Jasmine Cephas-Jones

Photos by Sylvie RosokoffStyling by Lauren Walsh Makeup by Tomomi Sano Hair by Li Murillo

Becoming a renowned professional singer, composer or actor is extremely difficult, but doing all three at the same time is probably insane. “No,” seems to answer Jasmine Cephas Jones, “just intense.” Only 29, she has been revealed to the public with the smash hit musical Hamilton: An American Musical, where she played the role of Peggy Schuyler and Maria Reynolds. Since she left the show to focus on the rest of her career, she has had major parts in both Blindspotting, which came out in theaters on the 27th of July, and in Monsters and Men, directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green, coming out the 28th of September.

For a lot of artists, at some point of their career, a dilemma arises: what do you stand for, what are you willing to give up to get famous? Jasmine’s career seems to strike the difficult balance between creating meaningful art and art that sells. Hamilton, the stepping stone for the young actress/composer/singer, bores a pretty political message, mixing America’s founding father with hip hop, as well as hiring a very diverse cast to play them. Yet, as she says: “Hamilton is so big because it rolled over into pop culture as a Broadway show; we were on the billboard with Fetty Wap, that doesn’t happen on a Broadway show.”

Today, she again plays in two movies that address specific problems. “Both talk about a lot of issues that are happening right now, and that’s what we need to do, it’s a breath of fresh air. It’s fresh air to have some reality, and to have movies facing what we’re all facing.” It is worth noting that Blindspotting was written over 10 years ago, by Daveed Diggs (who also starred in Hamilton) and Rafael Casal. Nonetheless, the challenges the protagonists encounter are still relevant today: the situation in Oakland, imprisonment and its repercussions, as well as police brutality. Because of her convictions, Jasmine considers carefully what she auditions for, and has no desire to be on television just to fill character tropes such as ‘‘the girlfriend,’’ but she wants her character to have layers and nuances.

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On the subject of characters, from Peggy Schuyler, the slightly irritating yet surprisingly iconic little sister, to Miles’s partner in Blindspotting, Jasmine Cephas Jones has range. It’s demonstrated in how she approaches her roles. For Hamilton, the young actress decided to brush up on her history. With this careful reviewing along with the welcomed aid of excellent costume design, she managed to go through the looking glass, into her character’s world, and to take the audience with her. For her part as Ashley in Blindspotting, she decided to go into the Warrior’s victory parade to get that the accent down and that little southern twang that the people in Oakland have. “I didn’t want to be that Brooklyn girl. I wanted to be believable, that girl from Oakland, which is important because Oakland doesn’t get a lot of shine.”

Additionally to Blindspotting and Monsters and Men, Jasmine is also working on an EP. This will be the first project where she has total creative freedom. She reveals it was centered around one core message: “We are all human beings.” She mentions her frustration about people sometimes forgetting that fact, saying that she too had anxieties and selfdoubt, that she was also a person, and that each individual human being experiences difficulties in their lives. “It’s a crazy time right now in our country and we all go around with a little feeling of uneasiness. When those kind of things happen in the world, it’s when art thrives. We have a mission, as artists, just as much as politicians, to bring out these feelings into art. It’s a different way, people seeing a different perspective.’’

While discussing her future career and goals, aside from her 1st of August concert, her EP, and the two movies she is promoting, it’s clear her love for musicals has not died down. “I want to do it all,’’ she tells us. “I want to act until I’m old.” But because of the hard world of show business, she also mentions a couple of struggles she encountered along the way. One of them relates to how hard it is to juggle everything she does. While doing Hamilton, she confesses that managing her schedule was harder to get used to than her rise in popularity. “The hardest thing about that was doing a three-hour show eight times a week, and people being by the door, and you don’t want to be mean, but you have to save all your energy.”

Although she did have quite the breakthrough with Hamilton, her artistic journey is far from an endless and painless uphill climb. “I still feel like l struggle, I feel like the struggle never stops. You really have to love what you do to get in this business because you really get a lot of rejection. But I think it’s the love that I have for my craft and kind of what I believe in as an artist that keeps me going.’’

For those dreaming of glory and success in the art world, she gives us one last piece of advice. “If it’s something that you are madly in love with as an artist, just don’t give up, and don’t get discouraged. The rejections just make you stronger and don’t let that affect you, hold you down or put you in a dark hole, just keep pushing through it because it’s hard. It’s a hard, hard business but it’s so worth it, as my grandfather said: Keep going kid.”