Daring to ‘dream and imagine’: Ernest Kingsley, Jr. gains recognition in Hulu’s “Washington Black”

As the titular character in Hulu s limited series Washington Black Ernest Kingsley Jr has enormous responsibility as he earns immediate international recognition Washington Black adapted from the same-named bestselling book tracks the th-century odyssey of George Washington Wash Black We meet him at a boy born on a Barbados sugar plantation whose scientific brilliance propels him to remarkable heights Naturally for such a pivotal role Kingsley faced A long audition process Like two months Including a chemistry reading with Sterling K Brown who costars and serves as an executive producer For that I was like Oh my God but it was really cool As to who exactly George Washington Black is He s this incredible curious-minded intelligent just wondrous young man who has this gift of science a gift of inventing and creating Obviously he s born into complicated situations Then he goes on this incredible adventure Historical fiction asks How is it relevant What specifically does it say about our world at present The main one I d say is this thing of identity So multiple characters in Washington Black live double lives They are struggling with who they want to be and who the world says they should be That s potent in in the present day s society as well I feel like we need more of a conversation about the freedom to be who you are to do what you want to do And also this thing of finding love At his main core Washington Black is just a person who sees more for themselves who dares to dream and imagine Kingsley s professional journey began he mentioned in a Zoom interview When I was I did the whole acting class thing My mom pushed me into it it was just something that I inevitably loved doing And I was like You know what I feel like it s achievable And my mum thought the same thing and very graciously pushed me into it And here I am years later As for his biggest hurdle filming the series The largest part formidable thing I had to do was being so far away from home which is London I don t think I ve ever spent that long of a time in so various different countries away from home I was like Wow that s pretty hard to be in the middle of Mexico and my parents my siblings are nowhere to be seen So that was the biggest hump I had to get over and just kind of dive into the public around me He didn t have a little like dog to bring along I love cats My neighbors have like three cats But I just brought them with me in memory Washington Black premieres July on Hulu episodes