Conversations with Mahershala Ali

oh good afternoon everyone thank you so much for coming out on this rainy day it is insane out there my name is Janelle Riley I'm so thrilled to welcome you to this tag after a foundation conversation with an actor who is having a very good year though he's been delivering fine performances over the last 15 years and films like The Place Beyond The Pines and shows like house of cards in recent months he's been seen in Marvel's acclaimed series Luke Cage and not one but two of the best movies of the year hidden figures and moonlight for the latter I literally don't have time to list all the awards he's received from every major critics group but they do include the Golden Globe the Critics Choice Award and a SAG Award nomination watch Lee 2/3 because he's nominated for two ensembles so please welcome to Hershey lolly [Applause] thanks for coming out thank you so much for being here you might be the only person I know who had a good 2006 yeah as a complicated year all involved I didn't even realize it until I was saying it now that you have three Stagg nominations because hidden figures in moonlight were nominated for ensemble and of course were nominated for Supporting Actor I mean that's kind of insane it is especially you know having had a relatively quiet career like I've been fortunate to work you know I'm not gonna pretend like I haven't worked and had jobs where I was definitely able to put food on the table and pay some bills for sure but but then to suddenly find myself and projects that over the last few years find myself in projects that were speaking to to communities in some way larger audiences projects that that the lay person would watch but then also there's a difference between projects that the mass public watches and projects that the people who can give you your next job watch like those are not the same jobs you know and I've had I've been fortunate to just find myself from projects where I would walk into casting offices and it wasn't just a credit on my resume mm-hm that they had watched it and so it's a point of reference for you walking into a room and they can advocate for you and talking to producers or casting directors that makes it makes a difference and so I've been fortunate to have that six 17 years into a professional career well I think the the proudest achievement might be that my mother can pronounce your name now yeah if she's always loved you but like now she knows exactly how to say it in Hawaii no she right now weirdly she's in Arizona okay I'm not even sure why I am yeah yeah yeah I don't know how I ended up in Oregon but that's that's that's from my career conversation they'll discuss that but this is a roomful of sag actors so I always like to start by asking how did you get your sag card I got my sag card for booking a pilot called crossing Jordan I think I booked that in February of 2001 Wow and yeah got my sag card you did like 19 episodes about yeah did I did the first did most of the first season it was uh yeah an interesting time I had been out of grad school for nine months I think when I looked at and so I think in some ways to some degree things happen for me really fast and I and in the rhythm of how things that happen for me I know I got into this business with certain expectations of it and and as much as you hear horror stories you always want to believe and and hope that you can transcend and go beyond some of the issues that the person right next to you is experienced I'm not saying you're better than them you just are going when people tell you these horror stories whether it be about things in the industry or experiences and other professional genres or whatnot you just hoping okay but I'm hoping to have the remarkable experience right and so I I cuz I'd went to undergrad on a basketball scholarship and I started acting very late into that time and then I ended up getting into a graduate school a few months after graduating undergrad so with two plays under my belt and a couple of acting classes but just not knowing what I was doing just filling it out you know and I got into NYU with a lot of theater kids so I was a little bit I didn't I wouldn't even call myself an actor till after I graduated grad school and I owed them a lot of money and then I make this I say all that to say before I walked out of grad school I had my first two jobs so I've been acting for a very short time in a real committed way you know something that was in my periphery and so when I booked this show suddenly I'm being introduced to the business of and that has been the 17 year the 23 year education from when I first started but really the 17 year education we get if you go to a conservatory or you go to one of these schools locally or study however whatever your route has been if you have great teachers they really are just trying to encourage you to be as truthful as possible and to bring these characters to life and in a way that understanding how you learn understanding how you metabolize information and just try to make these people believable and and be there with your same partner but then if you're fortunate enough to book enough jobs at a certain point you have to be cognizant of of what it means to be in show business and there's parts of it that at a certain point if you deny their presence and you're just being foolish you know and and so that job was the first of many that began to educate me on on the expectations of me and me taking personal responsibility and not having expectations of anyone outside of myself because then you're expecting the business to be fair mm-hmm right and it's it's not here to be fair yeah but because then I can't control that so I would you leave yourself going home frustrated a lot so what I can do is just try to be my best self and to to be a professional when I work to treat people well make friends and allies and nurture those relationships in an organic way you know and I think it's helped me I'm sort of curious about you didn't intend on going