From the brilliant mind of Boots Riley, director of “Sorry to Bother You”, stems Prime Video’s new series “I’m A Virgo”.Jharrel Jerome plays 19-year-old Cootie, a 13-foot tall “gentle giant”(Young) who dives head first to uncover the daunting outside world. Against his overprotective parents’ wishes, Lafrancine (Carmen Ejogo) and Matisse (Mike Epps), Cootie begins his hero’s journey. The reality of the outside world catches Cootie off-guard, but neighborhood friends Felix (Brett Gray), Jones (Kara Young), Scat (Allius Barnes), and love interest Flora (Olivia Washington) slowly expose him to new experiences. Everything Cootie knows about the outside world is due to the media he consumes. He idolizes a heroic symbol of the city named “The Hero” (Walton Goggins) who, unbeknownst to him, is deeply corrupt.
Similar to “Sorry to Bother You” Riley transports his audience to another dimension but still mirrors current societal issues. The series urges the audience to interpret what’s right in front of them. To understand that the comical fantasy is, “a metaphor for how young black men exist in the world”(Sampson). “I’m A Virgo” secures a platform for the audience to absorb the information and form their own opinions. Jharrel Jerome shares with us what he hopes the audience will take away from the series:” Depending on who you are, your age, your demographic, where you’re from, you’ll interpret it so differently and that’s the beauty of the show”.
Before screening the first 4 episodes, we got to pick the brain apart of some of the cast members. Jharrel Jerome, Olivia Washington, Kara Young, Carmen Ejogo, Kendrick Sampson, and executive producer Michae Ellenberg were among the talent we interviewed shown below:
“I’m A Virgo” is now streaming on Prime Video!
