Yusef Salaam (Teen)

Yusef is a quiet, thoughtful Harlem teenager, close to his family and serious about his studies, who finds himself swept into a police investigation after a night in Central Park with friends. He is soft-spoken and instinctively polite even under pressure, more bewildered than defiant as officers press him for answers he doesn't have.

Ethan Herisse plays Yusef's fear as something held very still — a boy trying to be respectful and cooperative with people who have already decided who he is. That restraint is devastating to watch, because the performance never overplays the injustice; it just lets his quiet good faith curdle into terror in real time.