into acting you were you know an athlete but your father was an actor was he not yeah in some ways it almost feels inevitable or or maybe you were rebelling by not going into it you know and at that time I even I didn't even really think of my father as an actor I didn't the reason being was because he really dancer first you know so my dad in 1977 he won Soul Train so so changed to have international no way yeah yeah I'm sorry but that that's kind of cooler than the yeah so he won a he won I found his letter from Johnson & Johnson cleaning out my storage a couple years ago those behind this old basketball photo team basketball photo of me and for whatever reason his framed letter from Johnson and Johnson talking about the twenty five hundred dollars he won he won a car also this Starsky and Hutch looking Starsky and Hutch might be before some folks but I'm talking the real Starsky and Hutch back in the day he won this like red sports car I remember it in 1977 and twenty five hundred dollars and I just recently found his letter from Johnson & Johnson telling him to be responsible with his earnings so cool well I he he ended up I was three and he ended up moving to New York him and him and my mom were state remain friends but had just split and he ended up moving out to New York and he got in the Dance Theater of Harlem were like immediately and ended up touring with like I'm the bus and the American dance machine and next thing you know he's doing Dreamgirls and all these shows so he was so there were times like I didn't see him for a couple of years one time because he's doing like this world tour and my mom was like I'm not sending my baby to Amsterdam so but he was my dad often was he was in the chorus or he was an understudy sometime he played James Thunder early and like a national tour Dreamgirls but that was really and as proud as I was of him to see him getting running by in the back of Prince of tides like in the parks then you came to I was like I could tell that's his body and see them get water out the water fountain and working girl or whatever between gigs you know just to make money in this keep food on the table that wasn't he at his full of so mm-hmm you know I found this card and cleaning out my storage that I had for 14 years since I graduated from NYU back then it was 14 years like 2014 and I was cleaning out my storage and going through all these pictures and I'm the type that I can't have my wife was trying to help me I was like I got to do this by myself because I had to go through every single paper and picture and file to make sure it wasn't something I needed and and I'm really about saving things like a certain way you're a hoarder and I'm not a hoarder I'm not a hoarder I'm not a hoarder but if it has some sentimental value I'm there I can't throw that away I just I can't but I was going through there and I found this car so back in the day they still were doing it for a while recently but way back in the day people used to sin this has to be in the early 90s people were sending postcards out to casting directors right so my dad had he'd been in the gym so he was he born with pretty good great body but he'd been in the gym so he was feeling himself a bit and he had taken this picture with his shirt off he was always dressed to the nines but he had he had these dope pants on a whatnot he had his shirt off and he was flexing he had this this awesome poster but on the back of that postcard it said hey mom still trying to be that leading man and ironies B's been deceased for many many years since 1994 but I just remember seeing that and and that inspired me and and really feeling like I picked up that baton yeah so um so yeah he I was introduced to the arts kind of just from being around him and him taking me to see Soderbergh movies and Robert Altman movies and Spike Lee movies Robert Robert Townsend Randi Cundiff in their time like when those movies were coming out and then I will go back to the bear go back to Hayward and see these blockbusters with every other kid watching blockbuster movies so but he introduced me to the arts he never saw me act but I started like shortly after he passed away is when I when I started working having been informed by just being around him in the summers and having moments with him they really kind of curated my taste and understanding of the capacity of this work he never even saw you in any of the plays no because I I did one plate when he was still alive and it was my sophomore year and I went to New York that summer the last summer I really was around him and right before he passed and I told him I told him that I did a play and I don't know what it was in that like I didn't even read I was playing basketball so this director and teacher at the school named Rebecca Engle professor had approached me because she saw me speaking on a diversity panel of all things my school was like 3% of black tops and most of them were athletes so it was an interesting experience good school but you know it's a lot of the same issues and people wanting to be included and be present and so we were having one of those panels and she saw me on that and thought I would be good and intimidating in her play and so I ran around in the house of blue leaves and scared since you were two blooming yeah that was my first my first play were you um I was the military police officer oh ok runs around exactly you like I don't remember him it was cool it was cool but I didn't know what it was and I just memorized my lines and I showed up after practice ran on stage a few times and was lit like just that was amazing and and that was kind of it and I told my dad and so when I went back to New York that summer he would tell all his friends who were all in the business cuz they were all you know Broadway folks and whatnot and he would you said yeah he got the bug he got the bug he's got to act the acting bug that's the first time I ever heard him I was like yeah I got the bug but then in my mind I was like I'm approved to you I got more