Louis Vuitton Double
Layer Jacket ($4,390),
Staples Edition Inside
Out T-Shirt ($600),
and Slim Pants
($1,060, select Louis
Vuitton boutiques);
Florsheim Palermo
Plain Toe Gore Boot
($195, florsheim.com).Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is
joking—or maybe not—when
he says that the title of his
breakout movie should be
Aquaman: I Watched It on a
Plane. Evidently that’s what
some people tell him upon
learning that he played the
villain Black Manta opposite
Jason Momoa’s marine super-
hero. It made $1 billion, so
folks saw it in theaters, too.
Haven’t flown much lately?
Then maybe you recognize
Abdul-Mateen II from his first
role, playing Cadillac on Baz
Luhrmann’s The Get Down, a
Netflix series about the rise
of hip-hop in the 1970s. You
might also know him as Karl,
the lead in the latest season
of Black Mirror. Little kids
who saw Abdul-Mateen II in
The Greatest Showman oppo-
site Hugh Jackman joyfully
tackle him. Still not ringing
any bells? Just wait for his
starring role in an adaptation
of DC Comics’ Watchmen on
HBO, opposite Regina King,
out in October.
In fairness, Google can’t
quite place him, either. The
search engine says he’s an
architect. Here’s what
happened: The now 33-year-
old was an undergrad at U.C.
Berkeley, studying architec-
ture, the fulfillment of a
childhood dream to be in
construction like his father.
(Rejected career choices,
circa age 5, include: basket-
ball player, boxer, race
car—as in an actual automo-
bile.) He needed an elective,
and a teammate from track
recommended he take acting.
“At the end of the semester,”GR
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