Jonathan Majors scorches the cover of Ebony

It may be cold outside, but it's blisteringly hot inside the pages of Ebony Magazine. It’s so hot the thermometer just says, “Jonathan Majors.”

The Ant-Man and Creed III star graces the cover of the February issue, and the accompanying photoshoot is causing a heatwave. Considering that February is Black History Month and also contains Valentine’s Day, the cover shoot with Majors was dubbed “Supreme Swagger Meets Romance,” but as he tells it, that hasn’t always been how he sees himself. 

 

 

 

 

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“I was told many times that I didn’t have swagger,” he laughs as he speaks to the outlet. “I was told I wasn’t cool. I was forced to be an individual in order to survive. I had to believe in my own way of doing things. And that’s what swagger is, you know.”

He continues in the interview to speak about how his job as an actor doesn’t actually entail much hubris, but rather it's an exercise in humility. "Being an actor has never been an ego trip for me. Quite the opposite; it’s quite humbling. You're always playing somebody bigger, faster, stronger, smarter than you, deeper than you. Which is why you have to do so much work [in preparation for a role]."

Throughout the interview, we are treated to a private side of Majors. He talks about his joy of being a father to a young girl, and also expresses his ideas surrounding his personal  Black masculinity.

“We teach worth and value in our household, and self-worth,” he says of raising his nine-year-old daughter. “A big thing is, as she changes her hair up, I’m very clear to tell her I liked it the way it was. I love it now; I loved it then. Another thing we teach is smiling. Your emotions belong to you. No man can make you do anything or feel anything. And like her father, she’s not easily impressed. Yeah, I mean, big-head boys are going to have a hard time dealing with her. I feel bad for [them], because then you have to deal with her and me."

He also spoke about how the roles he’s choosing these days advance the diversity not only of Black actors, but of Black male representation. After making waves for his villainous Kang the Conqueror role, he’s taking it a step further in the upcoming Ant-Man film opposite Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, and Michelle Pfeiffer.

“Nothing is more diverse than the fact that the ‘big bad’ of the MCU is a young Black boy from Texas. That’s nuts!” he told Ebony. “And there’s no help. There’s no allies. It’s [just] big bad, and he’s a member of the African diaspora. [You see that in his] lips, nose, cheekbones, everything. That’s him; it’s us.”

“Nothing is a monolith – not Blackness, not maleness, not comic book villains,” he added.

Apart from acting, Majors speaks about his cause to advance Black representation and accessibility in Hollywood with his Sidney Poitier Initiative, which he describes to Ebony as a way to, “mitigate the issues our namesake had in making his transition to Hollywood [...] [For us], that’s opening doors, networking, meeting people… Allowing them to understand a sense of occasion with the industry and how to really plant their roots here and be constant gardeners within that network in order to have real staying power.”

Fans are loving his photoshoot, which features the actor shirtless, throwing roses at the camera, reading books, all while surrounded by gorgeous pink hues.

You can read the entire Ebony interview here, if you can stand the heat.