AceShowbiz - Yahya Abdul-Mateen II looked like a superhero long before Marvel cast him as one. He's got an imposing nearly six-foot-three frame, a deep voice, a broad chest, and a blinding white smile. And on the blustery March day in Brooklyn when we meet up for a walk in the park, he's also got an eight-month-old absolutely kicking his ass.

Buddy, the eight-month-old in question, is Abdul-Mateen's new giant schnauzer puppy, who trots in front of us on rain-splattered streets with a comic, tongue-lolled devotion. "He takes his sweet time," Abdul-Mateen, 39, quips as Buddy sniffs noncommittally and then continues on his way, lunging for bits of stale bread scattered for birds. Buddy's paws are massive in an ominous way, flashing a growth spurt just over the horizon. His shiny black coat perfectly matches Abdul-Mateen's ink-black patent trench. The duo look at each other with equal fondness. But the puppy phase isn't for the weak.

"It's still going on, man," Abdul-Mateen says. "Buddy kickin' my butt. The night that Wonder Man was coming out, I'm out there with my plastic bags. Buddy don't care about none of that. And that's cool. He keeps me humble."

While it's doubtful the level-headed Abdul-Mateen actually needs help keeping his ego in check, his current slate of projects does suggest a man in demand. In January, he made his Marvel debut in the aforementioned Wonder Man as Simon Williams, an earnest and neurotic actor whose big break is complicated by superpowers he can't control. This month, he stars in Netflix's TV adaptation of Man on Fire (premiering on April 30) — the 1987 French-Italian action thriller that was remade into a gritty Denzel Washington vehicle in 2004 — playing John Creasy, a haunted Special Forces operative thrown back into the field when a young girl needs his protection. And later this year, he'll appear in The Adventures of Cliff Booth (a sequel to Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood) and the Mark Wahlberg thriller By Any Means.

Of all these roles, you'd think Abdul-Mateen would find Simon most relatable, but you would be wrong. "I'm nothing like Simon. He's an overthinker to an unbearable degree," Abdul-Mateen says emphatically. "I would see Simon coming and go stand on the other side of the set. But I like my mind. I like taking the time to really know how I feel. Most people are scared to spend time with themselves, looking for what is true. Not me."

From his eye-catching debut in The Get Down in 2016 to his roles in everything from Us to Aquaman and Watchmen, Abdul-Mateen's ascent in Hollywood has been driven by his unrelenting command of self. Everything you see onscreen is intentional, no eye twitch or shoulder angle or vocal intonation too insignificant to deserve his utmost attention. It's how Abdul-Mateen wants it — anything people need to know, he leaves on the proverbial stage. But the more his star rises, compromising his control over the life he leads off-camera, the more prepared Abdul-Mateen is to walk away from acting altogether.

"The truth is that I want to go find a farm somewhere and walk around with my shoes off," he says. "I want a little bit of it all. That's my problem."

"At a time where everybody's trying to get more famous and more followers, something about being very quiet is really appealing to me."

Abdul-Mateen has an analytical mind, which rears its head when the dreary weather becomes biting and forces us to decamp to a local coffee shop. He seems to deeply contemplate everything: the bottle of sparkling water he orders, which side of the muted-yellow couch to sit on; even, seemingly, which way he wants to cross his legs. As we chat, the only answers that come easy are about topics he doesn't want to discuss. Where he lives? Off-limits. His dating life? "You have business and then you have my business," he says. "And dating is my business." So here's what he wants people to know: He really wants to fuck off to that farm — the biggest one he can buy. A place where his whole family can live, where he can write and paint and where Buddy can run free. Where he can walk around or go to the grocery store without someone asking him, "What are you doing here?"

"At a time where everybody's trying to get more famous and more followers and more views, something about being very quiet is really appealing to me," he says. "When I get my farm, I'm gonna go out at night, lay down, and just look up at the night sky and feel insignificant. Feel how small I am and how large this planet is. Noise and creation don't go together to me."

