"It's Legendary"

There’s a good chance that if you hear the nameShameik Moore, you’d associate him withthe voice of Miles Moralesfrom the animatedSpider-Versefilms. The actor has lent his vocal cords to the character over two —soonish to be three— movies starting back in 2018 withSpider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Outside of that, you might recognize him for his live-action roles in movies likeThe GutterorSamaritanor even for his on-screen appearance as Raekwon in Hulu’s series,Wu-Tang: An American Saga. But those who have been with his career even earlier might have gotten their first view of Moore’s abilities in a gone-too-soon Netflix series titledThe Get Down. The show, which centered its story on the birth of hip-hop, was also one of the first gigs that putJustice Smith(I Saw the TV Glow,Detective Pikachu) in the spotlight alongside industry vetsYahya Abdul-Mateen II(Watchmen) andJimmy Smits(The West Wing). After just one season, theBaz LuhrmannandStephen Adly Guirgisco-created series was axed from Netflix’s slate, leaving a vinyl record-shaped hole in the middle of our hearts.

Duringa panel at FanExpo San Francisco, while mostly chatting about his time swinging across theSpider-Verse, Moore opened up about the series, breaking down the plot and enticing those who had never seen it to give it a shot. Teasing the basics of his character and the heart of the show, Moore said:

the-get-down

“It’s pretty straightforward. But if you haven’t seenThe Get Down,it’s about the origins of hip hopfrom the disco phase. My character Shaolin Fantastic - the ladykiller romantic - he is at a disco club, he’s a DJ, and he steals this equipment, and he’s going to this secret underground cool party spot, they call it the get down, but we now know it as hip-hop. I’m basically playing the original bad boy of hip-hop. So that’s sort of it, it’s sort of break dance, it’s deejaying…and it’s legendary.”

‘The Get Down’ Gave Shameik Moore a Chance to Shine

As luck would have it, Moore was enjoying a steady flow of job offers during the time ofThe Get Down’s casting. Explaining how he and his team decided the musical drama was the best choice for him, he said:

“And it’s one of the first three Netflix originals. I remember when we got that offer, that opportunity. It was like a conversation, ‘Do we goSnowfall, do we go –’ we had a couple things on the table afterDope, and we went [with] TheGet Downbecause I was able to show the most range, and it was on a new platform and I watched things on Netflix, and I was like, ‘Of course this is a no-brainer. Like if I can have something on Netflix, let’s go.’ And that show ended up getting canceled. It was well-loved.”