last year, and the young actor has again received rave reviews for his performance as high-achieving high-school athlete Tyler, who struggles to cope when his life begins spiralling out of control. As tragedy strikes, Tyler and his family must grapple with racism and toxic masculinity.

Of course, Harrison Jr. hasn’t had a bad year since his first ever acting job, appearing in Steve McQueen’s 2013 Oscar winning-masterpiece, 12 Years A Slave. Since then, Harrison Jr. has starred in such celebrated films as The Birth Of A Nation, Mudbound, It Comes At Night and JT LeRoy, and has several films due out in 2020. Though maturing into more adult roles, he asserts that his criteria for picking projects has remained the same.

“It’s the same questions: is the role challenging me, and is the role making me redefine how I see people, and those I love, and myself?” he explains. “The only thing that has really changed is how I want to be a collaborator, because when I first started, I was taking so much in and still learning that I didn’t really have a voice or understand my feelings completely. My goal when taking a part was to just take everything in and I didn’t really assert myself as much. But now, I’ve lived a little bit more life and so I think about what the collaborative experience will be like, if that person is willing to understand my experience, and will it be fun?”

Applying those guidelines, Waves was a no-brainer for Harrison Jr. Having already worked with director Trey Edward Schults on It Comes At Night, he jumped at joining a cast that also includes Hamilton actress Renee Elise Goldsberry, Lucas Hedges, acclaimed newcomer Taylor Russell, and Sterling K. Brown as Ronald, Tyler’s loving but strict and demanding father. The actor was also passionate about being able to play a young, complex black man who challenged stereotypes. He collaborated with Schults for months on the character, both drawing on real life experiences as well as their shared interest in psychology (Schults’ parents are both therapists.) The result is a stunning performance that embodies not only Tyler’s control and physicality as an athlete, but also his growing volatility and desperation as he fears not living up to the impossibly high standards set for him by his father, coaches, teacher, colleges and society in general.

“I operated with this character from a psychological point of view, trying to understand the psyche of that boy who was at war with himself and trying to maintain his sanity,” says Harrison Jr. “I was looking at moments of suppression because of how our parents affect us, then how does that suppression lead to depression, and how does that depression lead to anger, and how does that anger effect a 17 year-old’s life like Tyler? “Some of it’s personal, too,” Harrison Jr. adds. “I applied some of the stuff I saw from my friends and cousins; their traumatic experiences and their losses, and tried to channel that as much of possible.”

The film grapples with the intersection of racism and toxic masculinity, as Tyler feels under pressure to be the perfect student, athlete, son, young black man – and never show the toll that these demands take on him. His father says: “We’re not afforded the luxury of being average, we have to work 10 times as hard”. But it feels like there’s an unspoken end to that sentence which is “and we have to do it silently.”

“So much of the black experience, especially in America, has been about trying to catch up and trying to prove that we are worthy,” Harrison Jr. nods. “And when you’re doing that, you’re ultimately devaluing and taking away so much of who you are in the process. That conversation Ronald has with Tyler is one I had with my Dad as well, and it shook me to my core, because it stopped me from feeling like I could mess up, it stopped me from actually growing, because failure is what helps us learn and grow and become better people.

“But in Ronald’s case, and even something I said to my own Dad, they don’t consciously realise they’re trying to appease people who aren’t here to support you, or here to help you thrive. However, they believe that’s the only way to win because those people hold the key. What Waves tries to do is look at how this boy is trying to just be himself, not a concept that other people have created for him. He’s not a saint, not a monster, just a human being; but society takes that away from him. We dehumanise that boy. We refuse him the ability to embrace a complex, authentic, human identity by forcing him into a predetermined box with expectations.”

Last year’s Oscar results triggered a renewed conversation about the type of roles the Academy rewards, noting that the rare times that actors and actresses of colour are recognised for their work, it’s often when they perform a racially specific form of suffering, playing slaves, prisoners, maids, or noble saint-like victims of injustice.

Harrison Jr. is not accepting these limitations. “So many different types of men exist in this world, and it’s a privilege for me to step into their shoes and honour that and give them a chance to be seen,” he concludes. “That’s something I’m really passionate about and excited about with these opportunities that have come my way, and that more people are trying to tell our stories.”

Waves is in cinemas now.

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