than just the bug though and and I didn't really think a lot of it and then my next opportunities were like a little a little acting class here that I really took because I didn't want to take the second semester of Spanish so just Spanish sure acting yeah I took I just thrown me take the acting class and I did that and then the last thing I did in undergrad was spunk a Jersey wolf play and that was extraordinary an extraordinary experience because again I went to school that was if it was 3% black it was probably 96% white easy and it was kind of a Abercrombie school you know and in that way but it was dope there were good people great professors great teachers it was a really wonderful community but to do spunk at st. Mary's College in 1996 was revolutionary and we had to go grab a couple people who didn't even go to school to being any really yeah to be in the band and do certain things so we they kind of cobbled together a play and it was standing room only for the days it was up and it was an extraordinary experience but doing that play is what really really set me off that was the moment yeah yeah yeah that was the superbug that was the Superbook yeah and then did you have to audition to get into NYU or I did so quickly like what happened after that was I gotten this I had an opportunity from California Shakespeare Festival's a couple weeks from graduating undergrad I didn't know what I was doing my grandmother had always said to me because I was living with my grandparents from like 16 kind of until you know in the summers throughout undergrad and whatnot and my grandmother was always telling me that I needed to have a plan in three options and so I started thinking while I was in college that um well first I was I was really weighing being a writer and wanted to go to this creative writing / glam program at Berkeley because I knew this is one of the poets there named Robert Haas he was like the poet laureate and I was writing a lot back then kind of thought I was gonna be a writer and I gave I put that up there I put I was gonna study the LSAT potentially be a lawyer maybe and and the other thing was acting I said well look let me give this grad school thing a shot potentially because I got a really nice letter from a professor that I really respected who told me that I was born to it in the car to still have the car to this day right below Juan's grill here in my house but um because of that kids need those little injections of information and confidence and need that that lighthouse some time and I was really grateful for that so I got into cow shakes like the week of me graduating I had gotten offered to be an apprentice in that so I did that and had a part in the main stage and while I was there I just got more positive feedback and there was an actor by the name of Martin Kildare who'd gone and why you I don't know he's probably like 15 years older than me maybe 20 and I said you know you should audition for grad school so I got that in my mind and I applied to two graduate schools yelling and why you who were at that time the best schools in the country and yell being Yale y'all got my application a day late and they made a point to let me know they got it a day late and that I would not be able to audition and the other was NYU and I auditioned for NYU and I got in and that that has been the biggest break of my career um when I think about is getting into graduate school I for a period of time I was trying to place it on jobs but but when we spoke with Asia even in Oh agent Haven King yeah and she had said that and it really quickly reminded me cuz I thought that before but when I went back and gave us some thought like that that right there is a difference just having that that education and just being around other people having teachers keep telling you that it's not about you that is about these characters being around people who are more talented than you that help you come up and you guys kind of in a really positive way challenged you challenge each other not compete but work with I that was great for me I mean do they teach a specific method or is it sort of a truth-telling honestly they they don't they're not really specifically about you know anyone's technique per se as they pull from it all and and it's it's a bit of a it's sort of a hybrid approach you know pulling a bunch of things from from different peoples techniques and you have other teachers who come in there who do teach certain techniques that end up opening up the world for you so and you mentioned you sort of had three options as you just given up on athletics at this point well the main yeah yeah that was done that was when it was done because I just didn't see I didn't see me I just they just felt so finite and I looking you got to know yourself and and and then especially in that time when you're doing all this digging and searching and trying to figure out what you believe in and who you are and we always do that but that's a heightened time of doing that I didn't I didn't I stopped identifying with being an athlete and in a certain way and part for a couple of reasons but but the whole beat the other person thing I didn't at a certain point that just didn't motivate me because I felt like it it took me outside of myself I but what I loved about acting I just kept feeling like whether it was actually stated or not I felt like it was about being your best self and you could give me you and I could have the same material but it was about you metabolizing that information in a way that really worked for you and I could metabolize that same and digest that same monologue and they'd both be equally amazing but we look different feel different have different experiences have a different taking perspectives on certain thoughts in it and it could be equally great and so there was such an emphasis on in the arts of you finding your own voice not what a scoreboard said at the end of 40 minutes and and just with the body in the in the kind of feeling like you are participating in