Aaron Pierre on ‘Lanterns,’ ‘Star Wars,’ and Grabbing the Leading-Man Ring

From Netflix hit Rebel Ridge to the DCU and soon, a galaxy far far away, the thoughtful tough guy has carved a new path to stardom by listening to his gut.Top by Umbro. Shorts, vintage Adidas x Palace from Ebay. Socks by Pantherella. Shoes by Autry. Watch by Casio.Aaron Pierre is frozen. He’s leaning forward in his seat, arms suspended in front of him, his eyes fixed on nothing in particular on the other side of the hotel restaurant. A few seconds pass. Cutlery and glasses clink gently in the background. Still, nothing. Pierre remains perfectly still, as though someone has just hit pause on reality. Eventually, he checks back in. He slumps back against the banquette and scratches his head.“How’s life at the moment?” wasn’t supposed to be a difficult question—friendly chitchat, if anything, a soft launch for bigger conversations about him joining two culturally dominant franchises, DC and Star Wars, in the same year—but Pierre is taking it seriously. He’s already graciously deployed the typical answer for famous actors: “I’m literally living my dream.” Now, he wants to explain how it’s changed him. “I’m trying to think of a healthy word to describe it,” he says. Finally, he lands on the right phrase. “It’s like an insatiable curiosity.”Pierre seems satisfied, firming up his answer with a sage nod. What exactly does he mean by “healthy”? It kind of suggests that there’s a more complicated answer on the tip of his tongue. “No,” he insists. “It’s more that I really believe in the power of words, which is why I tend to speak at about one mile per hour.” True. Pierre has a lot to say, but it often arrives as wise, philosophical abstractions instead of gushing confessions.Maybe “insatiable curiosity” is simply a sunnier way to describe obsession. At the tail end of May, Pierre completed an eight-week run of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest at London’s Old Vic. Two weeks after his final bow, as he got ready for our interview, he was still running one of his monologues. “I was finding different intonations with it, finding emphasis on different words,” he says. “That’s one of the most beautiful things about theater: living with the exact same words and having the privilege of a constant excavation of those words. I discover every time that you can never get to the bottom.”The 32-year-old from Croydon looks the part of the thinking man’s action hero, too: sunglasses, black jeans, a Bob Marley tee with the sleeves hacked off, revealing the Herculean biceps that tackled crooked cops to the ground in 2024’s action thriller and global Netflix number one Rebel Ridge. He’s also winningly charming: when our waiter explains the protein-packed benefits of a smoked haddock omelette, Pierre somehow avoids sounding smug as he laughs and says, “What makes you say that?” (A breakfast burrito ultimately proves more tempting.) He’s voiced the king of Pride Rock in Mufasa: The Lion King, played Malcom X in the Disney+ series Genius and, most recently, got caught in a love triangle between Greta Lee and Marion Cotillard on The Morning Show. In a matter of weeks, he’ll enter the world of superherodom in the HBO series Lanterns—a gritty, prestige-TV take on the iconic Green Lantern comic series.But in real life, there’s not even the faintest hint of the larger-than-life swagger of his alpha-male characters. “Gentle” feels like a more accurate descriptor for the six-foot-three former model who’s sipping green tea before me.Top by Palace. Gilet by Rokit Vintage. Tracksuit by Guess. Socks by Pantherella. Shoes by Reebok. Watch by Casio. When Rebel Ridge landed on Netflix, it introduced the world to a new type of tough guy. Pierre’s Terry Richmond was powerful and brave, and didn’t hesitate to snap a man’s arm in half when push came to shove. But he never really raised his voice, and refused to fatally injure his opps. Even when faced with the injustice of his cousin’s wrongful imprisonment, he tried to play nice by filing for bail with all the necessary paperwork. It only took three days for the film to amass more than 30 million streams. In roughly the same amount of time, Pierre’s life changed beyond recognition. Usually, he’s the kind of guy who enjoys “my own company” and “minding my business”. Yet suddenly, everyone was in his.