Zazie Beetz is persuasive in an ensemble, giving supporting characters lives beyond the leading man's concerns. We rate her most when the script lets her act on her own behalf, as High Flying Bird does.
Fi1m perspective
Sam has left her old boss for a better job, but she still takes his calls. In High Flying Bird (2019), that small fact gives Beetz something firmer to play than loyalty to the central character. We warmed to Sam because she has made a practical choice for herself without cutting Ray off. Beetz is worth watching when a supporting part allows that much independence.
Atlanta (2016–2022) established her as Van, working alongside its creator and co-star Donald Glover. That ensemble work is central to her appeal, and the move into genre films has often kept her in supporting parts. Domino, the mutant with luck powers in Deadpool 2 (2018), was her first major studio blockbuster part, an opportunity to bring that grounded presence into an action film.
Tarell Alvin McCraney's script for High Flying Bird, filmed by Steven Soderbergh on a phone, makes particularly good use of Sam's independence. Each conversation has another negotiation beneath it, and her change of job means she takes part on terms of her own. The film's quick, dense talk can be chilly, but the writing gives its actors competing interests rather than simply contrasting personalities. Beetz benefits from having a character whose circumstances matter to the discussion.
Joker: Folie à Deux (2024) offers much less. Beetz returns as Sophie Dumond, the part she played in Joker (2019), but is used to revisit material the first film had already established. Todd Phillips's sequel spends too long explaining itself, while Jeff Groth's long two-shots let the explanatory scenes drag. The thin use of Beetz is a writing problem, not a reason to doubt her abilities, but we cannot recommend a film for having cast her when it gives her so little worth doing.
Nine Days (2020), with Beetz in the lead as Emma, is a reminder that supporting parts are not the whole of her work. We would like more scripts that give her decisions to make rather than information to supply. Start with High Flying Bird, provided an evening of fast, intricate negotiation sounds like pleasure rather than further work.
Biography
Zazie Olivia Beetz is a German-American actress. She was born on 1 June 1991 in Berlin and graduated from Skidmore College with a bachelor's degree in French.
Beetz began her career with appearances in short films. Her breakthrough came in 2016 with the role of Vanessa 'Van' Keefer in the FX series Atlanta, for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. She has since appeared in films including Deadpool 2 (2018) as Domino, Joker (2019) as Sophie Dumond, High Flying Bird (2019) as Sam, The Harder They Fall (2021), Bullet Train (2022) and Joker: Folie à Deux (2024), reprising the role of Sophie Dumond. She also voices Amber Bennett in the animated series Invincible (2021–present).
Beetz married actor David Rysdahl in 2023.
