When you first see actor Da’Vinchi, you kind of think … college quarterback.
His build says: I’m a team leader. I’m the guy who calls the plays. I’m the guy who gets everyone in position. At 6-foot-3, Da’Vinchi is an anomaly. Not on the football field, because quarterbacks generally range from 6-2 to 6-6, so he’s in good company there. But in Hollywood, he more or less towers over most other male actors. Yes, it’s true, most of the men who take center stage in some of our favorite TV series and in some of the best films are, well, short kings.
But because Da’Vinchi shows up looking every bit the part of a former collegiate athlete, he tends to stand out.
Which is how viewers first met him. Before he captured the role of the younger brother to Detroit drug legend Big Meech in the Starz drama BMF, Da’Vinchi played a quarterback on CW’s All American and on Freeform’s Grown-ish. And in 2020 he was doing basketball star things in The Way Back, a film with Ben Affleck where he portrayed a quiet and passive point guard who had potential to be the team’s big star. There were these back-to-back-to-back roles where he was cast as an athlete, and he’s not complaining about that one bit.
That’s what got him here.
That’s what helped him stand out.
His acting skills have kept people watching.
And for what it’s worth, Da’Vinchi actually played just about every sport one can play — and he stills does.
Da’Vinchi takes his athletic acumen with him on soundstages and on location as he brings Southwest T – Terry Flenory – to life on BMF, which arrives in an incredible, timely fashion.
In this new season, we see the Flenory brothers expand their drug empire into the music business, which means we get to travel back 30 years to the Source Awards with all of the Sean Combs vs. Suge Knight colorfulness that we hear about today as Combs faces federal racketeering charges.
And in this new season, Da’Vinchi, much like the character he portrays, steps into his own. And for that, we can, in part, thank the actor’s background as an athlete.
“To be an athlete – I think it’s a mindset,” he told Andscape. “I don’t think it has anything to do with physicality. In life I have that athlete mentality, that mental fortitude that when I’m faced with adversity I’m going to overcome it come hell or high water.”
Recently, Andscape caught up with Da’Vinchi to talk about what’s in store for BMF’s new season and how sports shows up in his work – even when he’s far from a competitive playing field – and why this work is especially meaningful for him at this point in his career.