Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: Mahershala Ali Talks ‘Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother’, Fatherhood, Faith, Marvel + More

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INTERVIEW: Mahershala Ali Talks ‘Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother’, Fatherhood, Faith, Marvel + More · The Breakfast Club

0:01
Speaker 1: Yes, it's the world's most dangerous morning show, The Breakfast Club.
0:10
Speaker 1: DJ Envy, Just Hilarious, Charlamagne Tha God, Lauren La Rosa
0:13
Speaker 1: is here as well. Envy is out right now, but
0:16
Speaker 1: we got the good brother. Mahershala Ali is here.
0:19
Speaker 2: How are you, sir?
0:20
Speaker 3: I'm good, I'm good. Thanks for having me. Good to
0:22
Speaker 3: see you.
0:22
Speaker 2: Hey, you rolling right. Nothing but women.
0:24
Speaker 1: Mostly black women, you know what I mean?
0:28
Speaker 2: The Nubian white queen over there, too. But you're rolling right.
0:32
Speaker 2: That's how you stay out of trouble.
0:33
Speaker 3: Thank you, brother. Thank you. Keep me in line.
0:35
Speaker 2: That's right. How are you, man?
0:37
Speaker 3: I'm well, man. I'm just, you know, out on these
0:40
Speaker 3: streets talking about this movie right now.
0:41
Speaker 2: Your mother, your mother, your mother.
0:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.
0:44
Speaker 1: Very interesting concept, but it's like... John Q times 100.
0:47
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying? I don't want to give
0:50
Speaker 1: too much away, but tell them a bit about your character.
0:53
Speaker 3: It's about a gentleman by the name of Lateef, who
0:57
Speaker 3: is a recent widower. And he is urgently looking for
1:03
Speaker 3: breast milk because his child is allergic to formula. He's
1:07
Speaker 3: also a hitman. And so he is looking for breast
1:11
Speaker 3: milk while he is also being hunted. So he's trying
1:14
Speaker 3: to protect his family, but he urgently needs to feed
1:17
Speaker 3: his child.
1:19
Speaker 2: He's committing crimes. I don't want to call him a criminal.
1:21
Speaker 3: Right.
1:21
Speaker 2: He's committing crimes.
1:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's a vigilante.
1:23
Speaker 2: He's a vigilante, but you're rooting for him.
1:25
Speaker 3: Yeah.
1:26
Speaker 2: And it made me think, like, how much of morality
1:28
Speaker 2: is really just circumstance?
1:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, and sort of like what, to some degree, what,
1:36
Speaker 3: because there's certain things that people... are contracted to do,
1:40
Speaker 3: who have government approval, and then later on we have
1:43
Speaker 3: governments apologizing for those actions later on.
1:45
Speaker 1: That's right.
1:46
Speaker 3: And people, so how do people interpret justice? You know,
1:49
Speaker 3: it's sort of what it gets down to. Like, you know,
1:52
Speaker 3: we can sit back and watch a Batman movie and
1:55
Speaker 3: kind of agree with a lot of his choices, you know,
1:58
Speaker 3: even though there's things that the police force or some
2:03
Speaker 3: government agency wouldn't condone. So it sort of, like, gets
2:07
Speaker 3: into that and then how... People view morality. And his
2:12
Speaker 3: teacher in the film, played by the extraordinary Giancarlo Esposito,
2:16
Speaker 3: doesn't agree with what Lateef is doing. But what Lateef
2:20
Speaker 3: is doing, he feels like is just. And he has
2:23
Speaker 3: a real passion for justice.
2:28
Speaker 1: Is it easy for people with options to judge the
2:30
Speaker 1: decisions of people who don't have any?
2:33
Speaker 3: I think it's, yeah, I think so. It's very easy
2:36
Speaker 3: for people who have options to be blind to the
2:41
Speaker 3: circumstances of people who are dealing with very limited opportunities.
2:46
Speaker 3: And we see it all the time. People make judgments
2:49
Speaker 3: from a lens of being privileged on those who grow
2:54
Speaker 3: up with very little access to a lot of the
2:56
Speaker 3: things that they have access to. And so we have
2:58
Speaker 3: to all be very careful of that, sort of becoming self-righteous,
3:02
Speaker 3: so to speak.
3:03
Speaker 4: There's also a conversation that the film made me think
3:06
Speaker 4: about of how You don't have these options. You're doing
3:08
Speaker 4: what you got to do, and your children are watching
3:10
Speaker 4: you do that. So their learning of the world and
3:13
Speaker 4: what's right, what's wrong, how to navigate it is shaped
3:16
Speaker 4: very differently than what you as a parent are trying
3:18
Speaker 4: to instill in them at the same time.
3:20
Speaker 3: Some of that, like, do as I say, not as
3:22
Speaker 3: I do, so to speak. Yeah. And, you know, I
3:28
Speaker 3: think Lateef feels like he's a good model for his children,
3:33
Speaker 3: but Kids are smart, and they're going to have their
3:36
Speaker 3: own opinions, and they're experiencing a new world. They're not
3:38
Speaker 3: growing up in the same world that you grew up in.
3:41
Speaker 3: If you have children, your children are not growing up
3:43
Speaker 3: in the world that you were raised in. They're just not.
3:45
Speaker 3: And so we as adults have to be very mindful
3:51
Speaker 3: of the new truths that these kids and these youth
3:54
Speaker 3: are navigating that's just different from our own.
