It’s a great time to be Danielle Brooks.
She obtained an Oscar nomination for “The Color Purple” in 2024 — her efficiency as Sofia additionally earned her a Grammy for greatest musical theater album — however Brooks has arguably had an excellent higher 2025. To date this yr, she has starred within the almost billion-dollar-grossing blockbuster hit “A Minecraft Movie” and voiced a villainous snow leopard in “The Bad Guys 2.” Now, together with co-star John Cena, Brooks is headed again into the DC Universe for Season 2 of HBO Max’s “Peacemaker.”
Contemporary off shepherding a model new imaginative and prescient for the DCU with David Corenswet’s guileless tackle “Superman,” James Gunn has devised this season of “Peacemaker,” premiering Aug. 21, as a technique to bridge what’s come earlier than with what’s forward. If there’s a theme to the most recent journey of this goofy, earnest and foul-mouthed superhero it’s that there isn’t any operating away from one’s decisions — for higher and for worse.
The titular antihero-turned-superhero is joined on his journey by Leota Adebayo (Brooks), as good a hype pal as Cena’s Peacemaker may have dreamed of discovering. Different famed metahumans might make enjoyable of his disco ball of a helmet and he might wrestle with how greatest to show his repute round, however Adebayo is agency in her perception within the goodness of her often-bumbling muscled pal.
Days earlier than heading all the way down to San Diego for her first Comedian-Con, Brooks sat down to speak and take inventory of her journey right into a world she as soon as knew little or no about.
“I grew up in a very reserved home. And so we weren’t exposed to a lot of things. I didn’t have an older brother or a cousin. Nobody was handing me comic books — somebody was handing me a Bible or a sheet of music to sing,” she explains with a smile.
However that wasn’t the one factor that made this DCU mission daunting when it first got here her approach.
Peacemaker (John Cena) and Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) in Season 2 of HBO Max’s “Peacemaker.”
(Curtis Bonds Baker/HBO Max)
“When I came across Adebayo, I just had my daughter, and we were in a pandemic,” she says. “I had just gained like 60 pounds from my pregnancy. And then I get a call from James Gunn saying, ‘Hey, you want to be in this action TV show?’ And I’m like, ‘What? I’m in the worst shape of my life. Yes, I can still act, but can I run?’”
Gunn had seen Brooks in “Orange Is the New Black” and had been impressed along with her soulful and humorous breakthrough efficiency as Tasha “Taystee” Jefferson, one of many inmates in Jenji Kohan’s long-running Netflix hit.
Like lots of the characters in Gunn’s off-kilter sequence that may be a spinoff of 2021’s “The Suicide Squad,” Adebayo first arrived in Peacemaker’s life fighting who she was and what she may stand for. Overshadowed by the towering repute of her mom — Viola Davis’ no-nonsense Amanda Waller — the fresh-faced A.R.G.U.S. recruit initially couldn’t shake off the insecurity that adopted her each transfer.
“When you first meet Adebayo in Season 1, she’s so flustered,” Brooks explains. “She’s so all over the place. She can’t find her footing for anything. She’s stumbling over her words. She won’t even shoot anyone.”
Adebayo’s journey mirrors Brooks’ personal. The actor initially approached this mission with trepidation much like her character.
“I came in with a lot of fear,” she says. “Can I give him [Gunn] what he needs?” She knew Gunn trusted her presents, and her need to ship a robust efficiency finally helped drive her character work.
“I came in with a lot of fear,” says Danielle Brooks about becoming a member of the DC Universe sequence “Peacemaker” after James Gunn solid her. “Can I give him what he needs?”
(Bexx Francois / For The Occasions)
“That’s a part of what I love about what we do,” she says about performing. “It challenges you to be your best in every aspect — mentally, spiritually, physically. And so I was really excited to take on that challenge.”
Simply as Adebayo discovered her place throughout the eleventh Road Children — which embrace Peacemaker, Vigilante (Freddie Stroma), Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) and John Economos (Steve Agee) — Brooks blossomed amid this tight-knit motley crew.
“She’s such a big personality,” Gunn says. “And this team in particular more so than any is a real family. It wouldn’t be the same without Danielle’s big laugh and her big heart.”
That massive coronary heart has formed Adebayo right into a grounding presence for these round her.
“That has become her superpower,” Brooks says, “helping ground this group and saying, ‘Hey, we can do this!’ That’s where we meet her in Season 2. She’s so optimistic. They’re all ‘lost in the sauce’ is the best way I know how to describe it. They’re trying to find their footing when it comes to their relationships, their personal lives, their jobs — everybody’s all over the place. But she’s the one person that’s like, ‘No, we’re gonna figure this out.’”
