In Netflix's "Hollywood", Laura Harrier plays Camille Washington, a rising star. The casting couldn't be more fitting, as Harrier is also doing some rising of her own—and this is a breakthrough moment.
Since 2017, the 30-year-old actress was featured in a Marvel movie—she played Liz in "Spider-Man: Homecoming"—as well as the Oscar-nominated flick, "BlacKkKlansman", and now, Ryan Murphy's "Hollywood" series on Netflix.
Camille is clearly one of the most talented actresses signed at Ace Studios. But she is also the only black actress—which means she is not offered leading lady roles. Thanks to "Hollywood's" twist of revisionist history, however, Camille eventually gets her chance to shine as the star of a movie based on the story of Peg Entwistle, a struggling performer who infamously jumped off the Hollywood sign.
Harrier shines among "Hollywood's" star-studded cast, which includes Rob Reiner, Jim Parsons, Joe Mantello, Holland Taylor, Patti LuPone, Darren Criss, Dylan McDermott, Jeremy Pope, Samara Weaving and more.
But Spike Lee personally sought her out for "BlacKkKlansman". After appearing in "Spider-Man: Homecoming", Harrier jumped to the provocative film about race relations. In fact, Lee called her directly or the part of Patrice, interrupting her vacation on a Greek island.
"He just said he had a new project, and he wanted to meet me, and to get to New York, the next day," Harrier said. She answered the call, and "BlacKkKlansman" ended up being nominated for six Academy Awards.
Harrier is a vocal advocate for on-screen diversity since the start of her career—much like her "Hollywood" character, Camille.
“I want to do romantic comedies and other films in which you don’t see people who look like me; movies where you’ve never really seen people who don’t look like Kate Hudson. I don’t know what people’s thought process was when they believed that audiences couldn’t connect to seeing people of color fall in love,” she said.