It’s a running gag in our community that Black people usually don’t last five minutes in horror movies. That might change thanks to Edi Gathegi, star of My Bloody Valentine 3-D, in theaters now.
The movie is about a coal miner who goes crazy and starts hacking up people in the small town of Harmony around Valentine’s Day. The cops are trying to figure out who the mysterious murderer is before too many more lives are brutally lost.
In My Bloody Valentine 3-D, Edi plays Deputy Martin, who is a pretty important character; so how far did he make it? “Girlfriend…I make it past the opening credits,” Edi told S2S. “I’m paving the way!”
Edi says he usually doesn’t watch scary movies, but he enjoyed seeing this one. “There’s a lot of comedic elements to it. It’s campy, it’s fun—it’s a rollercoaster,” said Edi. “That’s why they call it a date movie because it’s like going out and going to do something fun.”
So, does Edi (a charismatic and eligible bachelor) have any plans this Valentine’s Day. Sadly not, he told us. “I’m always, like, Valentine-less,” Edi laughed, “and I don’t know if this year is going to be any different."
If you have a daughter, sister, cousin or neice under the age of 16, you may recognize Edi from the movie Twilight where he plays Laurent, a 300-year-old vampire.
Edi said he never looked at the role as something out of the ordinary. He just took it on as an acting challenge and thought of what he could uniquely bring to the role. That meant developing a look for Laurent that included dreads. What you see in the movie is just a hairpiece, but Edi tells us that the wig designer did such a good job with his ‘do that it even had the extras fooled!
Although applying makeup for Twilight only took about an hour, getting in shape for the movie was another story. “You know, vampires are supposed to be sexy, so a brother hit the gym,” Edi shared with us. “Well, more specifically, I went on a diet, to be honest.” That hard work definitely paid off.
You can also catch Edi on the small screen because he’s had recurring roles on FOX’s “House” and ABC’s “Life on Mars.” He also just finished the pilot for the USA Network that he’s hoping will get picked up for a full season.
Good luck, Edi!
– Sonya Eskridge
Photo by Julia Tyrell
