The alumna star of One Battle After Another knows what you think of her name
By Alex Joseph
Actor and hip-hop artist Shayna McHayle knows her stage name can be triggering, though it was never meant to be. She came up with it in 2009, while she was a Fashion Merchandising Management student—a punk with a bright-red mohawk and a serious thrift-store habit. “You could really get a bunch of dope things for $20,” she recalls, and she soon had more fuzzy animal prints than she knew what to do with. Inspired by those finds (and by Josie and the Pussycats and the Pussycat Dolls) she went home after class one day and posted a short Myspace video announcing her new name: Junglep**sy, now frequently shortened to JP. “It was literally three seconds,” she says. “And it changed my life forever.”
JP liberating migrants as a member of the group French 75 in One Battle After Another. Film Stills: Merrick Morton/Warner Bros. Pictures.
Director Paul Thomas Anderson loved the name so much he wrote her into the script for One Battle After Another. JP plays … Junglep**sy, a member of a far-left revolutionary group. In the bank heist scene, JP leaps onto a counter and shouts, “This is what Black Power looks like!” Remembering the filming, she laughs: “That day, I was like, ‘Girl, go up there and do it like you do it at your shows.’” Costar Regina Hall said, “You killed that.” Saturday Night Live referenced the iconic moment in a sketch.
For now, acting is just a sideline for JP, a musician with three critically praised studio albums and even more mixtapes, all independently released. She says the music just happened: “I had no interest in being in the spotlight. I love listening to music, but I never thought to make a career out of it. It was just something I enjoyed doing with my friends.” After she’d guest appeared on a few pals’ tracks, she started to build an online presence. “People would ask, ‘When are gonna make your own music?’” Then she had a bad breakup. “I’m like, ‘I’m not gonna sit and cry. I’m gonna write a song.’” That 2012 ditty, “Cream Team,” was discovered and reposted by Erykah Badu. Fourteen years later, JP’s songs have been licensed for everything from Broad City to HBO’s Insecure. Her videos intrigued mumblecore auteur Andrew Bujalski, who hired her for his 2018 indie flick Support the Girls, and Anderson cast her after seeing her open for the Australian band Tame Impala.
While accepting the Golden Globe for Best Screenplay, Anderson thanked her by name. Abbreviated to JP, that is.
