Read the interview with ‘The Get Down’ star Shamiek Moore.
Our very own OJ Williams was able to sit down with the star and get some insight on the beginning of his journey with the show. Moore plays Shaolin Fantastic, a DJ apprentice who is trying to learn the tricks of the trade and rise to the top spot in New York City. He runs around with other main characters Ezekiel, Ra-Ra and more to make their dreams come true. The second season of The Get Down will debut on Friday.
OJ: Talk about how you first teamed up with Baz [Luhrmann] and how you initially came into the project.
SM: My agents sent me a breakdown of the show, the opportunity. I went to an audition, they sent in a tape, it happened in LA right after I finished filming DOPE, or right after DOPE went to Sundance [Film Festival]. That next week, they flew me out to New York on a Tuesday. I was there, we did an audition process where I met Justice, Herizen, Skyland – who plays Ra-Ra, Cadillac. A couple of us met at that moment. The audition process was like 6 days or something like that, usually an audition is like you going there and you leave. It was day after day after day, it was a whole process. And then I ended up booking it.
OJ: Was the whole musical aspect a big draw for you? You being a musician yourself.
SM: Shao [Shaolin Fantastic] isn’t really expressing a lot of musical ability other than DJing. I thought it was cool. I think the major thing for me was that he was a bad boy. Malcom, my character in Dope, was a geek. He was very smart and loving and his energy was more quirky, which was very different from Shao. Shao was a whole different person so I definitely wanted it. The fact that he could dance and do everything that he was doing, I think that Baz snagged a good one – he was like ‘oh snap! He can do all of that’.
OJ: Of the DJs from that time, or even the music, who do you think Shao draws on from, from the DJs in that era?
SM: Shao learns from Grand Master Flash, that’s the DJ who he would be learning from – who he does learn from. He admires the other Djs – Herc, Bambaataa – he respects them and everything but he’s Flash’s grasshopper.