this sort of ambitious stepping-stone thing for coaches and whatnot like it just felt like a business at a certain point and this is a business too but I just have more input you know I have my own I have space to develop and and articulate my voice and and and there's points when you don't feel that way but as time passes and if you're fortunate enough to keep working and you have enough opportunity you could feel really empowered by this experience did anyone try to talk you out of it because my god you're so tall they must have wanted you to pop emitter team so bad no no what I didn't get I'm fortunate I think one because of my father's experience and my grandparents were already familiar with somebody who was who was going for things that the mass public would think of as something that was that wasn't practical mmm they saw that he was fulfilled you know my dad died at 38 but he had like he lived two lifetimes yeah so no one felt sorry in that way yeah I know we felt I would love to have him still for sure but if you knew him you just felt like he lived so much more than you then okay kind of makes sense that he was this this shooting star and kind of blazed through Mike was out and dropped all those little lessons and jewels and I got what I could and it was enough and and he was gone you know but I drifted oh no you were talking about competition it's interesting because backstage at the Golden Globes on Sunday night where I you probably all know moonlight won Best Picture the fact I know someone asked about you know all the actors acting against each other and you made a point of saying like well we never acted against each other we acted together I mean have you always had that spirit of collaboration was that something that you just taught at school well then that's where the sports thing comes into play with your team you always thought of it as as we went together lose together and and so that was helpful in working on ensembles and being you know even after many years fifth or sixth on a call sheet and whoever Kevin Spacey's number one or you name the actor Ryan Gosling or whoever and but so your job is to do your job when they pass you the ball and if it ends up being a good project everybody contributed in some way some people just got more minutes than others so I just kind of looked at it that way always and and really just tried to be a good teammate but then there's also a point where you just want to be in the game war you know and it's great to come in and do your best and make your shots but kind of feel like yellow I feel like I'm kind of been making my shots when I come off the can I get a little more time like how's that work and and then some people are like you're really good you know special teams guy you like I want to do I want to do more than that I see more more than that for myself because you got a you got to be the first to believe you know you really do and and I would rather air going out like that where I feel like I could do more than what I can do then accepting accepting what someone else feels I could do like I would always rather err on that side of going for what I believe in opposed to settling for someone else's limited understanding of what I could be what I could do you know so and I would always encourage anyone else they feel like yeah I could do that Blair do you think like what do you got to do to make that happen if it don't happen it doesn't happen but at least go out going for it you know I mean what sort of career did you envision for yourself do you think it would be primarily on stage or did you always want to do film and television I always wanted to do I always wanted to do film and theater and because when I got into the business television was it was a job you know it wasn't where you could explore you know it wasn't where you had where where people were doing great character work there was two or three HBO shows like Sopranos I think was like one of the first shows you know but nobody's getting that job that's a handful of people getting to work at HBO everything else was was CSI dot dot dot you know it was like when I got in that's no diss it's just it was there were all procedurals essentially you know and there are a couple of solid serials but it was where you could pay those grad school loans you know and let me get in here and like pay these bills and try to do great work but I really wanted to just do great work and the films that I loved the actors that I loved were in either world and there wasn't a lot of crossover now theater you can't even do theater in New York unless you are famous yeah you know but when I was in school theater was like that's where you go and get it you know you do your thing you work it out and you get better and you really you know you get to get to work with great directors and you get you're tired and you go home and you improve and you break down and that that that's that's where it was but now you got it you got a man you got it you got to be like 30 on IMDB star meter to get a play and that's just the nature it's just what the business is I can work off-broadway sort of but even that is it's interesting it's an amoeba it's always changing and always is changing and it's always challenging for you and that's just the honest to goodness truth and that's why it really makes it important for you to know why you're doing it when I say you for those who maybe can't see just other actors in this room that it's really important for you to be connected to it from the standpoint of I'm just trying to do great work I'm just trying to get better like I don't think I'm great at all at all I just think I'm I've been for 20-some years just trying to get better and just sometimes people just start noticing you and you go alright cool I appreciate you noticing I'm just and working progress I'm just trying to improve and if my next job I get people pay attention and it sells some tickets cool but my job has been the same since I started and which is just I'm really focused on just