You'll Probably Never Guess What Live Musical Performance Blew This Sinners Star Away [Exclusive]

This post contains spoilers for "Sinners."

The name on everyone's lips after Ryan Coogler's bloody, vampire masterclass "Sinners" opens this weekend will be Miles Caton. The rising star is making his feature film debut as Preacher Boy Sammie, the young cousin of the infamous twins Smoke and Stack (Michael B. Jordan), who is blessed with a musical talent so powerful he can pierce the veil between time and space. During a pivotal scene set at The Twins' juke joint, Sammie performs a song that metaphorically tears the building down, and his musicality is so powerful, it grabs the attention of a trio of vampires looking to steal his power for their own nefarious exploitation. As /Film's own Bill Bria described:

"Coogler puts all his considerable filmmaking prowess into selling this idea, and uses this centerpiece musical number scene to do it. After Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo) introduces Preacher Boy Sammie to the packed juke joint crowd, Sammie launches into an original song of his, which he explains that he wrote for his pastor father. The personal, heartfelt, impassioned music lights up the joint and then some, inspiring everyone present to dance to it."

When I saw the scene for the first time myself, the only word I can use to describe it is "awe-struck." It's one thing to watch a movie and know you love it, it's another thing entirely to watch a movie and recognize in real time that you're experiencing a moment that will be discussed for years to come. I'll never know what it was like to be in a theater and watch "Jaws" or "Star Wars" at the time it came out, but 50 years from now, I'll be able to tell people that I was there when "Sinners" first hit theaters, and how the audience reacted to Sammie's musical performance. I was fortunate enough to speak with Miles Caton about his time on the movie, and I needed to know if he, as a professional musician himself, had ever seen a performance that affected him quite like this. I don't know what answer I was expecting, but I was delighted when he replied, "Coldplay."

The character of Sammie is a prodigious musician, which is exactly how Miles Caton has been described since he first began performing in church as a child. When he was only 16, Caton was given the opportunity to go on tour and sing background for Emmy, Grammy, and Oscar-winning musician, H.E.R. It was during the European tour that Caton tells me he saw a performance that he also felt was truly awe-inspiring.

"I think it was around 2022 or 2023 that we opened up for Coldplay," he says. "We went on a European tour, and I remember the first time we saw their show, Coldplay's show, and it was just crazy. We performed at Wembley Stadium, and it was like 50-60,000 people, and everybody in the room was just in awe of the whole production and just the sound. So that was one, for sure." This performance was part of the Music of the Spheres World Tour, which many music critics have hailed as one of the band's career-best live shows. 

Performing for a massive audience is not the same as performing in an intimate setting like a film set, but Caton was up to the challenge. "As shocked as I am and as lost for words I am at how the response has been [...], I'm extremely grateful, grateful to God for the opportunities that he presents in my life," Caton tells me. "I feel like from the time I was a kid till now, everything has kind of just been like a stepping stone. I've been working pretty hard for this type of opportunity. So to be in this moment now, it feels great."

You can hear the full interview with Caton (as well as our interview with the great Delroy Lindo) on today's episode of the /Film Daily podcast:

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"Sinners" is playing in theaters everywhere, and be sure to stay for the post-credits scene.