Ashton Sanders Opens Up About Growing Up as an 'Other'

Ashton Sanders is on the cover of Another Man‘s Spring/Summer 2019 issue, out on March 14.

Here’s what the 23-year-old Moonlight star had to say…

On growing up: “I grew up an ‘other’, kind of a black sheep in my community. I don’t know if it was because I knew that I was an artist, and art in the black community at that time was not considered the ideal thing for a young black boy to be doing.”

On Moonlight: “When I read the script for Moonlight, I had this emotional reaction that rarely happens. I needed to play Chiron. I hadn’t even booked the part and I was highlighting my lines. I knew, I knew. There was nobody else. I needed to do this, because I wanted it to be done the right f–king way, no playing around, so let’s make it happen. I had this hunger.”

On working in Hollywood: “It’s harder to find the right work with studio films, but Captive State, my first action sci-fi, has underlying messages that are a slap in the face to the Trump administration, which I felt was badass. I play a rebel to the system, infiltrating this authoritarian, repressive state. It’s an allegory that is right on time.”

For more from Ashton, head to AnotherManMag.com.