trying to do great work and sometimes you're able to with the business of it go okay this project is doing really well and what I need to do is align myself in a certain way that can set me up to to get my next job which is better which will be more fulfilling which will be more challenging which will require me to put more time and and be more focused but I will have X amount of months to prepare this time so I'm gonna use that attention in order to get better you know and that's how I tried that's how I look at being famous is it's what it is you know it's it means you get to do do better work hopefully you know because you just get better opportunities I'm curious actually like if you get stopped on the street what is it that most people recognize you from house of cards oh really yeah yeah house of cards house of cards for the most part I think that's the point of reference for most people but then after that like I've had many experiences where people said man I love John the 4400 or whatever yeah which was like 2004 but it has had a second life because of Netflix and whatnot so so you know some people know me from from back then I mean are you good at auditioning it seems like you must be you got into New York grad school and then we're working you know fairly quickly auditioning is is something I'm pretty sad that's the one thing I'll say I do pretty well no answer ever admits that I'm a solid I can I can audition I can I can and I know when I don't do well to you though and I can tell you why usually you know but um I can kind of but I work on my auditions before meaning everybody works on their auditions but I have my thing is usually pretty worked out I don't go in unless on my book unless I get to work with somebody and it's just a skill and you got a kind of that's when you have to be a bit of a magician in the moment because they have to believe in that take that never cuts away from you that there's somebody walking by you're talking to them or the room is got other people in it so how you wear the environment is the key to auditioning you know and you telling them that yo I'm really in a submarine and that's why I'm talking this way and there's somebody behind me listening or whatever that that I do pretty good you know and when I felt I felt like I you know I've had some holes it was terrible wasn't I want for Game of Thrones the game internals is terrible it was so horrible I feel yeah yeah no that was horrible um again yeah man I'm so mad at that audition stuff seriously no I feel a kind of way about that one cuz I just don't like not really doing my best work I'm cool with not getting the job I just don't like not doing my best work that's annoying to me but so I worked it out so this character the merchant that was like on season two or three of Game of Thrones so you know you don't know anything also like they don't give you any information other than the sides and they'll go he's a merchant and you just and even just no American accents I'm just like okay cool he's a merchant so I do this whole thing I work it out and you know when there's there's you should watch this thing this TED talk on power positions have you ever seen that like the woman who talks about power and getting into your power and whatnot so I watch stuff like that try to incorporate that into my work so I was just thinking about our character who was powerful and how they carry themselves and and how they sit and you know take their time responding to you or whatnot and I saw I worked this whole thing out cuz I have a lot of information so I have to cheat essentially and just wear his power in my body and used the dialogue to push the story long so I have all this worked out and then I go into the offices and it's there such a week there were interesting offices like you feel like someone has said this to me a long time ago in the HBO offices they feel like what the inside of an iPod would look like it's just it's it's a little bit gothic a-- or something and but and there's like a little bit of I'm sure it's my own thing I could pick up on other actors there there's a different degree of tension there that people are wearing it's not all of them so it's something about HBO you know and so you you just don't feel as empowered there for some reason sometime and and you know maybe that's something I just got a person to shake off but so I get called into the room having worked out my whole thing and have my my positions worked out and whatnot and I go in there and there's a stool oh like this hi and it's one of those stools with your feet like are not on the ground but almost on the ground or yeah ya know it's a high stool and there's like and I don't think there was like a little little one that rest my feet on so I was like just so thrown with no back and I I just couldn't get comfortable and it was for Alexa Fogle who's great who cast half of HBO's stuff and and I had like another like wonky one with her maybe a year earlier or something out and I remember when I had bad ones and so I just wanted to go in there and just knock it out and just put that at rest and man that that was horrible and she said oh you you just she's a New Yorker so she just real straight up she's like you gotta loosen him up he's just so she's just so stiff and I was like yeah cuz I don't have a damn chair like because there's no back to this cherry she's sitting on a stool and the cameras perched over her shoulder sold the thing is set up like we're not adjusting any of this space anyone so I didn't feel empowered to be like yo can I use this chair cuz there's no chairs in the room it was just two stools and and I saw walked out there pissed off because you know I didn't have it I need to carry one little things you oh yeah you know you go to some sports sports event got the little back you just kind of sit there and have my little portable workout but yeah that was that was a tough one oh she upside you didn't end up locked in a vault yeah yeah yeah I'm gonna mess with this Mike I hope I don't