As a kid, Brian Tyree Henry was blind for about a week. Well, not really, but he really committed to pretending, just as he did when he adopted a British accent for days or started his own sign language.
Henry grew up with four much older sisters, which propelled him to grow up fast. “I was always trying to catch up with the adults,” he recalls. “And instead of asking questions I would observe and then go do it.”
But he also clung to the fun of childhood, especially since he needed to both entertain himself and strive to get attention. He’d rearrange the furniture to act out scenes he’d learned from his favorite babysitter, a.k.a. television. (Nickelodeon took him from “The World of David the Gnome,” which is “still one of my favorite shows,” to “The Dick Van Dyke Show.”) He also transformed a dollhouse into a movie set. “My sisters would say, ‘Why is this house upside down?’ and I’d say, ‘Oh, there was a hurricane,’” he says.
Growing up this way is “definitely a big part of why I act,” says Henry. Just as at home, Henry has garnered attention for performances without being the star of the show. He earned Tony nominations (for “Lobby Hero”), an Oscar nod (“Causeway”) and two Emmy nods (“This Is Us” and “Atlanta”), but all were in supporting or guest roles. Finally, with Apple TV+’s “Dope Thief,” he’s now carrying the show and it has led to his third Emmy nod, his first for lead actor.
In previous interviews previewing “Causeway” and then for “Dope Thief,” Henry struck me as thoughtful and hyper-articulate about the projects he’s in and the characters he plays, but also so open about how his personal pain and vulnerability fed his acting. (His mother, with whom he was close, died in a car accident while he was finishing the first season of “Atlanta”; his “Causeway” character lost a leg in a car accident. In “Dope Thief,” Ray has a tumultuous relationship with his father; Henry lived with his father during middle and high school but says he never had a male role model and was working through his own traumas by playing Ray. Then his own father died while the series was filming.)
Brian Tyree Henry, right, as Alfred Miles in “Atlanta” with Donald Glover
FX
But during this most recent video interview, he’s happy and relaxed — grateful for reaching this next level, determined to keep ascending and also smart enough to savor it all, several times mentioning the camaraderie he found with fellow nominees.
For Henry, who has had to prove himself in an industry that doesn’t always offer substantial roles for Black actors, this nomination is especially meaningful. Early in his career, he says, people would say to actors of color that they should just be grateful to be doing this at all.
“But that wasn’t enough for me. I knew that I had a voice, and I knew that I had my own place,” he says. “And I’m quite proud of the progression and to have this lead nomination under my belt. Now Jake [Gyllenhaal] and Colin [Farrell] and Stephen [Graham] are also my peers. This is great.”
He’s also in a better place emotionally and now views his role as being able to grant some grace to his characters. “I’ve found tools to battle my demons, I’ve figured out how to walk my walk, so I was just constantly trying to just get Ray to a place to be on the other side of it all,” Henry says. “That’s why the ending is a cry of surrender and salvation. I’ve taken enough of a journey now and I’m in a place where I’ve learned how to be. If the part of Ray came to me six years ago, I’d have been no help to him. But now I want to say to him, ‘Hey, look, man, it’s going to be all good.’ I know that sounds crazy.”
Henry, who split his childhood between his divorced parents and between Fayetteville, N.C., and Washington, D.C., didn’t start acting until college, but in high school, he did enjoy performing — in speech and debate, show choir and marching band. At Morehouse College, he was a business major until he was encouraged by a friend to audition for “Antigone.” After that, he landed a major role in August Wilson’s “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.”
“That was the best experience ever,” he says, especially because he got to perform the scene for Wilson when the playwright was honored in a ceremony at the school. Soon after, Henry was getting his MFA at the Yale School of Drama. Hanging out in front of a bar late one night he saw Wilson (whose play “Radio Golf” was there) walk by and summoned the courage to introduce himself.
“In my mind, it was like meeting Gandhi or the pope,” he says. They chatted about their Morehouse encounter. The next day, Yale dean James Bundy called Henry in to say that Wilson told Bundy that accepting Henry to the program was the best decision he’d ever made. “That was hands down one of the best moments in my life.”
Soon after, Henry was sleeping on an air mattress with a slow leak in the furthest reaches of Brooklyn, stealing cable from neighbors, eating bologna sandwiches and collecting bus transfers to help with his commute to Manhattan’s theaters. While he admits there were times when he “questioned whether it was sustainable,” he loved it all. “I honestly didn’t know what else I was meant to do.”
Brian Tyree Henry’s “Dope Thief” role landed him his first leading actor nom.
Apple Tv +
He believes those experiences informed his acting and says that even years later, he was drawing on that uncertainty and the need to hustle for Ray in “Dope Thief.”
“Dope Thief” creator Peter Craig says Henry brought so many layers to the character. “He was better than I thought anybody could be at playing a defense system, and the person behind the defense system,” says Craig. “He has so much intelligence both emotionally and analytically so he knew how to show Ray was one kind of construct when he was in fight or flight but was a completely different person underneath.”
Craig also praised the actor’s commitment and depth, both as an actor and an executive producer. “He was foundational in terms of producing — a lot of the crew came from Brian’s recommendations from ‘Atlanta’ and they were some of the pillars of the crew.”
Henry relished the producing role, saying the collaborative side harkened back to his theater roots but adding that he enjoyed being able to advocate for anyone who needed him. “It brings out a different side of you,” he says. “I’ve seen every kind of set, and I wanted everyone who signed up to tell this story with me to know that they were safe, protected and that they made the right choice.”
He also wants people to see his name on something as an executive producer or an actor as a sign of quality and integrity. “I want my name to be synonymous with really great stuff so when they see I’m a part of something they want to tune in,” he says, because everything may not work perfectly but it should always be compelling and ambitious.
“If you see Tilda Swinton is in something — even if she’s playing a statue and not speaking — you know it’ll be interesting,” he says. “That’s the kind of stuff I want to create. I want to be a leading man with great character arcs in great stories, but I also want people to see my name and just say, ‘OK, we are gonna go on this ride.’”
