‘The Chi’ star Jacob Latimore showcases magic skills in ‘Sleight’

While Jacob Latimore is pretty much sworn to silence about “The Chi,” the Chicago-set television project executive produced by Lena Waithe and Common, the young actor did reveal earlier this week that “we’re in our final week of filming the pilot, and it’s mainly about a family on the South Side of Chicago, and is very representative of what’s going on in the city these days.”

His character, Emmet, reportedly is a ladies’ man who suddenly finds himself the sole parent of his toddler son.

What he’s not shy about is filming in Chicago, a city the Milwaukee native said “reminds me a little bit of New York, but much calmer.” His favorite thing to do here is to “take night walks around town, especially around Millennium Park, where you can see how beautiful the city is at night — looking at all the tall buildings, all lit up. … It’s such a panoramic view.”

In his new film, “Sleight” (opening Friday), Latimore plays Bo, a young street magician who becomes the sole caregiver for his little sister (played by Storm Reid) after the death of their parents. Desperate to keep a roof over their heads, Bo gets involved in various illegal activities, including selling drugs — leading to a crisis that forces him to use his magic skills and raw wits.

In talking about the film, Latimore stressed most of the card tricks seen in the film “are really accomplished thanks to great camera effects, but I did want to make myself look comfortable holding cards and spreading them and fiddling around with them.

“For that reason, the whole time we were filming and for a number of weeks before that, to look realistic in pulling off what I was supposed to be doing in the movie, I was never without a deck of cards. I always had one with me. It would be in my pocket, or I’d be shuffling the deck or holding the deck in some way,” said Latimore, who quickly credited the “awesome magicians who were helping me on the set — especially Eric Jones — with making me look right in the role.”