New Orleans actor works with Emma Stone and Hong Chau in NOLA-shot ‘Kinds of Kindness’

When Ja’Quan Monroe-Henderson got the call from his agent that he’d be auditioning for the new Yorgos Lanthimos movie, shooting in New Orleans, he was expecting to get a script with his lines.

But director Lanthimos, who has since been nominated for an Academy Award for his last film, “Poor Things,” with two-time Academy Award-winner Emma Stone, had something entirely different in mind.

“My audition instructions for this new film, ‘Kinds of Kindness,’ were just to dance in front of the camera,” Monroe-Henderson recalled.

“I had no lines whatsoever, so my girlfriend cued up Missy Elliott’s ‘Work It,’ she hit ‘record’ on my phone, and I just started vibing to the music.”

Perhaps the director was looking for something free-spirited and spontaneous, much like Emma Stone’s Oscar-winning performance in “Poor Things,” when she danced wildly across the floor as character Bella Baxter.

Whatever his intention, Monroe-Henderson snagged the role, and the opportunity to do scene work with actors Stone, Academy Award nominee Hong Chau (“The Whale”) and Jesse Plemons (“Killers of the Flower Moon”) who has just come off this year’s Best Actor award at Cannes for “Kinds of Kindness.”

The film itself is an anthology, a composite of three different stories with a thematic thread. The same principal actors play three different characters, one in each story.

Apart from Stone, Plemons and Chau, the other main actors are Willem Dafoe (“Spider-Man” franchise, “The Florida Project”), Margaret Qualley (“Poor Things”, “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood”), Mamoudou Athie (“Elemental”) and Joe Alwyn (“The Favourite”). But the plot themes are merely a set-up for the exploration of complex themes.

Director Lanthimos describes the film as being about identity and control — wanting to belong, yet wanting to be free.

Every one of the actors in this film felt challenged with the script, and as Plemons described it, “the scenes are awkward and uncomfortable, tragic and funny.”

Monroe-Henderson said he certainly felt the pressure of acting in a scene with living legends in the industry, but says they were all pros who made him feel comfortable and a part of the team.

Yet to attain that sense of spontaneity, the director kept a sense of mystery.

“I didn’t know until just before the scene was shot who I would be acting with,” Monroe-Henderson said.

“Emma Stone came up to me, as my character was lying in a hospital bed in critical condition, just having returned from being missing at sea. Even though she plays my work colleague in this story, I felt a sense of protectiveness from her, personally, as we went over the scene.

“I came in totally prepared but wanted to be able to respond in the moment to anything that happened on set. Ultimately, the thing that matters the most is the moment to moment, basically being willing and able to truthfully respond or react to whatever is coming my way.

“So, if there’s a twitch in Emma Stone’s face that kind of gives me something to respond to, I’ll just naturally try to have a collaborative experience, and have fun with it overall. It was like a creative campfire on set.”

Louisiana connection

The actor attended elementary school in Lafayette and graduated from Baton Rouge Magnet High School. He knew his destiny would be film and television, as the dramatic arts just seemed to fuel him. Before he earned a BFA from the University of New Orleans in 2022, he was already acting in impressive projects, beginning with “Fear the Walking Dead: Dead in the Water,” a prequel to the popular television show.

Upon graduation, he shot “Master Gardener,” a thriller with Joel Edgerton and Sigourney Weaver, from acclaimed director Paul Schrader, a prolific writer (“Taxi Driver”) and director (“American Gigolo”).

Then came “The Crossover”, a Disney+ original production, which led to becoming a part of the critically acclaimed “Genius” series on the National Geographic Channel. As part of “Genius: MLK/X” about the relationship between Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, he played the pivotal role of John Lewis, the man at the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement.

Monroe-Henderson can currently be seen in the 2024 Apple TV+ production of “Manhunt,” shot in Savannah, Georgia, and adapted from the award-winning book about the 12-day search for John Wilkes Booth, who killed President Abraham Lincoln less than a week after the end of the Civil War and the surrender at Appomattox, Virginia.

And, on the heels of this month’s release of “Kinds of Kindness,” he will be looking forward to the premiere of “Nickel Boys” in October, the long-awaited adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.

Still shooting in New Orleans is the yet-untitled production of Michael B. Jordan and Ryan Coogler of “Black Panther” fame, and Monroe-Henderson is a part of the adventure. Billed as a drama/fantasy/horror film, the plot is under wraps, so no spoilers here.

There’s a lot to look forward to for Monroe-Henderson, and when “Kinds of Kindness” is released by Searchlight Pictures on June 21, he’ll be at the theater, along with everyone else, to see how this perplexing odyssey unfolds.

Leslie Cardé can be reached at lesliecardejournalist@gmail.com.