The actor was just 21 when the Oscar-winning film made him a star. He talks about dealing with bullies and racism, and why he’ll never become too Hollywood

“Talk about an emotional rollercoaster, man.” Ashton Sanders is taking a well-deserved break during a year that has transformed him from an unknown 21-year-old to the star of an Oscar-winning movie. He’s perched on a sofa in a studio on the west side of Chicago, where he is filming his next project, kitted out in an all-black ensemble complete with leather jacket and movie-star shades that he keeps on throughout our interview. His words are interspersed with coughing, symptomatic of an exhausting schedule.

He has barely had time to register the effect of his powerful performance in Barry Jenkins’ much-lauded best picture winner Moonlight, a soulful triptych tale that examines three key periods in the life of Chiron, a black gay man in Miami struggling with his sexuality, played by three actors of varying ages. In the middle section, Sanders portrays Chiron’s teenage years with understated power, winning him the sorts of plaudits for which most established actors wait years. In the New Yorker, Hilton Als wrote that his performance was “like seeing Montgomery Clift act for the first time”.

It was Sanders’ first major role (his previous credits consist of well-received yet little-seen western The Retrieval and a tiny part in Straight Outta Compton), and six weeks after the film’s Academy glory, he remains in shock. As do the rest of the industry, still reeling after the staggering mishap that saw hot favourite La La Land incorrectly named the night’s big winner before Moonlight was rightfully crowned. “I think we were all really stunned in that moment,” Sanders says. “This type of stuff just doesn’t happen. It’s never happened before, so it was definitely 0 to 100 really fast.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jacket, trousers and sneakers, stellamccartney.com. Top, ­ off---white.com. Photograph: Dylan Coulter/The Guardian

But the Moonlight win would have been momentous regardless of the shambolic way in which it happened. Not only is it the first best picture winner to have an all-black cast, it’s the first to revolve around a gay protagonist, as well as being the lowest budgeted film ever to take home the big prize. “It’s dope that people are respecting real work and stories of people in real-life situations,” Sanders says. “It was a honour, yo.”

It’s really crazy looking back on my bullies... I think it’s cool to be different

Sanders was born in Inglewood, Los Angeles, and grew up within an all-black Baptist church, raised by a fashion designer father while his mother, struggling with drug addiction, was not always on the scene. His father became aware early on of Sanders’ desire to act and at the age of 12 he was enrolled at Amazing Grace, an acting programme that also launched the career of Golden Globe-nominated Insecure star and co-creator Issa Rae. “They just instilled me with this love and passion,” Sanders says. “My dad would be watching me and one day he was like, ‘You need an agent.’ He’s always been kind of like my manager.” The environment provided solace from the cruelty he suffered at school. Sanders’ interest in the arts over sports and his skinny physique made him easy prey for bullies. The irony being, of course, that it is exactly these characteristics that have since made him a star. “It’s really crazy looking back on my bullies or whoever was trying to torment me or tease me, because karma is just, like, crazy,” he says. “I think it’s cool to be different. That’s what cool is.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Blazer, shirt and trousers, haiderackermann.com. Shoes, paulsmith.com. Photograph: Dylan Coulter/The Guardian

In Moonlight, Chiron, whose mother is a drug addict, is routinely picked on for being different and ultimately suffers a brutal assault. Sanders was the first actor to audition for the role and the film’s writer/director Jenkins was immediately struck with the “fully lived-in” depth he added to the character. Once the pair got to know each other, Jenkins discovered just how much Sanders could relate to Chiron.

This is part of what made filming Moonlight a difficult experience for Sanders. “It was definitely hard,” he says. “I had a close family member relapse months prior to filming Moonlight, so Naomie Harris’s portrayal [of Chiron’s mother Paula] was so familiar. I remember doing the scenes where I’m being bullied and it felt so real. Even after we cut, I felt so uncomfortable in my skin. I would get back to my hotel room and sit on the balcony smoking cigs, crying, writing poetry.”

Like Jenkins, whose mother was also an addict, Sanders saw the shoot as “therapy” – a way to work through and perhaps shine further light on a situation with which he is still coming to terms. “Things do still linger,” he says. “I can’t let it be at the forefront of my mind, but it’s something I think about sometimes.”

People will say that they’re not racist, but actions speak louder than words

Though straight, Sanders could also relate to gay teenager Chiron’s awkward fit within his community. “Anything that’s outside the standard of the average black male is looked down upon,” he says. “For me, I wasn’t raised playing sports. I was artistic, so that was looked down upon by people in my church and I was teased for that growing up in school, so it goes both ways. It’s not only outwardly in white America, it’s within the communities, too.”

