Uzo Aduba Shines in Netflix’s ‘Beats,’ And It’s Time to Make Her a Star

As I was watching Beats—a new Netflix film starring Anthony Anderson as a struggling music manager and Khalil Everage as a young musical prodigy suffering from PTSD—all I could think was: Why haven’t we given Uzo Aduba the world yet?

Anyone who’s seen her in her other Netflix project, Orange is the New Black, knows Aduba is a phenomenal actor. She’s stolen every scene she’s in over the past six years as Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren, a role that earned her two Primetime Emmys. All the Orange is the New Black women are great, but Aduba mastered the difficult task of portraying a mentally ill character (not diagnosed on the show, but suspected to have schizophrenia) provides comic relief, but not at the expense of the mentally ill. It’s a line other actors would have happily crossed for the laugh, but Aduba—who found compassion and vulnerability in Suzanne—never did.

In Beats, Aduba does a 180 from her unhinged-but-upbeat Crazy Eyes routine: She plays an incredibly strict, no-nonsense mother to August Monroe (Everage). As far as I could tell, Aduba doesn’t smile once in the film’s 110 minutes (at least, not with teeth, Crazy Eyes’ signature look). Carla Monroe is strict for a good reason: In the first five minutes of the film, her daughter is killed—gunned down in the violent streets of Chicago’s South Side. August, who was with his sister when she was shot, now suffers from PTSD and agoraphobia, neither of which are helped by his mother’s insistence that he stay inside at all times. And that includes going to school.

When Romelo Reese (Anderson), a former-music-manager-turned-security-guard, gets put on truancy duty for the high school, he attempts to have a conversation with Carla about August. She is so not having it.

“It says he hasn’t been in class since October,” says Reese. “That can’t be right. October?”

“Mhm, that’s right,” says Carla, without a hint of apology, uninterested in the conversation. “He been ill.”

That attitude is pretty much the M.O. for Carla for the rest of the movie, and those used to Aduba’s Crazy Eyes smiles will hardly recognize her. Carla doesn’t care if her son hates her—all she cares about is that he stays alive. The film is more Anderson’s than Aduba’s, and the Black-ish star is also excellent, but Aduba—as she is on Orange is the New Black—is a scene stealer. In perhaps my favorite moment of the film, Reese plays Carla her son’s music, which moves her to tears.

So I ask again: Why have we not yet given Aduba the world? This is a woman who deserves Oscars atop of billion-dollar action franchises. She deserves starring roles and magazine covers and endorsement deals with skin care products. I want to see an unflattering photo of Uzo Aduba on the cover of Life & Style under a misleadingly scandalous headline, because she’s just that famous. And yes, I realize that up until very recently, she’s been busy with Orange is the New Black, which premieres its seventh and final season next month. I’m impatient!

The good news is that Aduba does have a significant starring role coming up: She’s going to play Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman ever elected to Congress, on FX’s highly-anticipated miniseries Mrs. America. Aduba stars opposite Cate Blanchett, who plays conservative party leader Phyllis Schlafly, the woman who infamously killed the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s. Between Beats and Mrs. America, I have a feeling those tabloid covers are right around the corner.

Stream Beats on Netflix