Rosario Dawson is an artist, designer and activist. She made her feature film debut at the age of 15 in the controversial Kids, followed by Spike Lee’s He Got Game and The 25th Hour. She’s since starred in a range of films including Alexander, Rent, Clerks Ii, Top Five, Trance, Unstoppable and Men in Black II, as well as the Sin City franchise. On the small screen, Dawson starred as Allegra Dill in USA’s Briarpatch and as Claire Temple in Netflix’s Marvel comic book series Daredevil, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Jessica Jones and The Defenders. She can currently be seen in the Hulu limited series Dopesick. Rosario has produced several passion projects such as Talia Lugacy’s features Descent and This Is Not a War Story, and The Need To Grow, which highlights innovators healing our broken food systems and the need for soil regeneration to capture carbon and reverse climate change. Recently, Rosario directed her first short film, Boundless, for the Power/On Series. In 2013, Rosario founded Studio 189 with Abrima Erwiah, a fashion and media lifestyle brand made in Africa that produces African and African-inspired content and clothing. She is extremely passionate about helping empower LatinX millennials to vote and lead so in 2004, she co-founded Voto Latino. The organization has registered over one million people and was one of the co-founders of National Voter Registration Day. In 2011, Rosario was honored by Barack Obama with the President’s Volunteer Service Award for her valuable contributions to the community.
On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast, longtime friends and collaborators Rosario Dawson and Talia Lugacy sit down for a chat, on the occasion of the release of their latest film together, This is Not a War Story, the moving drama about combat trauma which Lugacy wrote, directed and stars in and Dawson executive produced. In a wide-ranging conversation, the two started off by talking about the recent tragic death of Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust and how it connects with persistent problems in both indie and studio filmmaking, and moved on to touch on everything from the human aspect of cinema, art as therapy and Rosario’s thoughts on directing, to their time as teenagers at the Lee Strasberg Institute with Scarlett Johansson and Hayden Christensen, the changing of the guard that is currently taking place in Hollywood, and the journey they have taken together, both creatively and personally. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.
This episode was produced by Melissa Kaplan. The Talkhouse Podcast theme music is composed and performed by the Range.
(Photos courtesy Rosario Dawson and Talia Lugacy, edited by Keenan Kush.)