Although “Peacemaker” relishes raunchy punchlines and gag-inducing gags — the present options aliens, bar brawls, orgies and Eagly, a prickly pet eagle — it has been an performing showcase for its lead solid.
Danielle Brooks on Leota Adebayo’s optimism: “That has become her superpower, helping ground this group and saying, ‘Hey, we can do this!’”
(Jessica Miglio / HBO Max)
Brooks is happy for followers to see what Cena will get to do that time round. (“I feel like he leveled up this season,” she says.) However Gunn says it’s Adebayo’s arc that’ll blow viewers away on this multiverse-focused second season.
“This whole cast is capable of so much more depth than I gave them first season,” he says. “And Danielle’s work in the Season 2 finale is some of the best acting work I’ve ever been a part of.”
That go with might have quelled the preliminary fears Brooks had when she was getting ready to revisit the character.
“With Season 2, it took me a little second to get back in the rhythm,” she says. “I also had the pressure now of being Oscar nominated. Like, ‘Oh man, this is the next thing you’re doing after your nomination? Are you really that talented? Do you got it?’”
She knew higher than to offer in to such intrusive ideas. Nevertheless it highlighted a brand new set of challenges she’s dealing with as she begins shaping the following chapter in her profession.
“You do get a confidence boost of, I do belong here,” she says. “I definitely feel that. Because when I think of the actors that are nominated, they are the best in the game. So it’s helped me to stand firm: I’m not going anywhere in this industry. I’m going to have longevity. And I knew that without a nomination.”
That latter sentiment was what Brooks selected to spotlight earlier this yr along with her followers and colleagues alike on Tony nomination day. The actor, who’s a Tony nominee for the 2016 Broadway run of “The Color Purple,” shared a video to social media directed at those that may need felt they’d little to rejoice.
It included footage of Brooks in 2023 studying she’d missed out on a nomination for her work on “The Piano Lesson” after which a warmhearted pep speak the place she shared what she had taken away from that have: “Let this light a fire to continue to bring good work where it’s just undeniable,” she says. “And not just for the awards, but for yourself and the goals that you have in life.”
It was a easy message born out of a need to shine a light-weight on how metrics for achievement throughout the trade can go away actors with a warped sense of their very own worth.
“That was a really hard time,” she admits. “And it wasn’t only because I didn’t get Tony nominated. That stung, but it wasn’t the only reason. It was a point in my life that I was like, ‘Why am I doing this?’ I was starting to not be happy in the thing that I love so much. And if I feel that way, I don’t know if it’s worth it, you know?”
That second she captured on digital camera was a deflating disappointment. Nevertheless it was additionally adopted by a loving gesture: Within the video, her husband Dennis Gelin seems from behind and provides her a kiss on the highest of her head. Whilst she processed her skilled loss, Brooks was being taken care of by those that love her.
“I think a lot of times we hype up everybody when they’re on that mountain,” she says. It’s straightforward to rejoice fellow artists when they’re doing properly or look like — once they appear to be “riding in the sun,” as she places it.
Danielle Brooks, who stars within the HBO Max sequence “Peacemaker” Season 2 in Los Angeles, CA on Thursday, July 24, 2025.
(Bexx Francois / For The Occasions)
“You know, like when they’ve got their sunglasses on and they’re in motorcycles and it looks like they’ve got bags of money hanging out,” she jokes. “That’s when we celebrate and we put all those hearts and those likes on them.
“But what about when you are not there? When you’re just feeling like you’re sinking in the mud and you’re reaching out, and nobody’s there to hold your hand?” she provides. “That’s what I wanted for the people that weren’t nominated that day: to know that there is a hand on the other side to shake and say, ‘You still are incredible. You still deserve the world.’”
They’re the form of phrases that sum up the heat and ebullience Brooks has infused into characters like Taystee in “Orange,” Sofia in “The Color Purple” and now Leota Adebayo. These ladies orbit round the concept it is best to tackle the world not with a closed fist however with an open coronary heart.
As we wrap up our dialog, a lady approaches Brooks in hopes of introducing her little women to the actor. Brooks beams their approach and giddily poses with them for photos. Whereas her position in “Minecraft” should still be prime of thoughts for most individuals, the joy of seeing Brooks on a random morning at a Beverly Hills lodge had extra to do with an unlikely mission of hers: Netflix’s renovation present, “Instant Dream Home.”
It’s one other instance of how Brooks’ enchantment and pursuits proceed to set her on a path the place each new mission introduces her to wildly totally different audiences. And she or he wouldn’t have it some other approach.
“Life’s too short,” she says. “I want to know all of the gifts that have been given to me. I’ve always wanted to shape my career that way where you just touch everybody, just different people who have different walks of life than you. That is the most powerful thing you could ever do.”
