Miles Caton: ‘I didn’t know how much I would be in the film’

It’s lunchtime in New York City and Miles Caton is still in bed. The 20-year-old set his alarm for 8.30am to watch the Oscar nominations on YouTube and discovered Sinners had been nominated for 16 Academy Awards; his phone has been blowing up and he’s been too busy responding to messages to get up.

Sinners, a southern gothic horror musical set in the 1930s about the bloodsucking of Black culture, became the unexpected box office smash of 2025, earning $368m worldwide. The film co-stars Michael B Jordan and comes from Ryan Coogler; Caton remembers seeing Black Panther at 12 and says, "To me, a Ryan Coogler film was culture," motioning a Black power fist.

Calling from his family home in New York, Caton — still in a black hoodie and silk skull cap — describes how life changed after playing Sammie, a preacher’s son pulled into the juke joint world. He has sat front row at Paris fashion week, worked awards season, been nominated for the Bafta Rising Star award and attended the Grammys where Sinners won best score soundtrack.

United States, New York City

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