3:57
Speaker 2: Man.
3:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's very different. Very different.
4:00
Speaker 2: What drew you to the script?
4:03
Speaker 3: Just the character and the range that was offered to
4:10
Speaker 3: me in this opportunity. I come from an athletic background.
4:15
Speaker 3: I was an athlete for half of my life. And
4:18
Speaker 3: I think inherent in that is constantly being challenged and
4:24
Speaker 3: setting new goals and trying to reach those goals and
4:28
Speaker 3: go beyond them. So as I transitioned into being being
4:32
Speaker 3: a full-time artist and actor, essentially, I feel like I'm
4:36
Speaker 3: inherently always looking for like the new mountain to climb.
4:39
Speaker 3: Like what's the new, what's the new challenge? What's going
4:42
Speaker 3: to wake me up? What's going to, what's going to
4:44
Speaker 3: require all of me? Because all of this is time
4:46
Speaker 3: away from your loved ones. Like a hundred percent of
4:48
Speaker 3: the time, you know that, but you start filming something,
4:51
Speaker 3: your short days are 12 hours, you know? And so
4:54
Speaker 3: you start working 70, 75 hours in a week. You
4:57
Speaker 3: want it to matter. And I think the, What this
5:01
Speaker 3: character offered to me in terms of getting to play
5:06
Speaker 3: the soft and the sharp, so to speak, having to
5:09
Speaker 3: juggle being a father of three kids, being a widower,
5:14
Speaker 3: but also being a swordsman and essentially like a samurai.
5:17
Speaker 3: That was so exciting to me. And I also felt
5:21
Speaker 3: like it was a story that could really resonate sort
5:24
Speaker 3: of culturally. We haven't seen this iteration of a black man.
5:29
Speaker 3: in the world, just in film, period. Like, there's no
5:32
Speaker 3: character that you could point to that someone could say, like, oh,
5:35
Speaker 3: I've seen this guy before.
5:36
Speaker 2: This is what John King, I think, John Q wanted
5:39
Speaker 2: to do.
5:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, potentially, yeah. You know? So, yeah, so this, for me,
5:45
Speaker 3: is sort of like the one. Like, I'm always looking
5:49
Speaker 3: to stretch and grow, so to be able to bring qualities, like, yeah,
5:53
Speaker 3: maybe I've had to bring certain things that this character
5:55
Speaker 3: has to other characters. Mm-hmm. But then to add the
5:59
Speaker 3: stunt action element to it is all very new and
6:04
Speaker 3: honestly a dream come true for me because I've been
6:06
Speaker 3: wanting to do stunts and fight. And it be purposeful, though.
6:11
Speaker 3: Not just stunts for the sake of doing stunts, but
6:14
Speaker 3: for it to be incorporated in a story in a
6:17
Speaker 3: way that made the story really dynamic and make sense.
6:20
Speaker 2: Did you get pitched it before you saw the script?
6:22
Speaker 1: Because the breast milk storyline sounds absurd until you realize
6:25
Speaker 1: what it represents.
6:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah. No, you know what? I had gotten... My
6:28
Speaker 3: manager got it, and he was like, yo, you got
6:32
Speaker 3: to read this. I'm not sure what you would think.
6:35
Speaker 3: I'm not even sure about it, but, like, read it.
6:37
Speaker 3: And then I read it, and I was kind of
6:40
Speaker 3: blown away. I could see... When you read... When I
6:43
Speaker 3: read things, I know that they're for me if I
6:45
Speaker 3: can hear sort of the voice of the character. Like,
6:49
Speaker 3: I could hear.
6:50
Speaker 2: I.
6:52
Speaker 3: Could hear he was, like, sort of speaking to me.
6:54
Speaker 3: And so... It was, it was a wild read. I
6:58
Speaker 3: think the only reason I think it wasn't a no
7:00
Speaker 3: brainer for me was because there's worlds within this world. This,
7:05
Speaker 3: this story is like broad and vast and a little
7:09
Speaker 3: bit crazy. So I was curious as to how the
7:12
Speaker 3: director was going to make one world out of this,
7:17
Speaker 3: like stitch this together and make all the stories like
7:19
Speaker 3: fit together. But, I feel like he did it.
7:24
Speaker 1: Is the movie criticizing religion too? Because you're a Muslim
7:28
Speaker 1: hitman who's in conflict with a man leading a Christian cult, right?
7:33
Speaker 1: So both men can probably convince themselves that what they're
7:35
Speaker 1: doing is justified.
7:38
Speaker 2: Is the movie kind of criticizing religion?
7:39
Speaker 3: I think it's examining hypocrisy. I think it's examining how...
7:44
Speaker 3: I think it's examining... how we interpret and metabolize faith
7:53
Speaker 3: and religion and have to really hold ourselves accountable for
7:58
Speaker 3: how we live it out.
8:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, because faith and religious institutions aren't necessarily the same thing.
8:03
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're not. And so much of what we see
8:07
Speaker 3: go on in the world where you say one might
8:11
Speaker 3: be like, oh, Islam promotes this or Christianity promotes that. Honestly,
8:15
Speaker 3: it's how people interpret those things And are the ones
8:19
Speaker 3: that are empowered to like act those things out in
8:22
Speaker 3: a certain way that end up honestly being counterintuitive to
8:26
Speaker 3: what a lot of the faiths are really teaching.
