BAFTA North America just announced the 12 creatives tapped for their BAFTA Breakthrough US cohort, and one Sinners star is a part of it.

Miles Caton joins a list of standout voices working across film, television and games. The yearlong initiative highlights “must-watch” talent and connects them with industry mentors, networking opportunities and full BAFTA voting membership.

The list also includes:

Brandon Wilson, actor – Nickel Boys (Film)
Brittany Shyne, director – Seeds (Film, Documentary)
Chase Infiniti, actor – Presumed Innocent (Television)
Erika Ishii, voice performer – Ghost of Yotei (Games)
Eva Victor, writer / director / actor – Sorry, Baby (Film)
Frida Perez, writer / producer – The Studio (Television)
Karla Reyes, creative director – Take Us North (Games)
Mia Cioffi Henry, cinematographer – Sorry, Baby (Film)
Min Ji (Maggie) Kang, writer / director – KPop Demon Hunters (Film)
Paige Bethmann, director – Remaining Native (Film, Documentary)
Xalavier Nelson Jr., studio head – I Am Your Beast (Games)

On his BAFTA honor

“It’s, honestly, pretty surreal. It’s pretty crazy,” Caton told Blavity’s Shadow and Act in an interview timed to the announcement. “I think coming onto the project [Sinners] and just being a part of it, I never really… I didn’t know what to expect from it. I just knew that it was something; it always felt like it was something I was supposed to do. The way everything happened and the way everything kind of just flowed, it felt like it was something that was meant to be. And I was happy with the outcome of it, no matter what. I just felt like I believed in the story. And just to be able to work with Ryan, to be able to work with the incredible cast — that was enough for me. But to be recognized and seen by BAFTA is just crazy.”

Caton has always been drawn to entertainment, starting with music and performance from an early age. He gained a following for his viral singing videos before being cast in Sinners. “I grew up like the class clown, family clown, trying to make people laugh and stuff. So entertainment has always been my thing in general,” he said. “But music has been a part of me since I was a kid, since I was three years old. I’ve been singing since I was three years old.”

He always dreamed of touring, performing, and building a music career first. “Eventually, once I accomplished that or got to a certain level, I would venture off into different things,” he said. But Sinners changed that. “Once I got cast for Sinners and I became a part of that process, and I met Ryan and Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo and Omar Miller and Jack O’Connell, all these incredible actors, and just being a part of that process, it really made me think about it. It made me think about it more, and it kind of made me think that I don’t need to box myself into one genre of creativity. If you’re an artist, if you’re a creative, you can do multiple things. So acting has become something that I definitely want to take seriously and move further in for sure, and kind of build my own career in that as well.”

The moment that they knew it was special

“There were definitely a couple of moments on set,” Caton said. “And maybe not so much that… I mean, I don’t think any of us could have predicted this type of outcome, but there were just so many unique moments on set that happened collectively where we all just kind of knew.”

He specifically remembered scenes with Omar Miller’s character, Cornbread, trying to get back into the juke joint, even after they already sensed something was off. “It was moments like that that was so special to us,” Caton said.

Then came the final day of filming. “They played a 10-minute sizzle reel of everything we shot thus far. We shot the film in New Orleans, and by the end of that, they brought everybody in to watch — makeup, special effects, camera, crew, just everybody to come and see the final work before we would all leave,” he said. “And by the end of that, everybody was just crying, just super emotional because everybody put 1,000% into their work every single day. There was a lot of different elements. We had heat, we had the weather working against us, we had time working against us. We had to get everything done and shot in a certain amount of time and budget — all these different things that are fluctuating — and everybody just locked in. So I think from then we knew it was going to be something special.”

A role that felt meant for him

“I felt like it was something that was designed, something that was tailor-made,” Caton said of the role of Sammie.

He didn’t grow up on blues music, but Sinners gave him a crash course. “Just getting to go back in history and really learn about the blues — the blues wasn’t something that I necessarily grew up on,” he said. “I knew… Sam Cooke; that was the first song. I learned a song by Sam Cooke as a kid; I felt like that was the closest thing I had going into the project. But the film allowed me to learn so much more about music, about my heritage. I had no idea just how much the blues played in creating so many other genres, and the reason why they sung the blues back then — the oppression that the people were under during that time.”

Talking to Coogler early on helped him understand the weight of the role. “Everything that he was experiencing for the first time, so was the audience. So he was kind of the guide in trying to help the audience navigate through what they’re seeing throughout the process.”

The iconic music scene

Caton said that they also knew how iconic his music scene would be. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure that scene, we all knew it was to be up from there,” he said. “That was one part of the script that always caught everybody’s attention. That was something that I don’t think we… was something I had never seen on a script before.”

He remembered reading it for the first time and struggling to understand how it would be pulled off. “Just seeing them put all the pieces together and seeing it being turned into a real thing — we knew it was going to be something really special.”

Filming the scene was no small feat. “It took a couple of weeks of rehearsing; there was 40-plus dancers, actors, musicians on there, everybody just doing their thing,” Caton said. “So the choreography was tricky, and they shot that on IMAX, but on a handheld camera. They had to move the camera through all of those transitions and piece it together. So there was a lot of technical elements to it that made it difficult, but the fact that they were able to accomplish it and get it right made a big difference.”

With BAFTA now co-signing his talent, Caton is ready to continue exploring his creativity across multiple lanes. As he put it, “Acting has become something that I definitely want to take seriously and move further in for sure, and kind of build my own career in that as well.”

Miles Caton

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