Growing up in LA, Sanders says he was aware of racism but not directly affected by it. Since he has been travelling for work, this has changed. On a recent flight, a particularly disrespectful flight attendant “belittled” him in front of fellow passengers (“I remember sitting down and wanting to cry”) and he has found himself in a number of uneasy situations in the midwest, where he is filming in Chicago.

“That’s something we just go through as black men in America,” he says. “The fact that we have to be used to that, it’s ridiculous. People will literally say that they’re not racist or prejudiced within themselves, but actions speak louder than words. I have incidents almost every single day here, just walking down the streets or going into high-end stores.”

He pauses and then, sounding quietly enraged, he goes on: “America isn’t made for the black man. Obviously, we are living in a progressive society, my generation, we’re paving ways and calling out bullshit, but I feel there’s an old American mindset that’s just imposed on people. The fact that I go on a train and I sit next to a white woman and she’s gripping her purse, or I’m in an elevator and can feel the tension of a white couple staring at each other because I’m a black man and I walked in. Not that they’re feeling intimidated, but they’re uncomfortable. I don’t know what the fuck it is. It’s just weird.”

It’s a problem Sanders feels has been exacerbated by President Trump’s victory. “The fact that he won just exposed how America thinks, because there was no way that man should be in office,” he says. “I feel like him winning was a direct slap in the face to everything America stood for or is trying to be.”

Yet he remains optimistic about the future. He is encouraged by the success not only of Moonlight but of other recent films with black leads, from Hidden Figures to Get Out. “I feel like there are a lot of stereotypical parts out there for black men, but I think we’re living in a time when barriers are being broken and it’s going to be such a pivotal, progressive time for art,” he says. “We’re living in a really dope time for black cinema. I’m just happy to be a part of it.”

He is currently filming Captive State, a post-apocalyptic alien thriller, with John Goodman (“It’s the total opposite of Moonlight”), and enthuses over where he plans to take his career next: he’s started designing clothes and says he “might start a band”. His schedule is so full that he had to turn down a part in a new Denzel Washington thriller. “I was so bummed,” he says. “But I’m sure that I will work with him at some point in my career.”

We meet just days after Moonlight nabs yet more nominations, this time at the MTV movie and TV awards, including one for best kiss, shared between Sanders and his co-star Jharrel Jerome. “It’s crazy,” he says, beaming. “I grew to love Jharrel as family and vice versa, so we were able to give ourselves to each other, because we cared. By the time we shot that scene, it wasn’t like not normal. It was like, ‘I love you’ and we trusted each other.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jacket and trousers, gucci.com. Roll-neck, topman.com. Photograph: Dylan Coulter for the Guardian. Grooming: Maggie Kerr for Exclusive Artists using MAC Cosmetics.

Despite the stream of awards and red carpet appearances, Sanders remains ambivalent about the celebrity lifestyle. “Hollywood isn’t for me,” he says. “Even doing this red carpet stuff, it’s just not real, it’s all a facade. I’m an artist, I love to act, I love to create, I love to do the work. That’s the reason I do this, there’s nothing else. So all of the social delusions are definitely bullshit to me. I see right through it. You have to know yourself before coming into this, and thankfully I knew myself before any of this started happening.”

Today, his entourage for our interview and fashion shoot consists of just one member – a female friend from school, who says she is more than happy to warn him when he’s becoming too Hollywood (“My friends put me in check, yo”) – and, despite the indoor sunglasses, he is polite, engaging and seems in awe of the situation in which he finds himself. But he’s aware that things will change. He is already noticing the difference between the low-budget intimacy of Moonlight and Captive State, directed by Rupert Wyatt, whose last hit was Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (although Moonlight’s $1.5m budget was, Sanders says, “big to me!”). He is also moving in different circles (he recently met Tom Hanks, whom he refers to as “my boy”, and is heading to the Met Gala next month with designer and new friend Raf Simons). Besides, it must be tricky to remain completely down to earth when you’re featured alongside your Moonlight co-stars in a new campaign for Calvin Klein, your face and torso gracing billboards across the country (“Dude, it’s nuts,” he says, excitedly).

Still technically living at home when he’s not working (he assures me he’s got his eye on a place of his own once he’s back in LA), Sanders is aware that he has a lot to learn, not only about the industry but about life. “I’m still an adolescent almost,” he says. “I’m still working on myself every day, but I love myself. I love my weird quirks and I love being different.”

And if the bullies could see him now? “Well, shit, man,” he says looking around at a photoshoot being prepared just for him. And with that, a smile spreads across his face.

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