Khary Payton, actor and Clarke Central High School Class of 1990 alumnus, stands in room 231 looking at a yearbook on March 28. Payton grew up as a small and quiet kid, but has since starred in TV shows like “Invincible” and “The Walking Dead.” “Now that I’m back at Clarke Central, I just think about how much I was worried about what people thought of me,” Payton said. “Now, I want the kids here to know that it doesn’t matter what anybody thinks of you. It matters what you love.” Photo by Illiana Tejada
Actor and Clarke Central High School Class of 1990 alumnus Khary Payton discusses his connection to each of his characters and his love of acting.
Sports Staffer Sam Harwell: How does it feel to be back in Athens?
Actor Khary Payton: It feels good. I’m most excited to meet people who knew my parents. My mom moved out of (Athens) about four years ago, so it’s nice to have people (who) know them. The funny thing about Athens is that most people who come up to me on the street that I don’t know, know me from my work because I work in TV and film. But in Athens, most people come up to me because they know my mom and my dad. My mom is the friendliest person you’d ever want to meet, and my dad was a pediatrician in Athens for 40 years.
SH: Your father, Victor (Payton), was a very important figure in the Athens community. Can you tell me about him and how he influenced you growing up?
KP: My dad died about four or five years ago, and I hear all these stories after he died about the things that he would do as a pediatrician. You could call him all hours of the night and he’d keep samples of medicine that, if you couldn’t afford it, he’d just give you . That’s just my dad, and that’s the way he took care of people. I would walk around town with my dad, and people would come up, “Hey, Dr Payton, how are you doing?” It was either the parents or it was the kids who grew up. He knew so many people. My mom (also) makes friends everywhere. Between the two of them, it was like I was the guy walking around with celebrities.
SH: What was Clarke Central like in the late ‘80s and early ’90s? Did you act at Central?
KP: (When I was a kid), I loved “Saturday Night Live,” so I would mimic Eddie Murphy and all of those guys from back then. There was a contest that you could sign up for the cable channel Showtime, and they wanted kids to host their afternoon of children’s programming. You had to do a talent, so I did a bunch of “Saturday Night Live” skits and I won that contest. After I won, they were like, “What can you do on stage?” I was like, “I don’t know…stand up comedy?” I’d never done it before, but I just came up with a bunch of (jokes) and started doing stand up comedy. But the thing is, I was doing all of this outside of Clarke Central. I barely did anything in Clarke Central, I wasn’t very big and kind of quiet. But, I found that when I got on stage, I came alive. I think there’s maybe a lesson in that. Find a place that you can flourish, maybe it’s not in school, where you feel more comfortable with something. (For me), I always found that once I got on stage, I just felt more free to do more.
Khary Payton describes his love for his career and reflects on how passion can be of benefit to someone when doing their job. Video by Sam Harwell
SH: When would you say you started wanting to turn acting into a career?
KP: When I was in the first grade, while I lived in Alabama, I saw the play “Cyrano de Bergerac”, and there was this dude sword fighting, and he was smart, fast and quippy and I was like, “I want to be that guy.” So, by the first grade, my mom knew that I wanted to do theater, and when we got to Athens, I started doing plays at the recreation center. What I loved about acting was the connection that you could get when you were doing theater. You have an immediate reaction with people. That connection, to me, is magical. So whenever I’m doing anything, even if I’m doing TV or cartoons, there’s somebody that’s gonna click, right? Even if I never meet them, it’s gonna click with somebody. But sometimes, I get to meet all of those people and I can see it in their eyes that they were like, “I was watching, it connected with me.” The end result is that I want to feel it so much that whoever’s watching me on TV can feel it too. Because maybe I’m gonna meet that person and see it in their eyes. That’s what drives me.
SH: So, you put yourself in the shoes of a character so much that you think what they think?
