Storm Reid on Her Career Ascent and Working With Living Legends

Teen Vogue is celebrating its Sweet 16 this year! In honor of this exciting milestone, we’re publishing a series of stories about the ups and downs of turning 16. Read the entire special issue.

Storm Reid has just gotten off a seven-hour shoot and is now meeting me for dinner in an Upper West Side jaunt. She’s famished, but unlike a typical moody teenager, she’s unflustered, quite bubbly, actually. She recognizes me the moment I recognize her, dressed in a gray hoodie with perfectly laid cornrows and minimal makeup. Despite her low-key attire, the first thing you notice about Storm is how beautiful she is.

“You got to see it?!” Storm asks in mock frustration. “I’ve only seen the first episode!” She’s talking about her highly anticipated HBO show, Euphoria, a dizzying, colorful, cinematic high school dramedy about the fallout when main character Rue, played by Zendaya, overdoses on heroin and subsequently spends the summer before her junior year in rehab (more Requiem for a Dream than Riverdale). Storm plays Gia, Rue’s younger sister, who finds the troubled teen unresponsive on her bedroom floor. The subject matter will turn heads, but it could not be more urgent, and Storm knows it: ”It’s a tough conversation, but it’s a conversation that needs to be had.”

“As an actress, it’s difficult. Rue and Gia are both trying to find themselves and figure themselves out. And Gia is really internalizing what Rue is doing to her, and Rue is internalizing what she’s doing to Gia,” Storm tells Teen Vogue. “So there’s hurt and pain there, and Gia starts to not make the best decisions. On a personal level, it’s not anything that’s new. [The opioid crisis] is something that’s even affected people in my family, so it was something that I could draw emotion from, and I know how it makes me feel.”

In addition to her convincing role in Euphoria, Storm plays Lisa in Ava Duvernay’s When They See Us — out now on Netflix. Her character is in a relationship with one of the “Central Park Five”— five black boys falsely accused of raping a white woman in Central Park in 1989. Ava explores this tragic case and the dangers of implicit bias and demonization of people of color in the Netflix miniseries.

“Ms. Ava gifted me a character that really humanized the boys because all people knew them as — especially then — criminals or accused criminals. And while some people knew they didn’t commit the crime, some people will still just see them as brown and black boys who did something wrong,” Storm says about the controversial case that left one of the five in jail for 12 years.

“We live in a system, and in a world, where we’re penalized for being African-American," Storm says. "We’re penalized for being part of a marginalized group. So of course [Ava] wants to cover the case, but what she really succeeds at is helping people get to know the boys before this happened to them.”

This is Storm’s second major project with “Ms. Ava,” the first being her lead role in A Wrinkle in Time. I have to ask how Oprah Winfrey, her cast mate in the $100 million science-fiction film, is in person.

“Amazing.” Still, I need more. How did they meet? What was the moment like? Was she nervous? “I was doing my schoolwork at the production office on a super busy day, and Ms. Ava came in and pulled me out of the room and said ‘I’m gonna take you somewhere.’ And I walk in the room and Ms. Oprah is sitting there. And I’m shocked, so I defaulted to introducing myself, but before I could she said…”

At this point Storm does a perfect Oprah impression:

“STOOOOOOOOOOORM!”

We both laugh.

“And I couldn’t believe it! I gushed, like, she knows my name,” Storm says. “After I got over the shock of being with Oprah every day for six months, she’s just so down to earth and so cool. She has such a passion for what she does and so much love for the crew, and the cast, and her craft. It’s unmatched and not something you see a lot in this industry. She’s just a special human.”

The food we ordered arrives quickly, and Storm, almost like sleight of hand, in one motion takes a perfectly lit photo of her dinner. “Whenever I see really good food I just gotta take a pic!” A chill break in conversation from the relatively heavy subject matter.

If you try to find a single thread in Storm’s career, the closest thing you’ll come up with is the helplessness of being a witness and the very human characters that act as a mirror for the audience. You may not use drugs, but you probably know somebody who has struggled with addiction. You may not know wronged victims of the justice system, but you probably know the sinking feeling of someone you love being misunderstood and wrongly accused of something. This feeling of bearing witness to trauma is common for Gen Z, and is reflected in the characters Storm plays.

Storm, who turns 16 at the beginning of July, was born and raised in Atlanta (she proudly refers to herself as a “Georgia Peach”); hence, the formal titles she gives Ava and Oprah. She’s been acting since she was a small child, and the decision was hers. At just three years old, she told her mom, “I wanna be on TV, and I want to be a ‘stuperstar’.”

At nine, Storm, her mom, and her sister moved to L.A. for Storm's career. It was a risk, but clearly worth taking. “I feel like I was put on this earth to do this. Not be an actress, but to tell stories and inspire people.” Her first feature role was in Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave (2013).

