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Amandla Stenberg Destroys Black Teen Stereotypes in Netflix Series, ‘The Eddy’
Paris, jazz, danger, and love intersect in new musical drama about a father and daughter
Typically when Paris is depicted on-screen, it is picturesque and flawless, centering the Eiffel Tower and all of the stereotypical themes that we’ve grown to associate with the City of Lights. Luckily, Amandla Stenberg has never had any interest in idealism and fluff. From the moment she stepped into our collective consciousness in 2012’s The Hunger Games, she caused ripples in Hollywood in both her personal and professional lives. From her 2015 school project on cultural appropriation, “Don’t Cash Crop My Cornrows” to one of her more recent roles in the film The Hate U Give, the intersectional feminist has always been wholly unapologetic.
In Stenberg’s latest role in the Netflix Limited Series The Eddy, Stenberg stars as Julie, a troubled and grieving teenager who leaves her hometown of New York City, in search of a connection with her expat father Elliot (André Holland). Dealing with his own inner turmoil, his struggling jazz club, some violent gangsters, and a tumultuous relationship with his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Maja (Joanna Kulig), Elliot is ill-prepared to give Julie the relationship that she seeks from him.
The Damien Chazelle-helmed series recalls French Cinema of a past era and pays homage to jazz. More intriguing still, The Eddy centers a relationship between a Black father and Black daughter, a connection rarely seen on screen.
Last fall, ZORA sat with Stenberg in Paris on the set of The Eddy, learning more about the series and why she refused to allow Julie to become just another angst-filled teenager.
ZORA: Why did The Eddy grab your attention?
Amandla Stenberg: The Eddy is a really interesting celebration of culture and diversity, and it featured music in a way that excited me. I really connected with Julie as soon as I read her. When you meet her, she’s dealing with both regular teenage problems and abnormal ones. She’s grappling with a lot of internal turmoil and trauma that’s been caused. This show is about grace and how grief manifests itself in our lives. Julie really gave me the opportunity…