“It kind of went in stages…” he says. Stage one: isolation. Pierre, who was living between London and LA at the time, stopped leaving the house. “There are some people in the world who, if that experience happens to them, they can’t wait to go outside. For me, it was the opposite.” Stage two: disguise. He slowly began re-entering public spaces, wearing a baseball cap, sunglasses and a face mask, a tactical defense against impromptu meet-and-greets while running errands. “I just didn’t know how to navigate it yet.” Stage three: he invited his younger sister over for a deep chat.Jacket by Thames MMXX. Vest by Martine Rose. Shorts by Umbro. Shoes by Autry. “She’s so emotionally intelligent,” says Pierre, smiling fondly. He doesn’t want to share the exact wisdom she imparted, but it was meaningful enough to help him build “the toolkit I needed to navigate the next chapter in my life—that was now my reality and always will be my reality,” he says. “Like, even if I stopped acting today, that experience is still going to be what it is.” And people all over the world will still be able to watch Rebel Ridge on Netflix. “There’s no training for that. It either happens or it doesn’t. And when it does, it happens with immediate effect.”There are two alternate realities Pierre could be living in right now. Growing up as the eldest of three siblings on a council estate in West Croydon, he briefly imagined becoming a criminologist after watching a documentary at his grandparents’ house. But his primary ambition—becoming the fastest man in the world, inspired by American sprinter Maurice Greene—took up most of his attention. Pierre loved to win, but even as a child, that drive was fueled more by a desire to push himself. “You’re all running the same 100 meters, and if somebody gets to the line before you, naturally, you reflect on that,” he says. “But for me, I sort of became a bit of an experience alchemist. Like, OK, this happened; I’m gonna transform it into something that inspires me to train harder, to run faster.”Then, along came acting. Pierre’s secondary school didn’t offer drama as a subject choice, but at 14, when auditions opened for a production of Moby Dick, he felt drawn to audition—even if it risked being labelled as a theater kid. “I remember quite vividly thinking, How are my peers going to receive this? Not the play or the performances, but how are they going to receive me choosing to do that? Is this going to make life challenging for me?” Pierre did it anyway. “It was a really affirming moment when I just decided: whatever happens is going to happen. I definitely want to do it—and I’m definitely not going to deny myself the opportunity of experiencing the joy that might bring.”It’s this mentality that has carried Pierre through his decade-long climb from TV bit parts to leading-man status, from his first role in 2017’s Prime Suspect: Tennison to the DC Cinematic Universe this year and, in 2027, Star Wars’ ever-expanding galaxy far, far away: do the thing, no matter what. Or, as his late Jamaican grandmother put it, “Nothing to lose, everything to gain.” When he left school, Pierre decided to go all in on his acting ambitions. In 2018, after getting his foot in the door with a role in the sci-fi series Krypton, he went against popular advice to increase his visibility with more TV gigs in favor of acting opposite Mark Rylance in Othello at Shakespeare’s Globe. The gamble paid off. One night, Moonlight director Barry Jenkins happened to be in the audience. A year later, Pierre was cast in the director’s critically acclaimed miniseries adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad. “I tell that story [about staying in theater] because you have to go with your heart, you have to try and ignore the noise,” he says. “If you listen close enough, you can hear exactly what your gut is telling you to do.”This summer, the actor will complete a peak movie-star rite of passage: becoming a superhero. But any fans hoping to see him in spandex will be sorely disappointed—Lanterns plays more like a gritty crime drama than your average comic-book fare.Its creators, Chris Mundy (Ozark, True Detective) and Damon Lindelof (Lost, Watchmen), alongside comic-book writer Tom King, have charged Lanterns with the same brooding energy that made their previous shows hits. But Pierre’s stoic portrayal of rookie Green Lantern John Stewart goes a long way to pushing the show into heavyweight drama territory. He’s the perfect counterpart for the jaded chaos of Kyle Chandler’s Hal Jordan, as the pair investigate (what else?) an existential threat to humanity.Hoodie by Gap. Vest by JW Anderson. Tracksuit, Vintage Adidas from Ebay. Socks by Pantherella. Shoe by Reebok. Watch by Casio. Headphones by Apple. Alien invasions notwithstanding, being a Lantern has historically been a tough gig: 2011’s Green Lantern film starring Ryan Reynolds was the first and only standalone live-action adaptation of the story, and it was a commercial and critical flop. But Lanterns seems poised to break the curse. For one thing, it’s the first time that John Stewart has been upgraded from sidekick to main character in a live-action project—an overdue promotion, given his legacy as one of DC Comics’ first Black superheroes. Pierre was, of course, aware of the weight of the source material going in.