There are few actors as versatile and intensely arresting as LaKeith Stanfield. Since appearing in Destin Daniel Cretton's Short Term 12 upon graduating from high school, Stanfield has gone on to work with premier talents, including Ava DuVernay, Jordan Peele and Donald Glover. Most recently, he joined his contemporaries Jonathan Majors, Regina King and Idris Elba in Netflix’s thunderous Western The Harder They Fall. 

Typically, Hollywood’s leading men have been charismatic but often hyper-masculine. That’s why moviegoers have historically gravitated toward everyone from Tom Cruise to Denzel Washington. Though Cruise is seen as a heartthrob, many of his top-grossing films like the Mission: Impossible franchise center on his ability to perform death-defying, heroic stunts. As a result, these roles tend to lack a true emotional pull. Washington’s career has been more diverse, but some of his biggest films, including Training Day and American Gangster, still center on intriguing characters with questionable moral codes. Yet viewers often find themselves rooting for them.

As society reconsiders archaic ideas about gender roles and our collective understanding of gender and sexual identity expands, sex appeal and what it means to be a leading man has also been revised. The end result of these shifts brings an actor like Stanfield front and center. At first glance, the actor’s whimsical wardrobe choices and searing brown eyes don’t make him an obvious sexy leading-man choice, but Hollywood, at long last, is beginning to embrace something different. 

The 30-year-old leans fully into his eccentric style and sometimes off-kilter remarks with his distinctive and sometimes peculiar roles in films like 2018’s Sorry To Bother You and 2019’s Uncut Gems. From the moment he steps in front of the camera, it’s clear that no other actor could pull off these particular performances so effortlessly.

Stanfield’s authenticity and his determination to be exactly himself, no matter the setting, is what makes him irresistibly sexy. While some actors can draw in audiences simply because of their names, they never actually disappear into their roles. For the California-born actor, it’s the exact opposite. Stanfield gets lost in his performances, mesmerizing audiences, drawn to his unique style. Once hooked, we feel compelled to follow his work across various genres and time periods.

The Get Out actor has never been in any danger of being typecast. By the time he found himself in his first romantic role, in 2017’sThe Incredible Jessica James, Stanfield had already starred in Dope, as Snoop Dogg in Straight Outta Compton and as the eclectic gun-loving Darius on FX’s Atlanta. But it was Netflix’s Someone Great that solidified his sex appeal.

Against a modern-day New York City backdrop, Stanfield stars as Nate, a late-twentysomething trying to navigate a crushing breakup with his girlfriend of nine years. Told through the perspective of Jenny (Gina Rodriguez), Nate is warm, witty and sensual. Instead of allowing the character to exist mainly in Jenny’s memory, however, Stanfield presents an imperfect but endlessly enticing man, determined to honor his goals while giving Jenny the space to chase her dreams, even at the cost of their relationship. 

Stanfield brings a raw maturity and honesty to a kind of role that isn’t often seen in romantic dramas. Instead of playing the sort of person who would deliberately hurt their partner, Nate is thoughtful and willing to do the hard things, even when it’s painful. Shattering the fairy-tale narrative, Nate is no knight in shining armor. He’s just a man able to express the full spectrum of his humanity. 

In many films that present heteronormative partnerships like My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997) or A Star Is Born (2018), women are stifled or forced to play small — giving up on their hopes and dreams in favor of their male counterparts. In Someone Great, on the other hand, Nate’s willingness to let go of all that he and Jenny shared allows her the freedom to make her own choices without the burden of considering someone else’s expectations.

Someone Great is about self-love and new opportunities. But in Stella Meghie’s The Photograph, Stanfield steps fully into the romance genre. He plays Michael, a journalist who finds himself smitten with an art curator Mae (Issa Rae). The couple’s meet-cute is traditional, a rarity in an era where online dating has seemingly taken over. Mae and Michael connect over music, dinner and lighthearted debates.

Michael is forward and assured, leaving no guesswork about his feelings for Mae, which adds to his allure. Mae’s the cautious one here, setting the pace of their relationship. Still, the courtship between the pair, just like the film’s main sex scene, is slow and indulgent. Stanfield and Rae are lit in warm tones as chocolate-colored bedding slides across their bodies, giving fans a glimpse of the gold chain that hangs around Michael’s neck and the gloss on Mae’s lips. Overall, the film has a soft tone that typically isn’t afforded to Black actors on screen. Instead, romance films featuring Black actors, including Love Jones, The Best Man and even Waiting to Exhale, are full of drama and strife. The gentler moments of connection and tenderness are typically reserved for the third act. 

In his portrayal of Michael, Stanfield offers accountability, love and a soft space for Mae to land, even when the duo is at odds. Though his role in The Photograph has some roots in his performance in Someone Great, his sex appeal also shines through in the action-thriller The Girl in the Spider's Web. Based on David Lagercrantz’s 2015 book, Stanfield portrays NSA agent Ed Needham. Though Needham is part of an ensemble cast, the actor’s ultra-cool persona is still on full display. Dressed in a corduroy jacket and slacks with wire-rimmed glasses, Stanfield looks in equal measure a hacking nerd and a badass agent who could go toe to toe with Lisbeth Salander (Claire Foy). 

Traveling from Washington, D.C., to Stockholm in search of a stolen program that could access the world’s nuclear codes, Needham glides through the streets, exuding the calm and calculated aura of someone determined to get what he wants, even if that means helping a perceived enemy. A franchise reboot of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl in the Spider’s Web had some massive shoes to fill. Though it didn’t quite live up to its box-office expectations, the movie allowed Stanfield the opportunity to give dimension and his personal swag to a role that could very well have been disposable. 

Stanfield’s effortless charm and laid-back demeanor are again evident in the dynamic Western from Jeymes Samuel, The Harder They Fall. While other characters in the drama are quick-tempered and vicious, Stanfield’s reimagining of Cherokee Bill, a real-life cowboy who died before age 20, is one of easy calmness, coupled with a shockingly sharp draw of his pistol. 

Stanfield masterfully embodies Cherokee Bill, the carefree cowboy who doesn’t particularly enjoy violence, by infusing him with a haunted stare and perfect diction. While those around him, including Bill Pickett (Edi Gathegi) and Jim Beckwourth (R.J. Cyler), thrive in the chaos of the tumultuous Wild West, Cherokee Bill is at once unimpressed and at peace with all that’s happening around him. 

There was a time, perhaps even as recently as a decade ago, where Stanfield’s sex appeal and charisma may not have been perceived as leading man material. Thankfully, as a culture, our perceptions of masculinity are shifting and changing, allowing actors like Stanfield the opportunity to bring forth suave and unguarded performances that exude attractiveness. It’s a rare performer who can bring a sexually enticing coolness to the traditional romance genre as well as the gritty action-thriller and the rough-and-tumble Western. Stanfield’s ability to embody the calm amid the storm has allowed him to redefine what it means to be sensual and alluring on screen.