From 'Devotion' To 'Shirley,' This Is Christina Jackson's Moment

Christina Jackson’s acting career was a happy accident. Growing up in Newark, New Jersey, she had no interest in sports, but her love of reading prompted her seventh-grade teacher to suggest the drama club. “The first play, I played Frenchy in Grease, and I was terrible because I was so nervous,” she tells ESSENCE. “I vowed I would never let that happen again.” After learning to work through her nerves, Jackson embraced the energy of the theater. “You can hear the laughs. You can hear the tears —the sniffles,” she reflects. “You can hear everything in real-time, even though you’re supposed to block all of that out. I think there’s something very connected about theater.”

Those first plays in elementary school invigorated The Good Fight actress’s love of storytelling. For over a decade, she’s worked on series like Outsiders, Boardwalk Empire and Deception. But now, in her upcoming role in the war epic Devotion, where she stars opposite Jonathan Majors, Jackson is starting to feel a fundamental shift. 

Continue reading at ESSENCE.

Jonathan Majors Flies High In J.D. Dillard's 'Devotion' (TIFF Review)

The heroes of the Korean War, America’s forgotten war, specifically Jesse Brown, who became the first Black aviator in Navy history, have been largely erased from history.

However, Sleight director J.D. Dillard, whose father is the second African American Blue Angels pilot, has always known Brown’s story, which is the subject of Devotion.

Adapted from Adam Makos' book of the same name, 'Devotion' opens in 1950.

We meet a strapping Brown (the always immaculate Jonathan Majors), who has endured every type of abuse and anguish to earn his place as a Navy fighter pilot. Dillard chooses to begin his story once Jesse is already established. Though the audience may not be privy to the navel and aviator lingo that take up much of the film’s beginning, Major is electric on the screen. His world further expands when we enter his quaint Rhode Island home, where his wife Daisy (a magnificent Christina Jackson) is buzzing about with their young daughter, Pam.

Continue reading at Shadow and Act.