Mama's Boy

When "mom" is Diana Ross and your close family friend was "Michael" (as in Michael Jackson), "entertainer" isn't a career choice -- it's destiny. But for 22-year-old actor-musician Evan Ross, with destiny comes responsibility. "I've always been aware of how mom touched people," he says in his soft burr, always referring to the legendary singer simply as "mom." "Mom checks me on it all the time and is always aware of the larger picture, giving the right message. Michael would always say, 'Music is so powerful' -- you touch more people than politicians and presidents. You have to make the decision to do it for more than money or anything else.'"

For Ross, that decision came after his father, Norwegian shipping magnate and adventurer Arne Naess, died in a mountain climbing accident in 2004. "Time became something really important to me. I was in a rut living in Connecticut. I needed to do my own thing. I had to keep things moving." He found the strength, he says, in mom's example. "No matter what happens, she just keeps going forward. If you're in trouble, you make a mistake, something happens -- you deal with the consequences. It doesn't mean life's over."

Though he calls music his "first love," acting was both a way to prove himself and experience the world from the inside out. His debut was opposite Big Boi and T.I. in 2006's ATL, followed by 2007's Pride opposite Terrence Howard and HBO's Life Support with Queen Latifah and his sister, Tracee Ellis Ross. "ATL was me just excited to be in a film -- 'What time do you want me to be there? I'm there!'" he laughs. "Doing Pride, Life Support -- meeting Terrence -- that's when I fell in love with the real craft of acting. Getting yourself into those places, finding and feeling those emotions, not just reading the lines -- I enjoy that more than anything."  

Since then, the film roles Ross has taken are a bit darker. In 2008's Gardens of the Night, he played a young homeless child counseled by John Malkovich, and in Tony Kaye's Black Water Transit (due out early next year), he stars as Laurence Fishburne's mentally unstable son. "It's the best work I've done," Ross says. "I play this kid in jail who's bipolar and schizophrenic. The way Tony works, it has nothing to do with the lines, it's finding those emotions. It's not about finding out where the characters come from -- it's about how we all feel the same things. I've dealt with pain, I've dealt with loss."

Despite his own losses, he's never lost it. No celebrity-offspring tantrums, no out-of-control partying. He and his girlfriend, model Cora Skinner, have shared a house in Los Angeles for the last two years. Mom lives close enough that he can pop over "just using backstreets," which in gridlocked L.A. is practically next door. He talks to his sister, Tracee, often. "Mom always says, 'Without family, there is nothing.' And that's how she raised my brother [Ross Naess] and me -- she'd fly in from a show and take us to school."


"It's as important to me to get the sound right as it is to have the right team in place. Mom says, 'When you've done your hundredth show, you're going to want to know exactly where everything's going.' So I said if I was going to do music, I was going to do it right."  For inspiration, he goes out. "I love the clubs," he says. "People have this bad view of clubs, but I like feeling the vibe of what's going on and what everyone's liking." It's actually a passion, he says, he used to share with Jackson. "I remember we were at a club, and I got a call at 3 a.m., and I ran outside to take it. Michael called all of us 'Applehead,' and he said, 'Applehead, it's Doo-doo.' I'd tell him where I was and he'd say, 'Evan, go back into the club, I wanna hear the music!' He was so... aware of everything happening. We'd talk about Usher's new record coming out and he'd already heard it. I'd tell him I was talking to these people about doing a movie, and he'd be like,  'Oh yeah, I know the head of the studio, so-and-so's directing and the story's about...' He knew the whole thing."

Even while starring in a hit TV show and launching his music career, Ross is already planning his next steps which will include producing. He and Kaye have a film project in the works.
At this point he says, "I really do feel complete." "I feel like I know exactly what I want and what I want to be. I'm so motivated and so ready -- it's such a rush and such an excitement to feel this unstoppable."

Stylist: Gena Tuso / Groomer: Sunnie Brook at Celestine Agency for Kiehl's / Stylist's assistant: Lauren Machen / Evan wears sunglasses by Ray-Ban.