The Flick's Aaron Clifton Moten on Wanting to Play Bob Marley & Why He's Not a Lawyer

Age: 26

Hometown: Austin, TX

Current Role: Glum college kid and cinephile Avery, who takes a job as an usher at a shabby, non-digital New England movie theater in Annie Baker's 2013 Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Flick.

Stage & Screen Cred: Moten originated the role of Avery when The Flick premiered at Playwrights Horizons. He made his Broadway debut in the 2012 revival of A Streetcar Named Desire and has appeared on screen in NCIS and Top Five.

“I was a sports kid, but I think that was because of where I grew up. I did my first play [Jim Leonard’s The Diviners] when I was 12, and I immediately took to it. I liked spending time in the head of a different person.”

“My father was a lawyer and a judge and my mother is a court stenographer, so I thought I’d become a lawyer. But when I found out that you could actually major in theater in college, I was like, ‘That sounds like a lot more fun.’”

“Being a young black guy, when I go and audition, most of the time it’s for Thug/Drug Dealer #3. There’s a type that I have to maneuver within. So, when I read The Flick, I thought, ‘Thank God for Annie Baker for writing a character like this.’”

“I’m just as big of a film snob as Avery [laughs]. I do think there have been great movies in that last 10 years, but the list is super short. I really love older movies like Cool Hand Luke and James Dean movies and All About Eve. I’m trying to bring them back.”

“Last February, I married my wife Lilja Rúriksdóttir, whom I met at Juilliard. We love to be outside. If you’re ever in Sheep Meadow in Central Park, I’m one of those jerks playing Ultimate Frisbee [laughs].”

“I really wish I could play Konstantin Treplyov in The Seagull. I identify with his struggle to create work. Or Bob Marley! I can’t wait to see myself in some dreads and let my goatee grow out.”