It is very difficult among, most of the corrupt superheroes on The Boys, to find any reason for sympathy. Yet, despite all of his intolerably heinous acts for the sake of preserving his public persona in Season 1, Jessie T. Usher somehow managed to make his character, A-Train (the fastest member of The Seven) just a little more likable in the blockbuster Amazon Prime original series’ sophomore outing.
The secret could simply be that the 28-year-old Maryland native is extremely likable in real life. He has been gifted with a natural charisma that has earned him roles as Samuel L. Jackson’s son in 2019’s Shaft, and work in the 2014 sports biopic When the Game Stands Tall, and the star-studded holiday flick Almost Christmas in 2016. Of course, considering the success of The Boys and his upcoming part in the ensemble voice cast of the animated Seal Team movie, it seems that this fresh, sought after talent is only getting started.
However, acting is not the only talent that Jessie T. Usher possesses and gets to show the world. To learn what else this “Supe” is capable of and more, take a deeper dive into his life from behind the scenes with the following six facts you might not have know about him, starting with his skills in the kitchen.
Jessie T. Usher Studied Culinary Arts In College
Most actors have a great story about how they either fell in love with acting after giving the school play a try or the sacrifices they made to attend a performing acts college before hitting it big. However, Jessie T. Usher was already acting by the time he was 11 years old, after his family moved to Los Angeles in 2003, so after he graduated from high school second in his class, he tried wearing a whole new hat - a chef’s hat, to be exact. In August 2016, Usher told Flaunt Magazine about how he fell “in love with baking” while a culinary student, and even has hopes to be a restauranteur between acting gigs.
Playing A Basketball Player On Survivor’s Remorse Earned Jessie T. Usher Fans In The NBA
One talent that Jessie T. Usher is honest about NOT having is skill on the basketball court, as he would tell Interview Magazine in 2016. This is despite the fact that he is well-known for playing a young prodigy of the sport named Cam Calloway on Survivor’s Remorse from 2014 to 2017. The actor went on to describe how the Starz original series, created by Snowpiercer star Mike O’Malley and produced by LeBron James, has given him some cred among actual NBA stars. He then recalled a time when Brooklyn Nets point guard James Harden was starstruck by him in a Las Vegas hotel lobby.
Jessie T. Usher Idolized Will Smith Before Playing His Stepson In Independence Day: Resurgence
Speaking of starstruck, that is exactly how Jessie T. Usher felt once he got to meet his lifelong acting idol Will Smith at the 2016 White House Correspondents Dinner. This was after he already portrayed the Oscar nominee’s onscreen daredevil stepson, Dylan Hiller, in Independence Day: Resurgence - that year’s sequel to the 1996 sci-fi hit that made Smith an action star. Yet, as he told Hip Hop DX, it was his days on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air that really sparked Usher’s admiration for the rapper turned actor.
Jessie T. Usher Launched His Own Production Company In 2018
In addition to his dreams of making meals in the kitchen when not making magic on a Hollywood set, Jessie T. Usher is already far into the transition of also assuming a position behind the camera. According to a report by Rolling Out in 2018, the actor launched his own production company, dubbed Mansa Productions, with his business partner Kellon Akeem acting as CEO. That same year, the company put out their first project - a dramatic short film called A Father’s Love, which Usher co-wrote with Blackish and Project Power actor Allen Maldonado and tapped his Survivor’s Remorse co-star RonReaco Lee to direct.
Jessie T. Usher Spent Hours Covered In Blood On His First Day On The Boys Set
For anyone who has ever felt at all shocked or disgusted by the visually brutal subject matter on The Boys, inspired by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s Wildstorm comic of the same name, you are certainly not alone. In fact, Jessie T. Usher had an especially difficult time shooting his first scene as A-Train, which you may recall involved him causing the particularly gruesome death of Hughie Campbell’s (Jack Quaid) girlfriend, Robin (Jess Salguiero). While promoting Season 2 to Digital Spy, Usher broke down what the filming process was like for him:
The shocking moments are what we live for on this show. We're just as surprised to be doing this stuff as you guys are to be watching us do these things… I never thought I'd be running through a human being. That was day one for me on the show... so I knew very early on what I was going to be in for here. It was an intense first day. I was covered in blood for 12 hours!
If you are like me, all it took to hate A-Train was the sight of him rushing through Robin, rendering her into minuscule chunks, and without willfully accepting any responsibility in the first few minutes of The Boys pilot. Yet, when you hear Jessie T. Usher’s side of the bloody story, it changes your mind just a bit.
Jessie T. Usher’s Sister Is A Fashion Designer
I imagine it also would have been difficult for Jessie T. Usher’s older sister, Jesstia, to see him covered him in all that blood on The Boys, but moreso for how horribly it must have ruined his outfit. Jesstia is a successful professional clothing designer who, according to Black Enterprise, has even taken her brother as a client, crafting garments for his own red carpet premieres or even for the dual purpose of fighting Covid-19 and honoring a fallen fellow superhero. During a recent interview on The Real, Usher showed off a face mask bearing the likeness of the late Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther, which his sister personally made for him.
Maybe one day Jessie T. Usher will see fans wearing his face on their own apparel in honor of his achievements, but maybe not as A-Train. However, I would be curious to see if the recently reinstated Seven member’s moral compass points any further north once The Boys returns for Season 3 on Amazon Prime, which we will be sure to keep you updated about here on CinemaBlend. That being said, do you think Usher’s speedy supe is ready, or even worthy, of a true redemption moment?
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