okay good cool yeah I think 2008 you made your film debut in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button opposite taraji P Henson for David Fincher I mean for that's a pretty great gig but for your first movie role even remember the process yeah the process for that was so I was on the 4400 at that time and but my lawyer did something my former lawyer did something and really no it's very nice court he's great no I just mean like I'm not working with him now okay I have a different I thought this was gonna be no I've got a different team but but many years back this is the 13 years ago so we did USA didn't know what they had and they they weren't doing these sci-fi dramas with these these dramas with sci-fi backdrops then you gotta think this is like around the time lost is emerging and it was before heroes because heroes kind of took some cues from 4400 and they just were able to blow it up and do it on a major Network so 4400 was this quiet hit and it ended up being it ended up getting nominated for an Emmy and all this other stuff so it was like a little quiet success but my lawyer somehow negotiated a three-year deal usually those are always six years it's cuz look you can have it stick you got a eight-year deal but you can get fired tomorrow they don't have to like keep you one so it for me it was great because if they wanted to continue to work after three years we'd have to renegotiate and work that out and compensate me for the show being a success at this point so it was to my advantage but after doing three years of the show I don't know if people were really aware that my deal like that's a minutia detail you know and I don't know if they were really aware that my deal was three years at least at that time I did and then I realized that a episode came up and there was a vision of my character dying I was like ooh they bout to kill me off or just show that if the negotiations don't go well there's this dream of you dying and these are people who have abilities so in this little dream it can come to reality unless you agree to these terms so I had gone and I'd sent I was living in the Bay Area at that time I was living in Berkeley and because I'm from the bay and I'd always wanted to just have that experience and so I was commuting from Vancouver to the Bay working on 4400 really and I taped I taped my audition for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button burned that joint on DVD fed XD and David Fincher watched it Lorraine Mayfield the cast it went back to Vancouver got a call from my agent at the time I was like yeah they want to bring you in so I fly in it was like a weekend and nobody is in his office is dark and there's no cars out there I'm thinking is this closed or what they let me in his gate and I go in and I sit down I'm wait like David and Lorraine Mayfield and we just talked he was talking to me like yeah you don't go take you downstairs and show you a few things we're doing with the movie I'm like this man is talking to me like I got this job like don't trick me man I don't don't ever fall into that when they start trying to like chop it up and like tell me about your family and all that you better stay focused cuz you eat and have a great time and talk to them tell them all about your life and then they'll go okay let's treat these sides now and you you will not be prepared like it believe me like you got it that there has to be a sort of a duality there where you're talking to him but you're going all right I gotta hit these beats let me be focused and agree in case they really want to read this I'm glad they like me so I did it and I go back to Vancouver and now we're shooting this scene where I die and I've been working with these people for three years and we loved each other you know you work on these sets they're really intimate you work 13 14 hours a day this crew don't see that they see you more than they see their their families and you all really connected especially if you know how to treat each other you speak to each other like human beings and so we were all we were all real cool with each other and but we'd about to shoot this thing where I died and I could tell the vibe was real it was real real wonky it was it was weird and people would I kind of say hey Marsh like you don't get to see you man so then I develop the kind of way about it I'm trying to be like you know I'm cool good but I was like pissed so I go back to my trailer and it's one of those things where my scene is not up for a couple more scenes I've got makeup and all that stuff done and and I decided to walk off the lot because there was this um there's this a strip mall literally right next to the lot in Vancouver and I'm walking over there like damn about to die on this show ah and in my phone rings and it's my old agent and she says hey hey Marshall how you doing I'm good she goes you booked it I was like what she goes yeah you got the Curious Case of Benjamin Button it's like my first feature and I was so juiced I was so I was so excited I went back doing the George Jefferson I was ready to dive obviously you share scenes with the great taraji peahens in that movie who then you know a few years later you just worked with and hidden figures yeah is it is it fun to sort of look where you guys were then and look where you are now it's it's been such a joy for me to watch watch taraji I remember when we were doing the Curious Case of Benjamin Button we started that in 2006 it came out on describ is 2008 but we started shooting that we started testing on that in August of 2006 and filming September October 2006 so you're going back a 10 and a half years you know when that whole process started and I remember on the day just being with her and working with her and just seeing what she was doing and she was coming off of the one with Terence oh how someone flow and she just did the one with Don Cheadle talked to me I think she was great it's like she was she was in her moment where she was introduced in her introduction tour and