By Josh Inocéncio
As a group of young, white evangelicals move into a predominantly Latino neighborhood to preach the gospel, one of the missionaries, Jordan, develops sexual feelings for the leader, Eli. But once Jordan is caught touching himself by the bathroom door while Eli showers, the group tries to exorcise his gay demons in a kind of conversion therapy.
Thus is the premise of co-directors John C. Clark and Brie Williams’ new film A Closer Walk with Thee, starring Houston-raised out actor Aj Knight as Jordan.
Growing up, Knight assumed he’d move to New York City to act on Broadway after studying theatre in college. However, his intuition constantly turned his attention toward Los Angeles. “For the longest time, I wanted to date Hilary Duff for the rest of my life,” humors Knight. “And I thought, ‘That’s where she lives, so that’s where I’ll be.’”
But the opportunity to take film acting seriously arose while Knight was majoring in theatre at Texas A&M University in Corpus Christi. After participating in a seven-day film festival in Corpus, he fell in love with the art and found his reason to jettison out to LA. “I decided I didn’t want to get a job immediately when I moved out here. I just wanted to throw myself totally into auditions rather than trying to be a waiter at the same time,” says Knight, recalling how he saved furiously the summer after his senior year in Texas. “Then I just did it! And I didn’t have to work for the first year—but I was dirt ass poor and it was a struggle. But I was able to throw my whole self into trying to do this.”
With little on his resume at the time, Knight amassed filmography experience through unpaid student films—often roles with no lines or names. However, his big break came six months later when he auditioned for a Martin Garrix music video featuring Usher. “The character description for [Towel Boy] read, ‘Cute but not that cute. Schlumpy, but lovable,’” laughs Knight. During auditions, he had to dance “like Napoleon Dynamite” for the casting directors. After he sent in some additional materials, he was called into NBC Universal and got the part.
From here, Knight started getting more paid gigs, such as a commercial for Investigation Discovery Channel. “I had this moment of realizing that ‘cute but not that cute’ can be my strength,” he says. “Everyone here is beautiful and that’s overwhelming, but I’ve found a way to not let that get to me by trying to own my uniqueness and quirkiness.”
“I don’t want to play straight characters. There are enough straight people to play straight people.” -Actor Aj Knight. Photo by Leah Cordova
And Knight’s confidence in his own skin—as well as the ability to shed inhibitions in an audition—has paid off with a leading role in A Closer Walk with Thee. When he first read the sides (snippets from the screenplay used for auditions), he saw he’d have to perform one of the crucial exorcism scenes.
“I was like, ‘Okay, okay. It’s 11 a.m. on a Monday. Let me pretend to be possessed by a demon!’” Knight recalls. Funnily enough, the greater challenge for Knight was remembering the lyrics to “Amazing Grace” since he didn’t know any other church hymns offhand. Soon after, he was cast.
Then came the difficult task of fully portraying a character who undergoes a dangerous exorcism as fellow missionary Eli (Gregory Shelby) tries to absolve him of his homosexuality. “It’s an insane situation, so I tried to find the reality in all of it,” says Knight. “Beyond seeing The Exorcist—which is one of the first movies I remember watching as a child—it was hard to imagine at first. But me and two cast members went to a ‘real’ exorcism in the ballroom of a hotel. There’s this guy who’s a YouTube exorcist. He takes people in who are in low points of their lives and manipulates them into thinking that the reason they don’t have money is because they are cursed. But if you buy his book and stand up to confess everything and go through an exorcism, you’ll be cured.”
“When I put it in that perspective, I realized Jordan is pushed so low that he thinks his only solution is this absurd exorcism,” Knight adds.
But alongside Knight’s dramaturgical research for the role, there was plenty in the character for him to relate to as a gay man. When one of Jordan’s missionary roommates catches him touching himself while Eli showers, he’s publicly shamed in the kitchen. “The outing scene was really heavy but it just clicked with who I am as a person,” says Knight. “Maybe gays can’t relate with being possessed by a demon, but certainly they can relate to being ostracized and lonely.”
But there were amusing scenes to film as well. While certainly in the horror genre, A Closer Walk with Thee is riddled with dark humor—and the actors entertained themselves thoroughly. When Shelby and Knight filmed a scene where Eli is hammering the side of the house, the camera shots accentuate his body as Jordan looks on lustily. “That was a really fun, bulge in my face scene,” Knight recalls. “[Shelby] was wearing these specific Andrew Christians, too, to enhance his bulge—not that he needs any enhancements, let the record show! But that was great. I loved that element of the movie.”
Alongside his acting, Knight has also ventured into writing gay stories. He’s even working on a comedy series about growing up gay in the South that he hopes to start pitching to networks in the next few months. “It explores the person you present yourself as in high school as a defense mechanism to survive versus the flourishing and realized gay version of yourself in your head,” reveals Knight. “Think Lizzie McGuire but gay!”
With both his acting and his writing, Knight has found power in portraying gay characters. “When I moved here, I was afraid to come out and be openly gay. I was afraid it would pigeonhole me into one area where I wouldn’t get any work,” he says. “But I realized…I don’t care! I don’t want to play straight characters. There are enough straight people to play straight people. I want to play gay people or people whose sexuality doesn’t matter. Focusing on that, I’ve fallen into who I am.”
To see more of Aj’s adventures, follow his Instagram @imajknight or check out his IMDB page. To purchase A Closer Walk with Thee on DVD, visit Amazon.
