a sci-fi political thriller premiering on Netflix in
which she stars alongside Narcos actor Boyd
Holbrook and Dexter’s Michael C. Hall. It’s noth-
ing new for the self-proclaimed “big-time sci-fi
fan.” Last year, the 31-year-old Australian actress
appeared in Hover, an environmental sci-fi
thriller that Coleman also wrote and produced.
“It’s funny because you can be a fan of a genre
and not necessarily work in it,” she says. “I’ve
been really lucky that even Last Man on Earth,
the comedy I did for four years,
was a sci-fi comedy. I love sci-fi
comedy. I love sci-fi thriller, and,
obviously, I wrote one. I have
more in the pipeline. I just think
that sci-fi has a really rich
history of championing people
of color. As I always say, it’s just
a great way to hold a mirror up
to society but with enough fan-
tasy so that the message isn’t
too heavy- handed. It can be
enjoyable, and then you can
receive the message while
being entertained.”
This idea of rich histories
and fantasy is also reflected in what Coleman
chooses to wear. But instead of looking to dys-
topian futures, the actress mines the past. She
adores vintage, anything with “good energy”
and a story of its own.
“I have this garnet ring that’s from the 1800’s,
and it was a gentleman’s pen that has two snakes
wrapping around the garnet stone,” she says. “I
mean it’s just so cool for me because I know
some guy in the 1800’s was wearing it on his
jacket, on his lapel. And the two snakes tell us
that either he worked in alchemy or medicine or
the ring was given to him by a lover because
sometimes two snakes represent two lovers. So I
just love the idea of this piece. It’s come so far,
and now it’s on my hand. It’s just so cool to me.”
Her closet consists of vintage nightgowns, a
1990’s chocolate-colored Hermès suit, a jacket
made in Bali, and, surprisingly, an H&M sequinedgold velour jacket that she picked up at Los
Angeles’s Wasteland when she first moved to
the city years ago.
“I have never worn it, not one time, but I cannot
bring myself to get rid of it because I just remem-
ber how excited I was when I found it,” she says.
“To me, it’s so loud and it sort of speaks to, I guess,
my groove when I first moved to L.A. I was trying
to figure out who I wanted to be in this city and
how I was going to get by. But it also felt really
crazy and really fun, and I
feel like that’s the energy
that jacket sends to me.”
Coleman’s obsession with
the jacket, her unwillingness to
part with something that’s so
much a part of her history, is
understandable. Moving half-
way around the world is no
easy feat, and discovering who
you are in a whole new place
presents its own challenges.
But the actress is used to find-
ing her way as an outsider
looking in.
“I’m an outlier,” she says.
“I was raised in Australia. There are not many
people who look like me or my mother there. My
mom’s Jamaican, and my dad’s Scottish. I was
forced to get really strong in who I was because
I didn’t have anyone else like me to look to. Not
even in media really, not even in magazines or
on commercials or on television or film, unless
they were international films.”
Yet Coleman believes that being an outlier
can become a kind of superpower. “It creates so
much strength, even though at times it’s diffi-
cult,” she explains. “But you got to hang in there
because it pays massive dividends—just being a
strong person and loving yourself and not com-
promising yourself to fit in. It makes you, I think,
more beautiful, more understanding of others,
more empathetic, and that only feeds my humanity
and my ability to understand the world around
me and what other people go through.” »Sci-fi has a really rich
history of championing
people of color. It’s
a great way to hold a
mirror up to society.”Cleopatra Coleman is
gearing up for the release of
In the Shadow of the Moon,
STYLE ESSENTIALSESSENCE.COM I 25 I SEPTEMBER 2019