8:30
Speaker 5: What part of the character connected with you? Did you
8:33
Speaker 5: connect to mostly like what part of? Mahershala was really,
8:38
Speaker 5: really rooted in Lateef. You know, you have your widowed father,
8:41
Speaker 5: you know, hit man. I know, obviously, you don't be
8:44
Speaker 5: killing people. But I'm just saying, what did you resonate
8:47
Speaker 5: with the most?
8:48
Speaker 3: I think I loved working with the children. I really
8:51
Speaker 3: loved working with the children. Like, there was something in,
8:55
Speaker 3: especially working with, like, Jalil was amazing, the young man
8:59
Speaker 3: who plays my son. But there was something really special
9:03
Speaker 3: in working with Adia, who plays my teenage daughter. Yeah.
9:09
Speaker 3: And just as an actor stepping into the shoes of
9:13
Speaker 3: that character, you realize that children have so much more
9:19
Speaker 3: power than that they're sort of aware of. You're kind
9:21
Speaker 3: of at the mercy of your children. You think about, like,
9:23
Speaker 3: I know we all have family and wonderful aunts or
9:27
Speaker 3: uncles who had children that kind of figured that out
9:30
Speaker 3: and were just acting a fool out there. And you
9:32
Speaker 3: see parents' lives change and them trying to navigate life
9:36
Speaker 3: in a way, but they're really at the mercy of
9:38
Speaker 3: how their children are behaving and trying to reel them
9:41
Speaker 3: back in. So you see Lateef at this moment where
9:45
Speaker 3: he suddenly, especially because of the loss of his wife,
9:49
Speaker 3: he's so aware of sort of the power that his
9:53
Speaker 3: daughter has and really needing her to sort of like
9:57
Speaker 3: cooperate with the teachings that they've sort of implanted in
10:02
Speaker 3: her over time like he needs her to like I
10:04
Speaker 3: need you to keep this modest so to speak but
10:07
Speaker 3: kids get to that age where they start wanting to
10:11
Speaker 3: stretch and grow and define themselves for themselves and step
10:15
Speaker 3: out of the lens of their parents and so he's
10:17
Speaker 3: starting to realize that oh, she's going through some changes,
10:21
Speaker 3: and he's not quite ready for that, especially in this
10:24
Speaker 3: moment that he's dealing with, this larger moment he's dealing with.
10:27
Speaker 5: What did you learn about yourself in playing this role
10:30
Speaker 5: of Lateef? What did you learn about yourself?
10:34
Speaker 3: I would say that you need to be very conscious
10:38
Speaker 3: of what you pour into your children. I think you
10:41
Speaker 3: need to be very conscious about how you treat those
10:44
Speaker 3: who you are supposed to be ahead of, who you're
10:47
Speaker 3: supposed to be raising. Because they can be the very
10:51
Speaker 3: ones who come around and save you later on. They
10:54
Speaker 3: can be the ones that... You are at their mercy
10:57
Speaker 3: later on. So it's so important for you to be
11:02
Speaker 3: conscious and mindful and loving and see them for... Try
11:08
Speaker 3: to see them for who they are, what they have
11:10
Speaker 3: to offer. Try to listen to them deeply. Try not
11:14
Speaker 3: to make them you. And I think if you... If
11:18
Speaker 3: you're able to be successful in that and give them
11:20
Speaker 3: the space that they need to be and trust that
11:23
Speaker 3: your hearts are tethered from doing good work with them,
11:27
Speaker 3: I believe that they, I believe you won't lose them.
11:33
Speaker 3: You know?
11:33
Speaker 2: That's right. They'll send your ass to a home when
11:35
Speaker 2: you get old.
11:36
Speaker 3: You know? Yeah, man. Yeah, so.
11:40
Speaker 2: But also the wife, too, right?
11:42
Speaker 1: Because when Lateef loses his wife, he loses, like, the
11:46
Speaker 1: structure of his entire life.
11:47
Speaker 3: Life, right?
11:48
Speaker 1: So it makes me wonder, is he grieving his wife
11:51
Speaker 1: or discovering how dependent his life was on her?
11:54
Speaker 3: Good question. I think he is, I think he's trying
11:59
Speaker 3: to make sense of the world suddenly after essentially losing
12:04
Speaker 3: half of himself. And not only that, he's lost so
12:09
Speaker 3: much of himself and how I think he identifies in
12:11
Speaker 3: the world by how your wife and your partner impacts
12:14
Speaker 3: you by their presence. Yeah. And added to that, he's
12:18
Speaker 3: got three children and one clearly being an infant. So
12:23
Speaker 3: I think that's where some of the anger and frustration
12:26
Speaker 3: comes from and the questioning of God. Like, why did
12:29
Speaker 3: you do this to me? Because, you know, there's a
12:31
Speaker 3: saying in the faith saying that God doesn't give you
12:34
Speaker 3: anything you can't handle. I think that he feels like
12:37
Speaker 3: God has given him something he can't handle. And I
12:39
Speaker 3: think he's angry as a result of that. So, but
12:42
Speaker 3: that is just, if you pull back, sort of take a,
12:47
Speaker 3: bird's eye view of this, that's all some iteration of mourning.
12:53
Speaker 3: It's some iteration of like coming to terms with loss.
