Jahi Winston, who was introduced to most audiences through stellar performance as Young Ralph Tresvant in BET’s record-setting miniseries, The New Edition Story, stars alongside Taraji P. Henson in this weekend’s new release, Proud Mary. 

Winston had a quick chat with Shadow and Act about his role in the Taraji P. Henson thriller, as well as his upcoming projects.

Before The New Edition Story, he scored a gig as Young Simba in the Broadway production of Disney’s The Lion King.

On the new film, Winston said, “Proud Mary is about a hitwoman who works for a crime organization in Boston. She lives a good life until a professional hit goes wrong and my character, Danny, is a victim of that hit. It changes his life, and puts him in this lifestyle that isn’t him. And it’s very abrupt.” 

When talking about working with Henson on the film, the young actor said “It was amazing. She’s very nurturing and very sweet. I just saw her at reshoots a few months ago. She’s so very nice.” 

His next big project? A Netflix series that he is starring in. Everything Sucks is described as a quirky, funny coming of age story that follows two groups of high school misfits – an A/V club and a drama club – who collide in 1996 Oregon. Jahi plays the lead role of freshman Luke O’Neil, the only child of a single mom who joins his school’s AV Club.

“It’s amazing. I’ve never been a part of something like this before. It’s just a very youthful and nostalgic environment like the show and the premise of the show. I’m excited for you guys to see that at the top of 2018.”

There’s also The Upside, the upcoming remake of the 2011 French film, The Intouchables. The film shadows the comedic relationship between a wealthy paraplegic and an unemployed man with a criminal record who is hired to help him Winston will appear alongside Kevin Hart, Bryan Cranston, Nicole Kidman and Aja Naomi King. “They were so amazing. That was very fun, I was back and forth between that and Proud Mary, I got that right before I started (Proud Mary).”

Back to The New Edition Story, Winston says they all figured the successful miniseries would be a hit, but he didn’t quite expect its impact. “I feel like we all knew that we were doing something great, I just didn’t know the capacity. I knew it was big, I just didn’t know it would be as big as it was.”

With the release of the highly-anticipated Marvel’s Black Panther right around the corner, when asked what superhero he’d like to portray, of course, it’s Black Panther. Maybe he could portray T’Challa in a prequel film? Who knows! I’m thinking he could be a dope Kilmonger though, I’m just saying.

Proud Mary, which stars Henson, Winston, Danny Glover and Billy Brown, is in theaters now.