um and I said you know you're gonna get nominated she was out stopped March to stop it I was like no you don't get nominated watch you just keep doing good work you know I'm proud of you and as she did and and just so to see what she's done and how she's gonna cuz it hasn't all been this incline you really pay attention into Rodgers journey like there's been some dips in there and her having to fight to redefine herself as people hold on to certain characters I think in some ways is happening now and I think that's what's so great to see what her doing with hidden figures is that people want to be like oh that's cookie and you know she's more than that and in it so just as a as a friend and then I like somebody I really appreciate and admire it's really great to see her expand and continue to lay it down and she's like she's at that point where she's she's done it a couple times it just hasn't worked out if she's like yo I want my her to live for they will call me like that's happened and yo that doesn't happen easy to get to that place that's not I'm amazing to be and I'm not at that place she is and hats off to her because she's earned it and she owns it and it's it's a very difficult thing to do when to manage there's a lot of being pulled on a lot of different directions and she's really focused and it's inspiring did she suggest you for hidden figures or hell I think so yeah yeah I think she's the reason why they came to me for that well your chemistry is insane in that movie I mean I don't blame them another movie you did shortly thereafter that it's just one of my favorite movies is the place beyond the pines and is that when you changed your name oh yeah so soma Hersh Allah is my nickname yeah no no it is funny that is my nickname my full name is Marshall our hash box and it's 18 letters longest name word in the Bible my mom had a dream about my name and she still has very vivid clear dreams like sometimes she'll call me and drop a little info on me and I will be like I kid you not like yo watch out or just be conscious or how you doing so I always kind of feel a little nude when I talk to her because somehow she'll get a little bit of something somewhere kind of psychically and in some way that goes beyond my understanding but I appreciate it but so my mama named me martial art house box I was going through my time you'd come out of grad school or you remove the title of grad school when you're in that time of that 23 to 26 period 26 to 30 when you are really in the heart of doing that deep mining on yourself and and really trying to get clear and connected to what your voice is what you have to say and trying to define yourself in the world I was feeling like you know what I need to own my name like that's my name that's how I came into the world so when I booked crossing Jordan my name was my Hershel ollie and I was my first gig out of school and I remember Dennis hammer was the producers name called me after we had shot the pilot and it got picked up and Dennis says hey Marsh look at the speak to you congratulations are you coming to the up front and I couldn't go to the up front because there's some family stuff going on I was like I can't but he goes well that's fine okay but anything you need you just let me know anything you need I said yeah well I just need to uh I need to go by my full name this is my first it's my first professional television job and I want to embrace my full name all right cool spell it out what is it I said em em eh-eh-eh-eh e e R RS s H okay H so just marsh a little bit a a L now hey hey okay L oh there's another L l HHH this is one word yes sh sh okay beat be okay be a a Z Z that's it yes that's it oh oh oh I don't think that'll fit him I was like there it is and so for 11 years you would see Marshall out hot spots alley pop up and I was doing the place beyond the pines a lot was going on at that time my my grandparents helped raise me and they're extraordinary and my grandfather had had a stroke so I was living in the bay at that time and this is my dad's parents my dad is deceased and I'm really extraordinarily close to my grandparents and they were living in in Vegas that was kind of like the the dream from for folks in the bay who would spend a lot of time working in these jobs and who solid with their money though and on their house and look I come from blue-collar working-class people and and they busted their tail to have what they had so they sold their house in the bay and were able to buy this I don't know 3,500 square-foot house in Vegas and had a swimming pool that they never got in and but it was just their little dream you know and they were just down there my grandfather had I spoke to him on a Sunday I was gonna Surprise them and visit them and then on that Friday I just shot this pilot and I talked to him I always talked to him at the same time on the phone I called him and the next day my grandfather has a stroke he was bowling and so I flew out there the next day and so I was basically in Las Vegas for a year and a half just taking care of him with my grandma I wasn't working and when it was time before he he ended up passing away and when we were getting close to that time we got him in a rehab I started physical rehab I started going to LA and spots cuz I was like I need a damn job and I go out there boom I booked a job on my first trip out I said oh snap cool alright that's a little guest star gig because I'm trying to get back on my feet now we had their strikes that had happened it was it was crazy they acted the the economic downturn the bottom athough that fell out the economy so it was it was a rough patch and I went back again for another gig and boom met with Derek Seng on friends and booked remain so I booked remained office so I'm like doing Tremaine alphas coming back to Vegas taking care of my grandpa and it was in the process of doing place beyond the pines and what I'm doing being really reflective my grandfather is not gonna be here much longer these are the people who have made it