12:56
Speaker 3: And you have to, I think later on, he learns
13:00
Speaker 3: how to give himself grace. But in the early moments
13:04
Speaker 3: of the film, he just doesn't have time to do that.
13:08
Speaker 3: He's so stressed by this ticking clock of a baby
13:12
Speaker 3: who was allergic to formula, urgently needing breast milk. And
13:16
Speaker 3: this guy who's lived outside the system, and I know
13:18
Speaker 3: you guys all know these brothers out in New York
13:20
Speaker 3: who ain't really messing with the government or whatever in
13:23
Speaker 3: a certain way, trying to live off the grid, so
13:25
Speaker 3: to speak, in the grid. He's suddenly having to go
13:30
Speaker 3: through the system to try to find his baby some
13:33
Speaker 3: breast milk and then ends up having to go a
13:36
Speaker 3: different way. And so I think he's just so stressed
13:41
Speaker 3: by the situation along with being hunted by some other
13:45
Speaker 3: folks that he's got to handle.
13:47
Speaker 4: The crazy part about hearing you say the grace thing is,
13:50
Speaker 4: in the movie, your son, there's one moment where he
13:53
Speaker 4: gives you a lot of grace. Y'all are talking about
13:55
Speaker 4: watching the baby while you go figure something out. And
13:57
Speaker 4: I see Lateef's character. He pauses and like, wow, your
14:02
Speaker 4: baby boy is giving you grace. But then I've also
14:04
Speaker 4: heard you talk about in real life with your daughter,
14:05
Speaker 4: her giving you grace as you go, when you work
14:08
Speaker 4: and you do all these things. That alone is powerful.
14:10
Speaker 2: And children don't even know that they do it.
14:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.
14:13
Speaker 2: They.
14:14
Speaker 3: I'm glad you mentioned that. Like, children are brilliant, and
14:18
Speaker 3: we got to... I'm learning so much on... So much
14:23
Speaker 3: about how they process the world and how they communicate,
14:28
Speaker 3: how they work to protect you, how they cover sometimes
14:33
Speaker 3: and may put themselves second because they don't want their
14:38
Speaker 3: parent to worry or to be stressed, you know? And so...
14:42
Speaker 3: And sometimes... Like, I recently learned that my daughter had
14:45
Speaker 3: gone through something, had been hit at this camp situation,
14:50
Speaker 3: and I go to pick her up from camp, and
14:53
Speaker 3: I was like, hey, how was your day? And she
14:56
Speaker 3: was like, oh, good. And she's like, I was like,
14:59
Speaker 3: all right, cool. And I'm about to pull off, and
15:01
Speaker 3: somebody walks up to the window and is like, hey, Mr. Ali,
15:03
Speaker 3: can you stick around for a minute? I was like, okay.
15:07
Speaker 3: If someone needs to talk to you, I was like, thinking, like,
15:09
Speaker 3: what happened? She's not saying anything. Next thing you know,
15:13
Speaker 3: telling me that this kid hit her and did all
15:15
Speaker 3: this kind of stuff and and i knew like knowing
15:17
Speaker 3: her i know she didn't want me to have a
15:20
Speaker 3: certain type of reaction yeah you know and.
15:23
Speaker 2: Saw it in the trunk man.
15:26
Speaker 3: I was so heated i was so upset you know
15:31
Speaker 3: but i think she didn't want that yeah you know
15:32
Speaker 3: what i mean and so it's it's there's just like
15:35
Speaker 3: a small example and that's like from a nine-year-old you
15:38
Speaker 3: know So once these kids hit these, like, teenage years
15:41
Speaker 3: and they've learned you and no one observes you better
15:45
Speaker 3: than your children, once they start knowing how you operate
15:49
Speaker 3: and respond to things, they start editing.
15:52
Speaker 5: Yeah.
15:52
Speaker 3: And you want to be careful of that because you
15:54
Speaker 3: want them to still be communicating and not making certain
15:57
Speaker 3: choices for you at such a young age, but they
16:00
Speaker 3: do it. I did it. Like, I think we all
16:02
Speaker 3: can think back onto things that, like, I chose not
16:05
Speaker 3: to share this because I don't want my dad to
16:07
Speaker 3: get in this kind of situation.
16:09
Speaker 2: Right.
16:09
Speaker 3: Because I know he would come up and, like, be heated.
16:12
Speaker 3: And that could lead to this, that, and the other.
16:14
Speaker 3: And so it's the ways in which your children work
16:16
Speaker 3: to protect you as well. And that's why I say
16:18
Speaker 3: you got to be very conscious and aware of how
16:20
Speaker 3: you pour into them, you know?
16:22
Speaker 1: I want to go back to the spiritual hypocrisy of Lateef, right?
16:24
Speaker 1: Because he's capable of taking a life.
16:26
Speaker 2: Yeah.
16:27
Speaker 1: But then he's terrified of losing one. So when you
16:30
Speaker 1: approached this role, did you see him as a violent
16:32
Speaker 1: man who loves his family or a loving man who
16:35
Speaker 1: learned how to be violent?
16:37
Speaker 3: I saw him as a man who was really passionate
16:39
Speaker 3: about justice.
16:41
Speaker 2: Isn't that subjective?
