Stormzy storms the screen
THE BRITISH-GHANAIAN RAPPER IS MOVING INTO ACTING, AND THAT’S JUST THE START OF HIS PLANS
WORDS BETH WEBB
Stormzy as rapper Tenzman
SITTING IN A room on the 11th floor of Battersea Power Station, Michael ‘Stormzy’ Omari sets down the vanilla yoghurt he’s been eating. He’s just admitted to — in Empire’s eyes at least — the ultimate movie sin. “I’m a psychopath,” he explains. “People say that I’m crazy because I watch films on my phone.”
For one of Britain’s most prolific and philanthropic rappers — who alongside being a three-time Brit-winner provides Cambridge University scholarships for Black students — the rulebook can be rewritten a little. Although Stormzy had better start getting used to larger screens, not least because he’s just appeared in his first lead acting role. In short film Big Man, the 31-year-old stars as rapper Tenzman, whose stagnating career is reinvigorated after he takes a spontaneous day trip with two lively neighbourhood kids. Despite the film’s sweet nature and 20-minute runtime, filming it was far from an easy experience for the platinum-selling artist. “It was really uncomfortable, but I [thrive on being] uncomfortable,” he says of the shoot, which involved improvised dialogue between himself and his teen co-stars. “I felt like that was getting thrown in the deep end with no script,” he continues. “I ain’t even got a line [of dialogue] to go back on and rehearse. It was just the moment, and you’re in it.”