Paapa Essiedu Is on the 2026 TIME100 Next
I don’t believe that empathy can be taught. It can be nurtured, but there has to be an innate sense that resides in a person. Paapa Essiedu has that innate sense of empathy, a compassion for people known and unknown to him.
I had the immense pleasure of playing his father in All My Sons in London and witnessed his outreach of interest in a person’s well-being. It is genuine and intuitive. I actually had the conscious thought that he was so young to possess that depth of care and concern for others—something usually reserved for those who develop an insightfulness later in life, a softer side, if you will. This quality in Paapa has contributed mightily to his extraordinary talent as an actor, and a human being. He really is one in a hundred!
Cranston is an Emmy- and Tony-winning actor