16:43
Speaker 3: But hold on, though. I think when I try to
16:46
Speaker 3: step into every character I step into, I try to
16:49
Speaker 3: step in without judgment and sort of be a lawyer
16:52
Speaker 3: or advocate for that character and see how they are
16:55
Speaker 3: seeing the world. There are so many brothers that we
16:58
Speaker 3: know of, especially as black men who are experiencing the
17:01
Speaker 3: world that is inherently unjust towards them. And so you,
17:06
Speaker 3: you don't, it's not that you don't respect the laws,
17:09
Speaker 3: but you don't look at the law as the end
17:11
Speaker 3: all be all because you know that it was never
17:14
Speaker 3: necessarily set up for you to succeed within that. So
17:18
Speaker 3: then you have some people who sort of live by
17:20
Speaker 3: another set of rules and go, well, as a practice,
17:23
Speaker 3: we don't get a certain type of justice because, but
17:26
Speaker 3: justice needs to be met out. And so I'm going
17:29
Speaker 3: to be the one who handles that. Like he believes
17:31
Speaker 3: that that is, he believes that that is his calling.
17:34
Speaker 3: Even if his teacher and mentor and shake Giancarlo Esposito
17:39
Speaker 3: character doesn't agree with him on that. That's how he
17:43
Speaker 3: sees the world. And there's a lot of those brothers
17:44
Speaker 3: running around that ain't running around killing people because the
17:48
Speaker 3: law didn't go and handle something, but still have issues
17:52
Speaker 3: with how justice Brothers can be falsely accused for something
17:57
Speaker 3: or you can have all the evidence in the tape
18:01
Speaker 3: of this, that, and other happening and they just get
18:03
Speaker 3: off with it like over and over again. And you
18:06
Speaker 3: can't tell me that that doesn't impact people and shape
18:10
Speaker 3: your view on the system. And so I think, so
18:15
Speaker 3: I feel like on some level, because in storytelling, you
18:18
Speaker 3: got to sort of lean into something that's a little
18:22
Speaker 3: bit heightened. for being worthy of people's time, right? And
18:27
Speaker 3: you're entertaining them and taking them along a journey. So
18:31
Speaker 3: I see how with that sort of view of our reality,
18:36
Speaker 3: and you kind of stretch that a bit and make
18:38
Speaker 3: it into a movie and a story, how you can
18:40
Speaker 3: have a character like a Lateef who isn't that different from, say,
18:45
Speaker 3: he's like a broke Batman in that way.
18:49
Speaker 2: You know what I mean?
18:50
Speaker 3: I got you.
18:51
Speaker 2: You know. How do you pronounce the director's name?
18:54
Speaker 3: Basam Tariq.
18:54
Speaker 2: Basam Tariq. I know he was supposed to direct Blade.
18:57
Speaker 3: Yeah.
18:58
Speaker 2: And you said you wanted to get into action.
19:00
Speaker 1: Is Your Mother, Your Mother the movie we got because
19:03
Speaker 1: Kevin Feige failed to get Blade made?
19:06
Speaker 3: You know, I just think if I had done that,
19:08
Speaker 3: we wouldn't get this movie. It would almost be redundant
19:11
Speaker 3: for me in terms of because I wouldn't go do
19:13
Speaker 3: a sword thing and then go do another sword thing.
19:15
Speaker 3: You know, so... It's just, you know, man plans and
19:19
Speaker 3: God plans and God is the best of planners. And
19:21
Speaker 3: it's as simple as that. You know what I mean?
19:23
Speaker 2: Preparation, all those years, and it turns into something you
19:26
Speaker 2: actually control.
19:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah. I wouldn't even say control, but it's like,
19:31
Speaker 3: you know, we got to do it. And I'm really
19:34
Speaker 3: proud of this movie. Like, when I look back, I'm
19:37
Speaker 3: not trying to rewrite history or make it any other way.
19:40
Speaker 3: This is a movie we got. And I couldn't be
19:43
Speaker 3: more proud of this film.
19:44
Speaker 2: Like, or.
19:45
Speaker 3: it's one of those pieces. I've had, I've had a
19:47
Speaker 3: pretty solid career, you know, and, and in terms of
19:51
Speaker 3: the type of steps and growth I want I think
19:55
Speaker 3: this is very reflective of the type of opportunities I
20:00
Speaker 3: want to step into and so So yeah, so here
20:04
Speaker 3: we are.
20:04
Speaker 5: Well, I can't wait to watch it because the way
20:06
Speaker 5: this man came in here today talking about, it's a
20:08
Speaker 5: good movie about breast milk.
20:10
Speaker 3: And I'm like, what? Yes, you did.
20:13
Speaker 2: You asked me what it was about. And I just said,
20:16
Speaker 2: breast milk.
20:17
Speaker 3: It's a great movie about some breast milk.
20:19
Speaker 5: And I'm like, now, he's not going to just jump
20:21
Speaker 5: in something because of breast milk. But the whole time,
20:24
Speaker 5: it's the whole complexity of your character.
20:26
Speaker 3: That he loved.
20:28
Speaker 2: He didn't share any of that.
20:29
Speaker 3: So, yeah. Yeah.
20:31
Speaker 5: You just celebrate, well, y'all just celebrated 10 years of Moonlight.
20:33
Speaker 3: Yeah.
20:34
Speaker 1: It's your anniversary.
20:35
Speaker 3: I love the film. Thank you.
