“That is such an articulate way of putting it Caleb,

because that is, I think, what draws us into any type

of live medium – be that theatre, music, comedy, or

sport. You're engaging with something that is suggesting

you need to suspend your disbelief, but it's not. It's

actually asking you to augment your reality, and to accept

slightly changed or bended rules and invest into that.

That allows your heart to come out, it allows your soul

to come out, and allows you to release the grip that the

cerebral or the neurotic has on you which I think is amazing.

And that's what I’ve felt anytime that I've watched an

incredible artist, a great rapper, or a perfectly pinged pass

across the goal. Just like great plays, it's inherently fictional.

It picks up on something that's so fundamentally truthful.

So, that's definitely something that we can always strive to

do as artists.”

Actor Paapa Essiedu first entered the public imagination

when his performance in the fearless, frank and provocative

comedy-drama, I May Destroy You, propelled him to

Primetime Emmy and British Academy Television Award

nominations. Now, he’s becoming one of the most

celebrated actors of our generation. In his latest project,

he plays Tristan in the revival of Lucy Prebble’s, The Effect.

And everyone, I mean everyone, has gone to see it. Probing

thought-provoking questions,The Effect sees Essiedu lead

alongside 29-year-old Hollywood starlet, Taylor Russell, who

plays Connie, in a dopamine-based pharmaceutical trial that

chews up the very foundations of what love, longing, being

and belonging truly means – and spits them straight back out

for you to decipher. It’s funny, cool, powerful and vulnerable.

Essiedu undoubtedly stirs the audience, and unwillingly steals

their hearts. Covering our Autumn/Fall 2023 issue, Essiedu meets

award-winning author of Open Water, Caleb Nelson, in the BFI’s

café, to let us into what makes his performances just so goddamn good.

Paapa Essiedu wears Fendi

Photography by Danny Kasirye
Fashion by Toni-Blaze Ibekwe
Interview by Caleb Nelson
Words by Ella Bardsley
Editorial Director Charlotte Morton
Editor in Chief Toni-Blaze Ibekwe
Senior Editor Ella Bardsley
Editor Erica Rana
Deputy Editor Ella West
Art Director Livia Vourlakidou
Makeup Carlos Ferraz at Carol Hayes Management using Omorovicza
Barber Christian Chidubem Okonta
Production Director Benjamin Crank
Producer Isabella Coleman
Production Assistant Lola Randall
Art Direction Assistant Beth Griffiths
Art Direction Intern Will Glen
Fashion Assistant Zhanna Moskalyova
Fashion Interns Amelia Provic, Mora Ilaka, Annabel Webste, Kiara Morris
Photography Assistant Neil Jackson
Lighting Assistant Madison Blair