“But at the same time, you also have a responsibility to contribute to this character in an authentic, original way,” he says. When he brainstormed with Mundy about how to honor Stewart’s history in a new context, it all boiled down to taking the “super” out of “superhuman”: “One of my favorite things about being a Green Lantern is that, yes, they’re superheroes, but they’re very relatable folks. My hope is that people watch the series and think: if I can just figure out where to get my application in, I might be able to join the Green Lantern Corps too.”That’s sort of what happened with Pierre and Star Wars. Back in 1999, when Pierre was five, a family friend took him to see The Phantom Menace while his parents were at work. The experience was so formative that he still remembers minute details from the day, such as the exact bus they took home from West Croydon. “I just remember being totally blown away by the enormity of Star Wars and how it immersed you into the universe,” he says.Last year, when he stepped on the set of Star Wars: Starfighter as an official cast member, that same sense of wonder became normal life. “Whole worlds are literally built for you to walk through, touch, go inside and climb. The music that gets played before a scene commences…” For the first time in our conversation, Pierre is talking quickly. “It feels like you’re on stage. Like, the mud is real!” He grins. “Sorry, I’m going on and on and on.”Top by Umbro. Shorts by Palace from Ebay. One thing that often helps actors become legitimate movie stars: being hot. As one of the honorees in People’s 2025 Sexiest Man Alive issue, Pierre’s got that covered. The widespread thirst for him is so frenzied that it shuts down comment sections—at least, that was the case when a video of him dancing down the “Spirit Tunnel” on The Jennifer Hudson Show went viral last year. The video itself is fairly innocuous: Pierre dances to chants of the show’s staffers backstage, as is customary for all guests. “If you watch the video, you can see me listening and trying to catch the beat,” he says, laughing. “Like, my first couple of moves are not quite it.”Literally no one noticed: They were too busy getting worked up in the now-closed comment section. Pierre limits his social media use, so he learned about the, let’s say, passionate appreciation through a friend. “They were like, ‘Yo, AP, I just want to let you know that this thing… it’s developed legs,’” he says. “Once I realized [how viral it was], I was blown away.” How does it feel to be crowned the sexiest man on the internet? He puts his hand over his heart—humble, gracious and with a flicker of excitement in his eyes. “We’re all only human. It’s never not warmly received.”Jacket by Paul Smith. Shorts by Boss. It’s the simple things that keep Pierre’s ego in check, such as his son, whose age and identity he keeps private—like most things in his life. “I remember the first time I held him. I was like, ‘[Acting] has to work. There’s no other option,’” he says. Juggling Hollywood with fatherhood isn’t easy, but at least it helps Pierre to negotiate between what is and isn’t worth his time. “If ever I accept an opportunity that takes me away from him, it needs to be something that contributes to the legacy that I am building to directly inspire my son.” It’s one of the reasons that Pierre has taken voice work roles in projects such as Mufasa and this year’s animated film GOAT, age-appropriate movies that his kid can actually watch. “These are films that I took my son to see in the movie theatre,” he says. In fact, his son was in the recording studio with Pierre while he was recording GOAT. “He was giving me notes—he wanted me to give variety. That character would not be what it is today without his input.”Pierre finishes his breakfast burrito and turns the conversation back to gratitude. He can’t help himself. “As I’m sitting here, I’m reflecting on the fact that I’ve voiced Mufasa, I’m portraying John Stewart and I am in the Star Wars universe—among many other things. Like, I’m so grateful.” But it’s the off-screen roles that most fuel that insatiable curiosity. “I am a father, a son, a brother, a grandson, a friend.” Aaron Pierre pauses again. One second, two seconds, three seconds… “I’m all of those things, and then I’m an actor.”Styling by Angelo MitakosGrooming by Liz TawSet design by Matilda GreenwoodOlive Pometsey is a Junior Digital Editor for British GQ. She primarily writes culture and lifestyle features, but occasionally also ventures into the worlds of politics and fashion. Before joining GQ’s digital team, Olive was Assistant Editor at Drugstore Culture and Features Assistant at ELLE, and has also written for ... Read More