20:38
Speaker 5: I've always wanted to meet you to say that. And
20:39
Speaker 5: I always wanted to say, you look like a very
20:42
Speaker 5: elevated person. therapeutic version of future. You know what I'm saying?
20:47
Speaker 3: You sound like black Twitter.
20:50
Speaker 2: I want to come at you right.
20:52
Speaker 5: Anybody ever say that?
20:53
Speaker 3: Yes, I've seen that several times. Okay, do you feel
20:56
Speaker 3: that way? You know, I just feel like myself. I
20:59
Speaker 3: can't speak for future, but I just feel like myself.
21:01
Speaker 2: Okay.
21:02
Speaker 4: I don't know if I feel much madness, but I'm
21:03
Speaker 4: here today.
21:05
Speaker 3: But I'm just saying, very, very handsome, very clean.
21:07
Speaker 2: Thank you.
21:07
Speaker 3: Cut version of like a future. Thank you.
21:09
Speaker 2: Love it.
21:10
Speaker 3: Thank you. You're welcome.
21:10
Speaker 2: I did want to ask you, though.
21:12
Speaker 1: When Wesley Snipes said in Deadpool versus Wolverine, there's only
21:15
Speaker 1: been one blade, how did that make you feel?
21:18
Speaker 3: I didn't see it.
21:19
Speaker 4: Oh.
21:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, I didn't see it.
21:20
Speaker 2: But you had to hear about it.
21:21
Speaker 3: I heard about it.
21:22
Speaker 2: You heard about you looking like Future. I know you
21:23
Speaker 2: heard about it.
21:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, I heard about it, but I didn't see it.
21:26
Speaker 3: I didn't see it.
21:26
Speaker 2: Got you.
21:27
Speaker 3: Yeah.
21:27
Speaker 2: Okay. You didn't feel any type of way?
21:29
Speaker 3: No. I just, you know.
21:31
Speaker 2: Got you.
21:31
Speaker 3: I don't even know how to respond. Yeah. I don't
21:35
Speaker 3: even know how to respond. But I love Wesley. I
21:38
Speaker 3: appreciate him dearly, you know. He's one of our ones,
21:42
Speaker 3: you know. So I appreciate and respect that man.
21:45
Speaker 2: I do want to go back to the Lateef character.
21:47
Speaker 2: What's harder to play?
21:49
Speaker 1: Somebody with strength or somebody desperately trying to hold themselves together?
21:53
Speaker 5: Ooh.
21:53
Speaker 3: Ooh. You know what? You know, wow, I love that question.
22:03
Speaker 3: You know, I like to, I think what is interesting
22:07
Speaker 3: to me For to play and for the audience is
22:15
Speaker 3: to see someone who you're not sure is going to
22:17
Speaker 3: make it. I think it's more interesting. Like the guy
22:21
Speaker 3: who's got it all figured out and just is like
22:23
Speaker 3: cuts through everyone really easily. And you're not really. Like,
22:28
Speaker 3: I know Rambo ain't dying.
22:30
Speaker 2: Right.
22:32
Speaker 3: You know, he ain't dying. Now, Harrison Ford might not
22:36
Speaker 3: make it, though. You know what I'm saying? Like, he
22:39
Speaker 3: might get caught in the fugitive. Like, you know, that
22:42
Speaker 3: to me is more of my frequency. I like to,
22:46
Speaker 3: because in the moment, day to day, like, I'm personally,
22:49
Speaker 3: I'm not sure, you know. That's where I got to
22:53
Speaker 3: go up top for help. Like, yo, I don't know
22:56
Speaker 3: about this. How am I going to get through it? Now,
22:58
Speaker 3: someone from the outside might be like, it'll be fine.
23:00
Speaker 3: But like, I don't know, you know. So I think
23:03
Speaker 3: that there is a humility, I think, in our reality,
23:12
Speaker 3: you know, where we really don't know day to day.
23:15
Speaker 3: And so I think that that's and I think that's
23:16
Speaker 3: very relatable for people, you know, because everyone feels a
23:19
Speaker 3: little bit on some level, a little bit insecure, you know.
23:23
Speaker 3: And I think I love characters who are like wrestling
23:26
Speaker 3: with that. Even if they got all the skill set
23:29
Speaker 3: and the weaponry and the gadgets and whatnot, I think
23:31
Speaker 3: it's a little bit more interesting if the character and
23:34
Speaker 3: the audience is like, oh gosh, I'm not sure if
23:36
Speaker 3: he's going to make it.
23:38
Speaker 1: As a Muslim man, because you converted to Islam years ago,
23:41
Speaker 1: is there pressure when you're Muslim in real life to
23:44
Speaker 1: make sure the Muslim character isn't interpreted as representing, I guess,
23:48
Speaker 1: Islam as a whole?
23:51
Speaker 3: You know, I think maybe from a standpoint because there
23:56
Speaker 3: just isn't enough representation. But I think that's also just
23:58
Speaker 3: as a black man, I'm so aware of that in
24:00
Speaker 3: general where there's just not enough of our films or
24:05
Speaker 3: stories out there. So suddenly anything you do has to
24:08
Speaker 3: be all things to all people and you got to
24:09
Speaker 3: get it perfect. And it puts an unnecessary pressure on
24:12
Speaker 3: our projects and it's really unfair. And so on some level,
24:17
Speaker 3: I also try not to engage in that too much because,
24:22
Speaker 3: I'm going to do the best I can do, whether
24:24
Speaker 3: I'm playing a Buddhist, a Christian, an atheist, an agnostic.
