The multi-talented actor and actual cowboy champion relished in becoming the face of Beyoncé’s Ivy Park denim collection.
Glynn Turman, star of such classics as Cooley High, A Different World, and HBO’s The Wire, recently turned heads as part of Beyoncé’s Ivy Park denim collection reveal.
The launch, which coincided with the singer’s cover appearance in a recent issue of Harper’s Bazaar, featured Turman and his granddaughter, Melinda, relishing in the shared passions of being a cowboy and avid lover of horses.
According to Variety, Turman narrated a story about how he first met the Grammy Award-winning singer, saying, “Our family was actually vacationing together when the launch idea came about. It came up that she wanted to do something with her new line and I said she could use my ranch for that. I had no idea she was going to lasso me into the campaign!”
Ivy Park’s denim collection found the duo of Turman and his granddaughter, Melinda, modeling the new wares, with the former celebrating his kin’s success as an accomplished cowgirl. “Her and I riding together in an ad for such a prestigious company has been tickling her to the core,” he shared with Variety.
Turman has been riding horses for many years and has competed in several rodeos. His love of horses is so well known amongst the cowboy community that it inspired him to start Camp Gid D Up, a Los Angeles based Western-style summer camp for inner city youth. And his fans therein know him more for his skills there than in front of a camera.
“I was at a rodeo in Las Vegas and a young fella stopped me and said, ‘Can I get your autograph?’” Turman recalled. “So I gave him my autograph, thinking he knew me from my movies. I asked, ‘Which of my movies is your favorite?’ He said, ‘What movies?’” He then stated how he realized that the fan knew him as a cowboy and had no idea that he was an actor. “I never would have known or thought that in my life that’s what I would be recognized for,” he exclaimed during his chat with Variety.
The Ivy Park campaign, which tells the history of Black cowboys in America, is out now, and Turman is readying his 160th and 161st film credits with Women of the Movement and The Outlaw Johnny Black, coming to theaters and streaming services soon.
