Alton Mason might be new to Hollywood, but he’s already a staple in the world of fashion. At only 24, he’s reached monumental heights; he was the first Black male model to walk for Chanel, he starred in the first all-Black campaign for Gucci, and he’s worked with legends like Karl Lagerfeld and Virgil Abloh. Now, he’s making his first jump into feature films, portraying musical icon Little Richard in Baz Luhrmann’s highly anticipated “Elvis.”
Mason’s modeling experience helped his acting.
“I’ve never been on a set of that caliber with Warner Bros., but I did carry some of the things that I learned working in fashion onto that set. Just how to communicate with a director or videographer, how to listen at an interpretive, prime level—really applying what you hear and what you feel no matter what you see. Being on that set and being surrounded by all of those extras, you have no choice but to surrender to what’s given to you. You got a piano, you got a mic, you got a band, you got the extras, you got the club. You are in it! It was so much fun. It felt like an out-of-body experience.”
Lots of prep work went into his performance as Little Richard.
“What I love about Little Richard and his essence the most is how complex he is, how fluid he was with his play on masculinity, and how he could use that to his advantage to express himself—especially considering the time that he was in, where a lot of those emotions and self-expressions were suppressed. Little Richard is one of the first performers that displayed such power in his presence. So I really studied the greats—Michael Jackson, Prince, Beyoncé—and tried to identify what that power is and what that feeling is.”
His role in “Elvis” taught him to embrace himself.
“When I came into fashion, I remember the agency at the time was telling me to dress [a certain way]: ‘You have to look like everyone else.’ I feel like, for a lot of people, especially in our generation right now, it’s really hard dealing with self-acceptance and also wanting validation and acceptance from others. Little Richard was the one to say, ‘Eff all of that! This is me, this is mine, and this is who I am.’ I’ve always been very soft-spoken; I will always be humble and gracious. But Little Richard gave me an equilibrium to that balance. I really appreciate that because there’s power in self-love; there’s power in self-expression and freedom and fearlessness.”
How to Become a Model Mason advises everyone to follow their instincts.
“God has a plan for all of us. The universe has an individual plan for all of us. Nobody is the same; everyone is unique and named in a way, shape, or form that is only true to them. So be and follow that. Whatever calling is speaking to you, whatever vision you keep seeing, [whatever] lights a fire inside of you, please go for it. The worst thing that can happen is you end up in a place where you already started, a place that you’re already comfortable and familiar with. Challenge that, and go seek and find answers. You will discover new worlds within yourself that you didn’t know existed. Trust that and feed that fire.”
This story originally appeared in the June 16 issue of Backstage Magazine.