24:29
Speaker 3: I could be playing anything, and I'm going to try
24:31
Speaker 3: to do the absolute best work I can do. And
24:35
Speaker 3: that work and that job is to bring dimensionality to
24:40
Speaker 3: a character and make them feel fully human, make it
24:43
Speaker 3: feel like it's somebody that you've met before, that you know.
24:46
Speaker 3: And if you haven't, you're like, I just went through
24:50
Speaker 3: a two-hour journey with, that person and I and it
24:54
Speaker 3: felt real like that's my job and so I and
24:58
Speaker 3: no I think sometimes that there is if you're representing
25:02
Speaker 3: a Muslim or playing a Muslim I think that there's
25:04
Speaker 3: pressure to sanitize things and make this guy perfect when
25:08
Speaker 3: I don't know anybody that's perfect you know and brothers
25:13
Speaker 3: whether they be in the mosque or outside the mosque
25:15
Speaker 3: or the church or outside do dirt too you know
25:20
Speaker 3: unfortunately and so And I'm not trying to condone that,
25:23
Speaker 3: but that's the reality, and everyone knows people like that.
25:26
Speaker 3: And so I just hope for more representation in general,
25:31
Speaker 3: for people to be able to see some version of
25:34
Speaker 3: themselves or someone that they know on screen. And the
25:38
Speaker 3: more we can do that, I think the healthier it
25:41
Speaker 3: is for our culture and the environment, because it can't
25:45
Speaker 3: just be such a small segment of people getting to
25:50
Speaker 3: have dimensionality. on screen, which has always been the case
25:54
Speaker 3: in our business. And that needs to change. And, you know,
25:59
Speaker 3: so hopefully I'm part of that change.
26:00
Speaker 4: That's why your comment, when you talk about Marvel and
26:03
Speaker 4: having this budget and you are this amazing actor, you
26:06
Speaker 4: did this year of training and nothing happened. I was
26:09
Speaker 4: happy to see that because I've always felt like in
26:11
Speaker 4: that world, especially because you're black and there's not a
26:14
Speaker 4: lot of us there, they can't, people can't say what's
26:16
Speaker 4: happening and it's messed up because then we don't have
26:18
Speaker 4: the representation. Like it just doesn't happen after that. And
26:21
Speaker 4: nobody says anything because it's a, it's like a cult
26:24
Speaker 4: universe to be a part of.
26:25
Speaker 1: Yeah.
26:25
Speaker 4: Like those comments I think are going to maybe free
26:28
Speaker 4: a lot of people, but what has there been forward
26:30
Speaker 4: conversation about moving? Like what, now what? Like, so you
26:33
Speaker 4: say this and Marvel sees it, the world has a reaction.
26:36
Speaker 4: There's no.
26:38
Speaker 3: Um, Honestly, to be way weird with you, I've sort of...
26:41
Speaker 3: You over it. I've exhausted anything I have to say
26:45
Speaker 3: about that situation. I'm just not there. I care about
26:52
Speaker 3: this project. I really do. God is my witness. This
26:55
Speaker 3: is one of the best things that's ever happened to me.
26:59
Speaker 3: Your mother, your mother, your mother. Just creatively for me
27:01
Speaker 3: to get to... I felt exhausted for all the right reasons.
27:05
Speaker 3: I felt from the stunt training... to emotionally having to
27:11
Speaker 3: navigate working on this story from moment to moment, beat
27:15
Speaker 3: to beat, getting to work with Giancarlo Esposito, a legend
27:18
Speaker 3: and an icon and a genius, to working with Jon Cho,
27:22
Speaker 3: who was clearly underrated. And getting to work with Bassam Tariq.
27:33
Speaker 3: It was really a dream come true. So that's where
27:36
Speaker 3: I'm at. Right now I'm working on Task for HBO,
27:41
Speaker 3: HBO show, which is like kicking my ass, but like
27:45
Speaker 3: giving me life too, because it's another thing I get
27:48
Speaker 3: to like sink my teeth into when a character that
27:51
Speaker 3: is like stretching me, they're writing for me. I'm getting
27:54
Speaker 3: to work with Mark Ruffalo. I got another movie called
27:57
Speaker 3: Wildwood coming out, stop motion animation project that they took
28:01
Speaker 3: him 10 years to work on. I did the voiceover
28:03
Speaker 3: for five years ago. That comes out in a couple
28:05
Speaker 3: of weeks.
28:05
Speaker 4: Divine Redirection.
28:06
Speaker 3: So I'm just like, I'm not even thinking about that. So,
28:11
Speaker 3: I mean, I say respectfully, I'm just, I'm in a
28:13
Speaker 3: different place. You know what I'm saying? So, you know, yeah,
28:17
Speaker 3: I'm just, I'm just doing my thing. So how do
28:19
Speaker 3: you pronounce your birth name? Mahershala al-Hashbaz. And so, Mahershala al-Hashbaz.
28:24
Speaker 3: It's 18 letters.
28:26
Speaker 5: I just wanted to know, because you shortened it. Was
28:29
Speaker 5: it because people kept messing it up?