Khary Payton, actor and Clarke Central High School Class of 1990 alumnus, stands in Room 231 on March 28. Payton owes much of his acting success to his mother, who ensured he had access to the resources he needed for success. “I was lucky (because) if I told my mom I wanted to do something, she was gonna try and figure out how to get it done. So, I told her I wanted to act,” Payton said. Photo by Illiana Tejada
KP: I always thought that the point was for me to embody a character, but it’s not. It doesn’t stop there. The point is for me to embody this character so that somebody else can feel it. I remember I did this convention in San Antonio, (Texas), early on, when I was doing the TV show, “The Walking Dead.” I think people really gravitate towards that show, because it’s people who are struggling, in a dark situation and they’re trying to find family and connection and energy. (As) I was finishing up (the convention), this woman came, and she had come from all the way across Texas. She gave me the biggest hug, and she held on to me. She said, “It’s just been so hard.” And that’s all I remember her saying. I thought about why she was saying that to me. She had all of these things go wrong, went all the way across Texas to get to this convention, to give me a hug because somehow that show helped her get through it. That’s the job, that’s the relationship. And I feel like that’s something that everybody can learn, is that whatever you’re doing, no matter what the job is, it’s to find connection with the person across from you.
SH: You’ve done voice acting in shows like “Invincible”, “Teen Titans” and “Young Justice”, as well as on-screen performances like “The Walking Dead”. How do you prepare differently for a voice acting role versus an on screen performance?
KP: I (have) prepared differently for every role, and I’ll tell you why. I don’t know what I’m doing! For years I was like, “Okay, I’ve got a certain process and procedure” (but) every time I try to put it in a box and make it a simple calculation as to how I’m gonna create this character, it goes (wrong). You got to stay malleable. And that’s one of the things that I love about my career in particular, is that I play on camera, I play cartoons and and I play lots of different kinds of characters and it keeps me on my toes to know that I can’t be generic.
SH: So, you make sure you’re not playing the same character every time?
KP: Sometimes, I was like, “Let me just try to put (my process) in this box,” and it never works out that way. It always seems like there’s something just different enough. I find that every time I pick up a new character, I’m like, “Okay, what am I gonna do with this?” Sometimes, I have no idea how to begin, (sometimes) I do have an idea. And there’s something kind of beautiful and new about it. There’s an old “Robin Hood” movie years ago that Morgan Freeman was in. He was playing this Muslim guy who was in England, and this little English kid was asking him, “Why? Why are you painted differently from me?” And he said, “Because Allah loves wondrous variety.” I always think, that’s what I love about my career, the wondrous variety that I’ve got. I’m going to paint on this canvas something I’ve never painted before.
Find a place that you can flourish, maybe it’s not in school, where you feel more comfortable with something. (For me), I always found that once I got on stage, I just felt more free to do more.
SH: You have been cast for an upcoming Marvel game as Black Panther. Is this an important step forward for you? What did you do to get in character?
KP: I have been such a fan of the Black Panther character, since the comic books. When I was a kid, I loved him. When I auditioned for (Black Panther), it was one of those auditions that felt like it was mine before I had it. I started walking around this big room and I just started walking in a circle, because I felt like a panther. When they prowl, they just slowly walk around on the outskirts. The scene was this confrontation between Captain America and Black Panther, and I just circled him and they asked me, “Do you want to stand in the middle since it’s your audition?” I was like, “No, I wouldn’t stand in the middle. You’ll stand in the middle. I will walk around you.” And so immediately, I started to stalk around him. I kind of forgot that everyone else was there. I followed that feeling, and once again, I had no idea when I got there what I was gonna do. But after doing it for so long, I feel like I have the freedom to be like, “I’m going to do it this way.” And most of the time, people don’t say no. Most of the time people will listen to me.
SH: Do you have a favorite character or role that you’ve played in your career?
KP: People ask me that all the time. And I have the bailout answer, I love so many of my characters. Cyborg was my first voiceover audition in Los Angeles, (California). When I walked into Warner Bros. Animation, there were these big glass doors and this huge banner of Justice League, which was the big cartoon at the time. I was like, “Well, I’m in the right place, but I’m probably not gonna get the job.” But I was just excited that they let me audition. I walked in there, and there’s a microphone and a music stand. The casting director asked me if I had done anything before. And when I was in Dallas, I had done this video game, like in 1996 or something, and she was like, “Never heard of it.” But (during my audition) I just felt so free because with a microphone and the music, I could be anything. I could be a monster. I could be big. I could be small. I’ll always love Cyborg for giving me that freedom. But I mean, I played a guy pretending to be a king who had a tiger in the apocalypse who got to kill zombies. I mean, that’s kind of hard to beat. It’s hard for me to decide (on a favorite). I just feel really lucky that I have played characters that people connect to.
