What’s the point of being a celebrity if you can’t even go outside, let alone be mobbed by fans or visit late-night talk shows to share gossipy anecdotes or lip sync a song from the 1980s? Sure, being cooped up has been tough for all of us, but what about the stars in our midst? “I’m not a celebrity,” insists Mr Tom Rhys Harries, demurely shaking his pixelated head over Zoom, waggling a dangly earring as he does so. We may just have to agree to disagree with the star of the Netflix whopper White Lines, who currently has more than 76,000 followers on Instagram. First, though, he wants to discuss something far more important than fame. “I’ve been inundating myself with the news,” he says once we sort our connectivity issues. “It’s just f****** mad isn’t it.” When we speak, national outrage over the tragic death of Mr George Floyd, a black man, at the hands of the Minneapolis police, is developing into a much-needed and long-overdue global campaign for racial equality. In London, Mr Rhys Harries and I – two white people (one 27-year-old Welshman, one age-withheld American respectively) – are reckoning with our own complicity and privilege while we’re supposed to be discussing his eye-catching performance in White Lines. “I’m sorry,” he says. “I don’t want to make this take over our conversation, it’s just so prevalent in my mind. I’ve found it hard to have conversations with people all last week without talking about it, because it’s huge.” In the days leading up to our conversation (and the days following), Mr Rhys Harries has been vocal on Instagram, posting his support of the Black Lives Matter movement and imploring fellow white people to educate themselves.