28:31
Speaker 3: Well, no. You know what? I left. I went to
28:36
Speaker 3: school here. I went to... I left NYU. I went
28:38
Speaker 3: to grad school out here. And You know, that mid-20s
28:53
Speaker 3: moment is so important for us, if you think back,
28:57
Speaker 3: you know. And you're, like, defining yourself, you know. And
29:02
Speaker 3: I was like, man, my mama gave me this name.
29:06
Speaker 3: I'm going by my full name, you know. And I
29:08
Speaker 3: had converted to Islam, so I had changed my last name.
29:11
Speaker 3: So for the first 11, 12 years of my career,
29:13
Speaker 3: it was Mahershala Hashbaz Ali. And then one day, I
29:18
Speaker 3: kid you not, I had a... Here I can go
29:20
Speaker 3: with my dreams. But I had a dream that I
29:22
Speaker 3: shortened my name. I went back to... Because they called
29:25
Speaker 3: me Mahershala in college.
29:26
Speaker 2: Okay.
29:27
Speaker 3: And I had this dream. I was doing Place Beyond
29:29
Speaker 3: the Pines out here in Schenectady, New York. And I'd
29:34
Speaker 3: had this dream that I was like debating, do I
29:40
Speaker 3: abbreviate my name to Mahershala or Mahershalal? Because Mahershalal would
29:44
Speaker 3: actually be the correct syllabic cutoff, right? And I woke
29:51
Speaker 3: up going like, I ain't changing my name. Why I
29:54
Speaker 3: have this dream? Then like a few days later, my
29:56
Speaker 3: manager at the time calls me and is like, yeah,
29:58
Speaker 3: so listen, they want to know how they put, if
30:03
Speaker 3: you're okay, because finally my name was about to be
30:05
Speaker 3: on the bottom of a film poster and I had
30:08
Speaker 3: never been busting my tail. I'd never been, I was
30:11
Speaker 3: never accredited like that before.
30:13
Speaker 4: They're like, that's a lot of characters.
30:14
Speaker 2: Yeah.
30:15
Speaker 3: And so they were like, you know, so the producers
30:18
Speaker 3: are asking if you're okay with them just putting M.I.
30:20
Speaker 3: Lee on the bottom of the poster for you. I
30:22
Speaker 3: was like, huh. And they're just like, or like, you know,
30:26
Speaker 3: what about Mahershala? I was like, And that dream, like, clicked.
30:29
Speaker 3: And I was like, huh. And I had this thought
30:32
Speaker 3: because I was really deeply frustrated around that time where
30:35
Speaker 3: I felt like I'd already done Curious Case of Benjamin
30:38
Speaker 3: Button years earlier. And I'm, like, kind of struggling to
30:42
Speaker 3: get a different type of opportunity. But I felt like
30:45
Speaker 3: I had the talent to be in a different place.
30:48
Speaker 3: And I had this thought about, like, my mama named
30:51
Speaker 3: me that. She don't even call me Mahershala Hashbaz, though. Mm-hmm.
30:54
Speaker 3: I didn't feel like I didn't want a couple of
30:58
Speaker 3: syllables to be the difference between me having my fullest
31:03
Speaker 3: experience as an actor. And so I made the change.
31:10
Speaker 3: And I'm not saying that's why things clicked, but that's
31:14
Speaker 3: when things totally shifted for me. Next thing you know,
31:16
Speaker 3: I was on House of Cards and so on and
31:19
Speaker 3: so forth. You have to be able to And I
31:24
Speaker 3: will also say I would walk into rooms and have
31:26
Speaker 3: auditions and we'd be, I'd enter the room or leave
31:31
Speaker 3: the room and they were talking about my name. And
31:32
Speaker 3: I was like, that's not what I want as the
31:35
Speaker 3: conversation piece, them trying to figure out how to pronounce
31:37
Speaker 3: my name and where'd the name come from and all that.
31:40
Speaker 3: So I was like, I need the conversation to be
31:41
Speaker 3: about my work. And so it was those string of
31:46
Speaker 3: things that led to me like making a change.
31:48
Speaker 5: But it is a beautiful name.
31:49
Speaker 3: Thank you.
31:50
Speaker 2: Yes. And I know you got to go, it means
31:52
Speaker 2: hurry to the spoils, right?
31:53
Speaker 3: Yeah.
31:54
Speaker 2: Nothing about you seems like you're in a rush to
31:56
Speaker 2: do it.
31:58
Speaker 3: Did you ever have to wrestle with that?
32:01
Speaker 2: Well, yeah.
32:01
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't know you. It's a prophecy. It's
32:04
Speaker 3: a prophecy on the second son of Isaiah. And just,
32:08
Speaker 3: you know, so it's a larger symbol of a time
32:11
Speaker 3: that we were going to live in. So I'm trying
32:14
Speaker 3: to get to them spoils now, though. I'm trying to
32:15
Speaker 3: get to the bag with respect.
32:18
Speaker 2: You're getting there. Two Oscars.
32:21
Speaker 3: Thank you. Thank you.
32:22
Speaker 1: Mahershala Ali, your mother, your mother, your mother is out
32:25
Speaker 1: in theaters right now, right?
32:26
Speaker 3: Yes, yes. Limited right now, but it'll be nationwide October 16th.
32:31
Speaker 3: I know that's right.
32:31
Speaker 2: Great to meet you. Thank you for coming, brother.
32:33
Speaker 3: Thank you. Thank you for having me. Great to meet you.
32:35
Speaker 2: It's The Breakfast Club.