But even with those qualifications he was no match for Cudi’s face-soft features, twinkling eyes, and a sly grin, all framed by an impossibly angular jawline. The Italian writer and director is best known for the dreamy, elegiac Call Me by Your Name, which featured star-making, thirst-launching turns from Timothee Chalamet and Armie Hammer (and, it should be mentioned, the northern Italian countryside). When Luca Guadagnino, the mind behind We Are Who We Are, first met Cudi over Skype last year, “He just said, ‘Oh my God, you’re so beautiful!’” Cudi says.

It’s “like a rainstorm,” he says of the string of acting appearances he’s made recently, from Westworld to Bill & Ted Face the Music to, most recently, HBO’s We Are Who We Are. In addition to a chart-topping single released in April, he’s booking roles in film and TV projects like never before in his career. Now, Kid Cudi is on seemingly every screen that’s left broadcasting through the pandemic and, somewhat counterintuitively for a 36-year-old rapper, enjoying a commercial peak musically. Cudi checked himself into a rehab facility, fending off public speculation (and some disses from Drake), and stayed quiet. “I think it was just everything finally catching up to me,” he says. So, after nearly a decade in the spotlight, he hit the brakes. Four years ago, Cudi was balancing his role as a famously productive rapper and trying to keep a still-nascent acting career in the air. He sounds relaxed, a feeling he’s still getting used to. “I just binged the entire six seasons,” he says with a laugh.

Then he realized home confinement has its perks: He now actually had time to do both. What he really wanted, he says, without much explanation, was to finally see the Sex and the City movie, but he was worried that he wouldn’t be able to keep up if he hadn’t watched the show. The musician and actor was locked down, like everyone else, with nothing to watch.

We are who we are 2020