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Native Angeleno and 24-year-old actor Justice Smith is glad to be back in the land of sunshine and ginger-tumeric juice shots. “Oh, do you have hand sanitizer,” he asks, right after a perfunctory handshake. I awkwardly rummage around in my purse, before his publicist takes matters into her own hands and sprays our palms with lavender germ killer. They both take in the confused expression likely crossing my face. “I’m sick and don’t want to give it to you,” Justice explains, then introduces himself with a sweet smile.
He recently completed filming for _The Voyeurs_, an erotic thriller co-starring Sydney Sweeney of HBO’s _Euphoria_ fame, a Hitchcockian thriller about a couple who shares a view of an adjacent building and the potentially nefarious activities inside. Smith is also slated to appear in the latest installment of the blockbuster reboot _Jurassic World_, his second time acting in the series alongside Chris Pratt and fellow newcomer, Daniella Pineda. “I find that other actors my age are doing the indie circuit, and then they start doing the studio movies and everyone’s like, ‘Oh, they’re an overnight success,’” Smith continues thoughtfully.“ But, in my case, I’ve only done six or seven movies and that’s not really a lot compared to other people my age that are out there.”
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As a child, Smith had a knack for observing the world around him, and charming adults into getting what he wanted. But he knew how to remain genuine, how to use this to his advantage and be likable to anyone he came across. Many times, he was glad to find, it worked. One of Smith’s earliest and fondest memories is a classroom audition for a role in the classic children’s play, _Three Billy Goats Gruff_, in which he convinced his teacher for a lead role by creating a funny, raspy voice for his character. His parents supported a burgeoning interest in acting by shuttling Smith across Southern California for auditions and classes. After roles in plays across Los Angeles and Orange County, he began to appear on television shows and audition for bigger parts. From then on, there was no hesitation in his pursuit. “It feels very much like I was supposed to do this,” he says, recalling what it was like to have found his passion.
Soon after finishing school and being able to pursue acting full-time, Smith translated his innate gift for charm into a knack for playing characters that are emotionally intelligent and deeply likeable. Justice Smith crossed into mainstream interest after a supporting role alongside Nat Wolff in the 2015 film adaptation of John Green’s Young Adult bestseller, _Paper Towns_, which follows best friends on a quest to find a missing girl from their high school. Soon after, he secured a lead role in Baz Luhrmann’s popular, albeit short-lived, Netflix series, _The Get Down,_ as Ezekiel ‘Books’ Figuero, which took a historical fiction approach to the birth of Hip Hop in the ‘70s.
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The actor sported an afro for months, and to take the method preparation and immersion even further, lived in a dilapidated apartment in The Bronx, New York City. As Zeke, Smith aligned perfectly with his real-life personality: introspective, sensitive, and charming. Although the series was cancelled after two seasons, that was all the time he needed to make an impact.
Smith began to get more calls and more interest in him auditioning for big name projects. He recalls a time of joining more Hollywood circles, and being pushed toward roles based on how he looked, prompting an immediate desire to avoid being typecast. This is when he learned of what he calls the ‘Hollywood Thing’: “As an actor of color, you start out playing roles that are just stereotypes. From there you play stereotypes that have more depth. And then from there you play roles that acknowledge your background but aren’t about that, but is still important to the character.”
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Justice Smith is of mixed heritage: his mother is white and his father is black. This was important to _The
Get Down_; the creation of Hip Hop was led by Black youths in The Bronx. But, he nonetheless was able to see the light in taking roles made for Black characters: “I was servicing a person’s story who looks just like me, that’s how I connected to it,” he explains. “There are people who look like me who experience these things, like these things, act this way—and I want to tell those stories.”
Smith’s latest leading role is in the film version of _All the Bright Places_, a novel by Young Adult author, Jennifer Niven. He and Elle Fanning play teens Finch and Violet, who form a relationship through shared struggles with mental illness. This character was not written as a Black teen—but he connected, using his own experience with bipolar disorder, to align Finch’s story with his own. “It’s a privilege of mine to tell these stories because of the body I was born into,” he says appreciatively.
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“I really want to play someone who’s a weasel,” Smith half-jokes as we talk about what’s next for his career, sending us both into a fit of laughter, “I don’t really know how that’s gonna manifest.” Also on the list of dream roles is Hamlet, as Smith has always dreamed of playing the legendary Shakespearean character on the stage or silver screen.
No matter the project, his goal is to stretch his gift as far as it will go, serving the stories that speak to him the most, and the characters that mean something to those who are watching. This is how I know that Justice Smith will be around for a while: he can be himself, and other people, all at the same time.
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Photographed by: [Ungano + Agriodimas](https://www.instagram.com/ungano_agriodimas/?hl=en) at [See Management](http://www.seemanagement.com).
Flaunt Film Directed by [Avery Wheless](https://www.instagram.com/averywheless/?hl=en).
Styled by: [Adam Ballheim](https://www.instagram.com/theadamballheim/?hl=en) at [The Only Agency](https://theonly.agency).
Groomer: [Kristin Heitkotter](https://www.instagram.com/kikihaircutter/?hl=en) using [Tom Ford Beauty](https://www.tomford.com/beauty/) and [Chanel Beauty](https://www.chanel.com/us/makeup/) at [Tomlinson Management Group](http://tmg-la.com).
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