When Abdul-Mateen makes a plan, he follows through. The youngest of six, he split time between Oakland, California, and New Orleans before the family fully committed to Oakland around the time he was in middle school. After graduating from UC Berkeley with a degree in architecture, he spent 10 months working as a liaison in San Francisco's housing office while taking acting classes on the side for fun. "I had a little bit of a double life," he says. "And I knew that that particular job was not the final stop."

Abdul-Mateen says he's "always seeing what I'm made of. I see a challenge and say, 'OK, here we go.'"

Then, following a community-theater production of Twelfth Night (he played Antonio), Abdul-Mateen gave himself three years to make "significant progress" as an actor or go back to school for public policy. Fourteen months later, he was accepted to the Yale School of Drama, which catapulted him to a prominent role in The Get Down, Baz Luhrmann's $120 million take on the Bronx's 1970s hip-hop and disco revolutions, on Netflix. "I was very determined," he says. "I said, 'What do I have to do?' and then I went and did it."

This practicality has served him well in his acting career. Abdul-Mateen's Wonder Man co-star Sir Ben Kingsley (he plays Trevor Slattery, Simon's personal acting guru) found his discipline and professionalism refreshing. "It's very gratifying that he is as well prepared as I like to be well prepared," he tells me by phone from London. "[Wonder Man] is a show that has irony, observation, and some wonderful human layers to it. We're just very polite and respectful of one another. And that was wonderful." It was helpful for Man on Fire, too, as Abdul-Mateen followed a legend into the role of John Creasy. "Denzel's Creasy — oh, man, I want to be him," he says, breaking into a grin. "He just makes it so cool. But that's a part of his brand. I said, 'Look, if I'm gonna do it, there's no reason trying to compete with that ghost.'"

When viewers meet Creasy in this new iteration, he's been mired in alcoholism, PTSD, and self-loathing since a disastrous mission took out his entire team. But once he becomes the unlikely guardian of teenaged Poe (Billie Boullet), his scarred emotions have to take a back seat to keep her from catching a bullet. The role required hand-to-hand combat training and a deep emotional dive into a character burdened by trauma. Abdul-Mateen approached it with the same meticulous preparation he brings to every part, studying the source material and working intensively with trainers to embody Creasy's physical and psychological exhaustion.

For Abdul-Mateen, the appeal of Man on Fire lies in its exploration of redemption and purpose. "John Creasy is a man who has given up on himself," he explains. "But when he's tasked with protecting someone else, he finds a reason to keep going. That's a universal story." The actor's own journey from architecture student to Yale-trained performer to Marvel star mirrors that same drive — a relentless pursuit of meaning, even when the path is uncertain.

Yet despite his success, Abdul-Mateen remains grounded, partly thanks to Buddy's relentless demands. The puppy, now eight months old, is a constant reminder that life off-camera is messy, unpredictable, and humbling. "Buddy don't care about none of that," Abdul-Mateen says, referring to his Marvel premiere. "And that's cool. He keeps me humble." It's a philosophy that extends beyond puppy parenthood: Abdul-Mateen is actively planning his exit from the Hollywood spotlight, envisioning a future where he trades red carpets for open fields.

"I want a little bit of it all," he says, repeating his earlier sentiment. "That's my problem." But it's a problem he's happy to have — one that allows him to balance blockbuster roles with quiet moments of reflection. Whether he's walking Buddy through Brooklyn or imagining himself lying under a star-filled sky on his future farm, Abdul-Mateen is searching for a life that feels true to himself. "Noise and creation don't go together to me," he says. "I need silence to make something real."

As his career continues to accelerate, Abdul-Mateen remains committed to his own internal compass. He's not chasing fame for its own sake; he's chasing authenticity. And if that means eventually walking away from acting altogether, he's prepared to do it. "The truth is that I want to go find a farm somewhere and walk around with my shoes off," he says, laughing. "That's the dream." For now, though, he's still in the thick of it — filming, training, and raising a rambunctious puppy who couldn't care less about his Hollywood status. And that, perhaps, is the perfect balance.