Jovan Adepo plays musician Larry Underwood's role in Stephen King’s adaptation, The Stand. The 32-year-old actor opened up about portraying various iconic characters and said that he always wanted to play interesting characters on-screen as an actor.

Adepo said that he often becomes bored as an actor if he doesn't get challenged. He explained that accepting such roles seems challenging for him, especially Larry Underwood's character. He also recalled talking to executive producers Damon Lindelof and Josh Boone about his character Will Reeves.

He admitted that the character seemed intimated and scary to portray onscreen, but that was also one of the reasons why he chose to play them. He said it felt "cool" to play one of the first superheroes in the series.

"How do you attack that and how do you do that and stay within the spine of the world that Damon created or what Josh was doing for “The Stand”? It’s really about wanting that challenge and being of that challenge as it presents itself," he explained.

The actor also portrayed the adult-age Antron McCray in When They See Us, available on Netflix since 2019. He also played Lionel Jefferson's character on-screen in Live in Front of a Studio Audience: 'All in the Family' and 'Good Times.'

In fact, Adepo earned his first nomination at Emmys for portraying Reeves' character in HBO’s Watchmen. The Sorry for Your Loss star also spoke about the responsibility he feels about the versions that have been made before.

He admitted that working on a character that already has a huge fan base makes everyone curious about what the actor will bring to the table. Adepo said that Josh called him to talk about this character while he wasn't much familiar with the storyline.

In fact, he recalled when he met the producer for the first time after moving to California. He remembered Josh told him about The Stand, which was close to his heart, but he read about his character after he was offered the role.

The actor explained that he wanted to play Underwood's character in a different way than just being a "Black Larry Underwood." In fact, the actor said that the character was written to be portrayed by a white actor.

Josh admitted during the table read that it was supposed to be a white character, but it doesn't matter to him anymore as he wanted Adepo to be a part of this script.