“My big breakout role was Wrinkle, but the first big production and set was probably 12 Years a Slave,” she says about the Oscar award-winning genre film. “Even though I was only in that [film] for, like, five minutes, it was very impactful for me. I had never been on a production that big. It was a huge step into what I’m doing now.”

Immediately, her career flourished. With all the good that came from living in close proximity to Hollywood, it’s a different world for the starlet. “It’s hard. I have a lot of friends in Georgia. I have my homies in L.A., and they’re so genuine. I have a whole list of people I could shout out.” A quick scan of her Instagram account shows that she frequently converses with Sayeed Shahidi, Chloe and Halle, and many more of the cool young actors blowing up right now.

On top of having a good, tight-knit squad, Storm’s family has been incredibly supportive of her career. When I ask about how they feel about her success, her face lights up. “They’re...they’re really proud of me. And that feels good. My mom has always said, if I didn’t want to do it [acting] anymore then I could just quit, but I haven’t wanted to. I feel like that’s everyone’s outlook. As long as I’m happy, that’s what matters to them.”

Storm, like most teenagers of her generation, has a courtside seat to social and political turmoil, climate change, and the all-out attack on women’s, LGBTQ, and immigration rights, but is not yet old enough to vote on policies that will directly affect her future. This fact hasn’t stopped the actress from voicing her opinions on equal rights, the pay gap, white supremacy, and more.

“I’m not really comfortable yet calling myself an activist, so I like calling myself an active-learner, active-thinker, active-listener,” Storm says. “I try to use my platform to lift people up. I don’t think we all necessarily have to have the same opinion, but I don’t want to waste the opportunity to share mine.”

The generation Storm is coming out of is nothing short of inspiring, and she is no exception. Sometimes wanting to inspire people can sound vague or disingenuous, more suited for Instagram likes than real-world application. But without a doubt, Storm is inspiring people. Beyond acting, she’s founded a production company with her mom, and dreams of producing and directing soon. When asked who inspires her, she takes a moment to collect her thoughts.

“Naomi Wadler is incredible, and she’s 12. My mind is blown by her! Like, can I be like you when I grow up? So if she can use her voice so young, I should, too. Emma González, too. And going way back, there’s Harriet Tubman and how she fought for our people, or Solomon Northup who got out of slavery and still fought for us,” Storm says.

“When I do feel down or I’m not feeling like myself… and there will be days like that… I think about them and so many people, Ms. Ava, Zendaya, and Yara [Shahidi]. We just all have the same mission. This is why I’m doing what I’m doing.”

This will be a huge summer for Storm, beyond her sweet 16.

“I’m a Cancer,” Storm says. “Very emotional. I’m not super into astrology and I don’t know if I believe it, but sometimes I’ll scroll down the [Instagram] explore page and something will pop up and say, ‘Cancers act like this!’ and I’m like, ooh that’s how I act!”

After the When They See Us premiere, Storm will get to chill in Atlanta for a couple of days. I ask for her itinerary: “We would go to Waffle House — they don’t have it in L.A. and it breaks my heart! The grits are so good! Then we might go to the mall — Perimeter or Lenox [Square]. Those are the cool malls, but we’re kind of growing out of just hanging around the mall, I think?” Speaking assuredly about what it means to “grow out” of something, Storm says, “I still like to do it. You run into so many people.”

Storm goes on to share her plans to eat Texas Toasts and tenders, hit the skate club, go to the movies, and visit Sublime Doughnuts — your everyday activities for a young woman, still embracing the carefree, yet carefully guided space in which she dwells.

I jokingly suggest they rename her favorite doughnut the “Storm Strawberries and Cream doughnut,” and she totally agrees.

When I ask her about plans for the future, she candidly says she doesn’t know if she’ll be acting, but she’ll definitely be telling stories — something more fearful starlets might avoid saying. But Storm is secure, and when you’re with her, you feel secure. I imagine her in elementary school, inviting shy, scared kids to sit at her lunch table. Her embrace is warm and restorative and I find my almost-30-year-old-self wanting her guidance.

Since she has so much figured out at 15, I suggest she do a show where she fixes people’s lives.

“You think I could do that?” she says, blushing. I truly think she could, but as a test, I ask her how to fix my life. After a moment of consideration, “You should get a dog!”

Credits:

Photographer: Micaiah Carter

Stylist: Jason Bolden

Hair: Takisha Sturdivant

Makeup: Ren Nobuko

Prop stylist: Rosie Turnbull

Jewelry in lead image: Lightbox pink studs earrings, $600. Lightbox open top and linear stacking rings, $600.

Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue