INTERVIEW: Jonathan Majors on Healing During His Role in New Film ‘Devotion’

Devotion star Jonathan Majors (Lovecraft Country, The Harder They Fall, Loki) takes on the role of Jesse Brown, the first Black Navy aviator in history, alongside Glen Powell (Top Gun: Maverick), who stars as Tom Hudner, his wingman.

Devotion follows the story of the two elite US Navy fighter pilots who defied the odds and made history in the Korean War while they had to combat geopolitical uncertainties and racism in the 1950s. Christina Jackson (Swagger, The Night House, Outsiders) stars as Daisy, the wife of Jesse Brown; Thomas Sadoski (Dick Cevoli), Joe Jonas (Marty Goode), and Spencer Neville (Bo Lavery) are included in the cast.

The film touches on their very special friendship and respect that develops over time as Hudner learns to be an ally for Brown. The film chronicles friendship, love of family, trust, and, most importantly, perseverance and devotion. Jesse and his wife Daisy met in Hattiesburg, Mississippi and their love story is the foundation of Devotion as Daisy supports him in love and in a career that went on to honor him with the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Purple Heart Medal, and the Air Medal.

Christina mentioned to Glitter in her latest interview, the dynamic of Jesse and Daisy’s friendship with Hudner stating, “Her opening up to Tom the way that she does, it’s not an act of desperation, but it’s “I need you to know how important I am to him up there, and now you need to fulfill the other part of that in the ways that I can’t understand.” She continued, “It’s kind of this, not releasing the reins, but it’s letting someone in on how this thing works here and now what your responsibility is. I think in the sense of learning allyship from her, Daisy’s approach was never going to be the way Jesse’s is because their relationship is different. But in her understanding that up in the sky, it doesn’t matter who’s Black, who’s white, you are both there fighting far beyond yourselves; you’re fighting for me, you’re fighting for Pam, you’re fighting for everybody. It needs to happen down on the ground too.”

Jonathan shared with Glitter what went into the incredible mirror scenes in the film where his character Brown is seen repeating the racial trauma and derogatory words that he had been called throughout life and in his professional career meant to instill doubt, fear, and pain. I mentioned to Jesse that “we know what that book is” when it comes to microaggressions and racism hurled at us as Black people and wondered if he had improvised at all during these very dramatic scenes.

He shares, “Jesse has carried those books since he was a boy. They mention that in the book, his mom would see him in the mirror, you know, having those conversations. So that’s pulled directly from the man himself.”

Majors also shared about healing during the filming of Devotion as well as when production ended and what he absorbed from the entire project.

He stated, “I think a big part of the story that I connected to, in my coming to it, was that it’s quite difficult to be a young black man in America, there’s a lot of distrust that happens. I felt that in Jesse, and rightfully so. I mean, you hear about the swim test. You hear about his trials and tribulations going through it. But ultimately, he’s moving towards a place of trust, then even more in that devotion, and that devotion as healing and that devotion as a balm for all of the dishonesty and hate that he’s kind of dealt with. So for me in my life, there is a certain frequency that can push me past certain doubts. The frequency of devotion allows you to have certain conversations, walk into certain rooms, and know in many ways that I’m covered and it’s something you can only experience by the work. I think at least for me, I experience that for the work and, therefore, heal through the work that way.”

Devotion is directed by JD Dillard (Sleight, Sweetheart) and written by Jake Crane and Jonathan A. H. Stewart. The film is produced by Molly Smith, Rachel Smith, and Thad Luckinbill. Executive producers of the film include JD Dillard, Glen Powell, Robert Simonds, Adam Fogelson, and John Friedberg.

The production of the film was stellar, with Glen Powell sharing in a recent interview with Glitter, the immense detail that went into getting the Corsair planes right, even down to the paint.

Powell shared, “It’s authentic because it is. It’s wild, period pieces; I’ve always been so enthralled with them because it requires different gear for a crew. Right? It requires actors to understand things that could be anachronistic or that could take an audience out of it, how they talked, how they walked, what was going on in the world, all those different things. For costumes, it’s obviously different for visual effects, even just us pulling the planes from around the world. The interesting part is that the Corsair is an incredibly difficult plane to fly. It’s very heavy, and it’s a character in this movie. The nose is large, and it’s not an easy plane to fly, and not a lot of people are flying them. So we had to go to literally plane enthusiasts, people that fly these things in airshows and whatnot, and convince them to paint these planes in the exact way that they would have been. Not only that but one of the things that’s just so fascinating is Wynn Thomas, who was our amazing production designer, had to find the exact paint that they used that’s worn because you don’t want this thing to look brand spanking new and clean. So everything down to the paint that’s used is time period accurate. So it’s just things like that that I just find to be so fascinating when you get to do a movie like this, which is, on Topgun, we’re on naval bases, these are modern airplanes, the F-18s are the planes that are being flown over our heads every day, Corsairs we just had to pull every Corsair we could from around the world. I think there are more Corsairs flying in this movie than there have been since the Korean War, which is pretty cool.”

Aviation coordinator Kevin LaRosa Jr., who also worked on Top Gun: Maverick, brought the same wow factor to Devotion, which includes very realistic and intense flight scenes. Powell also shared what it was like working with him.

Glen stated, “They didn’t have the same sort of radar or targeting technology that these modern planes have, so it’s just a different type of flying. I think that was an interesting thing of how that informed Kevin LaRosa, the way he shot all of it. That relationship is strong because it has to be from what JD Dillard is shooting on the ground; he can’t be up in the planes with us. So it’s that communication between the story on the ground and what we do up in the air that has to be over-communicated to Kevin La Rosa. He has to know exactly emotionally what the impact is and then what we’re shooting on the ground. We have to know because Jonathan’s in a different plane than I am. Obviously, we can’t be communicating up there. There’s a lot going on. So we just have to be on the same page in terms of those small, nuanced moments that will really put the audience in the cockpit with us and be emotionally impactful as a story.” 

Devotion is an incredibly moving film that is visually stunning and should absolutely be added to your watch list. See it in theaters and streaming on Paramount+ now.