Aaron Moten plays Maximus, a lead character in Amazon’s Fallout, who has to survive in a postapocalyptic Southern California. But in real life, the 35-year-old star hopes never to need his newfound survival skills. “I feel like Iceland is my safe place,” he says. “We’re a little island. A lot of volcanoes. You don’t want to come over here.”
Born in Austin, Texas, the Juilliard grad moved to Iceland shortly before the pandemic. While many actors run toward Hollywood, Moten ran away from it to lean into his happiness, trading L.A. nights for the Icelandic outdoors. “I didn’t want to have the same [industry] conversations over and over,” he explains.
Moten is aware that moving away from the epicenter of the film industry may lead to missed opportunities, but believes “what is for you, is for you,” he says. “There is no one, no thing, that’s taking that away from you. It is just so important to be happy.”
Fame is not his focus, but rather career longevity and adding new skills to his repertoire. He tells me Fallout is the first project he’s shot on film, not digital, and explains the nuances of skin tone in film versus digital, noting that color correction is unnecessary in the former. “I would be proud at the end of my career if people just called me a filmmaker,” says, having taken an interest in working on both sides of the camera. “It’s about being a part of the conversation and having input.”
Expanding roles for Black actors like Moten leads to a broader perspective on Blackness onscreen. “People really want to connect with the characters that they see, so it’s a personal goal of mine to continue to redefine what Blackness is for audiences and not overplay something that we’ve heard before,” he says. “There’s a certain aspect of Blackness that is overproduced by Hollywood,” he says. “As a Black man, sometimes I have been asked to sound like I would when talking to my cousins or my family for the camera and in a situation where I wouldn’t speak that way.”
As he grows in his career, he hopes “to keep being invited to the table for the conversation. I feel like I’m still coming into my powers as a person, so to get more room to grow and more room to play is very fun and exciting,” he says.
His commitment to acting and the focus it requires is a large reason why he often doesn’t use social media. “I used to love Instagram, and then it started to clash with what I want out of life, which is to be very present,” he says.
When we talk, Fallout is a few weeks from premiering and Moten is on a press tour. In an age when social media is so integral to so many, and a way not only to share and amplify our work and interests, but also boost our ego, I’m a bit surprised Moten is not more active. What about your fans—and soon-to-be fans? I ask. He prefers the interactions be IRL: “I want to see people,” he says. “If you see me, come talk to me. I’m a very open person.”
Hair by Anton Alexander for Kérastase; makeup by Grace Ahn at Day One; manicure by Merrick Fisher and Naoko Saita at Opus Beauty; produced by Production Partners; photographed on location at The Hollywood Roosevelt.
A version of this article appears in the June/July 2024 issue of ELLE.
Danielle James is the Digital Beauty Director of ELLE.com. Previously, she was the Fashion and Beauty Director of HelloBeautiful.com and MadameNoire.com. She’s written for The Cut, InStyle, Allure, The Business of Fashion, Nylon, Essence, Good Housekeeping, and more. She enjoys sailing, thrifting, Japanese whiskey, Naomi Campbell’s runway walk, and Rihanna in the comment section.
