YA star Amandla Stenberg is looking to change the game

In an age when public talks featuring artists can sometimes turn tumultuous, the conversation Thursday night in Toronto between rising actress Amandla Stenberg and playwright and CBC host Amanda Parris, presented as part of TIFF's Next Wave programming, felt like a space of legitimate communal healing. Missing were the type of questions posed to incite hot-button responses. Instead, engagement from the audience was illuminating, hilarious and graciously inquisitive, feeding off Stenberg's own inquisitiveness. "I'm always in a space of being open to listening to the people that are there," she says in an interview, of her approach to such events. "I don't claim to know everything."

Stenberg's rapid elevation to something of an icon of her generation has much to do with her clear articulation of her politics and gutsy spirit. At 19, she's racked up accolades that have made her one of Hollywood's most in-demand young performers. In 2015 and 2016, she was selected back-to-back as one of Time magazine's "most influential teens." She has graced the covers of Elle, Dazed, Interview and Teen Vogue, twice. She was tapped for one of Oprah Winfrey's famed SuperSoul Conversations, and after appearing in Beyoncé's visual album for Lemonade – in an exchange that has become the stuff of folklore – Stenberg was told by Queen Bey herself, "I want Blue [Beyoncé's daughter] to be just like you."

But the foundation of Stenberg's success has been hard fought. After starring as the young Cat – 10 in Colombiana, Stenberg pursued her breakout role as Rue in the blockbuster smash The Hunger Games, repeatedly calling director Gary Ross and eventually being asked to show up to his house in full costume, mud and twigs included. In the four years between her Hunger Games breakout and her follow-up film, the Sundance favourite As You Are, Stenberg explained that pausing her career was a result of the lack of compelling roles available. "It's the first time that roles that are interesting and nuanced are surfacing for women of colour," she says, "especially young women of colour."

"Now that I'm able to be more selective, it's not just what's available to me, but what is a leading role where the character thinks critically, experiences growth and represents black women in a way that's three-dimensional," she adds.

This career-focused line of thinking follows Stenberg's carefully considered social beliefs, which embody a generation of young creatives in the midst of a cultural and political revolution. She admits, for instance, to turning down a role in Ryan Coogler's Black Panther, being cognizant of the leg-up that colourism affords light-skinned black actresses such as herself in casting. Through her involvement with the Art Hoe Collective, a wide-reaching community arts initiative and platform described as a "movement started by queer people of colour to provide a space for all creatives of colour," Stenberg has become a fierce advocate, shedding light on the systemic imbalances that are often forced upon the work of her and her peers. It's led her to subtly tip the scales of power as a rising actress.

"If I see something I think is insensitive, or that kids won't be able to relate to, or I think doesn't accurately reflect my experience, then I'll speak up about it and tell the director and producer, 'Hey, I think we should try it this way,'" she says.

Despite her open embrace of the internet as an open platform to start such crucial discussions (Stenberg's high school assignment, "Don't Cash Crop on My Cornrows," went viral for its look at the commodification of black culture), recognizing the way her own voice has been shaped is something she's focused on.

"I feel like sometimes, the desire to have your voice heard has eclipsed the actual conversation," she says. "It's important for us to dig deeper and not take everything at face value but to base [conversations] on research and facts, and to think critically instead of just blurting out whatever sounds kind of controversial or just because people are paying attention to it."

With three upcoming films this year – Where Hands Touch, The Darkest Minds and the highly anticipated The Hate U Give, based on the young adult novel by Angie Thomas – and having already dabbled in directing, visual art, and music – Stenberg plans to next extend her creative aspirations to writing.

"I hope to use all the resources at my disposal to create something that I think can represent my experience," she says, "as a black person, as a woman, as a human – and make something that people can relate to and make them feel less alone."

TIFF's Next Wave runs through Feb. 18 (tiff.net).