possible for me to do this work and during certain periods kept the lights on who have always been like this is we want you to do you can do anything you put your mind to these are the people who really shaped how I thought of myself and know my grandfather was about to go and I had this opportunity was don't place beyond the pines and I got this call said that listen they're not gonna be able to I forget what it's called but there's the posters they're not the bottom of the poster tells you the production credits starring song so and so and so and that's what they use anytime they write about it they kind of pull from there and starring Ryan Gosling every Mendes Bradley Cooper but if your name is not on there you probably are not gonna get mention any of those articles and for someone being where I'm at that means something and I'd had this dream where I'd sorted by name and I was totally content going by maharaja by Solly never bothered me no one ever told me to change it but I had this dream and it was it was a vivid it was so clear that I was trying to figure out if I should change my name back to my her Sheila and or go buy my Herschel out because my Herschel al-haj Boz is the correct brake and I woke up like I'm not changing my name why why am I having this dream then I got a call shortly thereafter that said they want to put make your name Emily for this poster or you're not really gonna be on it and it got me to thinking just about where I was at in the experience that I've had feeling like I had outgrown the suit that I was in and going you know I have to be honest my family doesn't call me my Hershel out hot spots my friends don't call me my harsh la Hache box Derek stealing friends causing her sloshed but that's about it nobody else does I don't want to limit my experience as an actor and not have a fulfilling experience because of a few syllables it is it's just not worth it to me for someone else that might be and they might be like oh you've changed yourself to have a set that's not my relationship to that my relationship at this point was I did what I needed I said what I needed to say I own that time but now I need something else in my life because this is not at this bring this to life and it's two things that for me how much time I've done doing that it's not enough at this point and and I needed to make people need to be able to say to be up here people have to have a chance at saying your name it isn't gonna happen you know to me I could be wrong I'm just I hope someone proves me wrong I look forward to that but just in my assessment of the business and going on these shows and being introduced to people and people developing a relationship with you they got to be able to say yo oh man isn't interest elbow amazing or isn't whoever Naomi Harris now I'm gonna not only why don't they they got to be able to say their name and and so that's that all that contributed to me making that edit and it's been helpful I gotta say at least in my mind I feel like it has and my herschel Ally ended up on the poster ended up on the poster it did I was the official Wow so they didn't force you to go with Emily no I wouldn't have oh yeah but again I was already thinking about it before it happened if it was it wasn't really a reaction to them it was to me an affirmation no oh it's time to make that shift so that you can have that experience that you've been praying about all the time and asking for you just at the end of the day I don't care what you do you could be it could be a chef or a barber you just want to be fulfilled yeah with whatever your own unique talents are you just want to be fulfilled and for some people if you talk about acting that could just be that can be popping up on stuff and making these appearances it could be being a guest star it could be being a character actor it could be being a leading man or leading woman like whatever it is that you feel inside yourself that you still call to to do like that's not the same for everyone and for me and looking at what I wanted that wasn't what I wanted and I'm still not what we're at the place I want to be at you know but I'm happy for the progress yeah and speaking of things that you feel called to do as I recall when you became aware of moonlights as a movie you you read the script I mean you made that your first priority didn't you like I think you said you know you weren't gonna do Luke Cage if you couldn't do moonlight right I needed something especially look if you look at the characters on house of cards this is no distance of cards at all I just need something I spoke to my heart you know that that show was so worked out so clinical and cold and and deliberate and calculated that that is the spirit of those characters and when you work on something for seven eight months out of a year and they affect you maybe even being able to do another job on your hiatus because of what was right for you or job offers that you got it conflicted that that is that's what's that could be your experience for the year and as much as I appreciate that character as much as I kind of owe to that character and how that is introduced me to a lot of you in some ways I just think I needed I needed a I needed a an experience that filled me fulfilled me in a different way and and Luke Cage was an extraordinary opportunity for sure getting to play an antagonist on a show like like that and being working for Marvel but I was gonna I was still gonna feel off if I didn't my heart needed something you know and if I make that my priority then I felt like if the other thing didn't work out then it just wasn't meant to be and but they were so gracious and understood and understood my passion for that job that they said sure whatever you need we'll work around that and they did it and Chael the showrunner chair Coker who runs Luke Cage and berry know each other so that I think that little relationship also contributed to some way but but it worked out so it was it really served to to create a balance end to my year in terms of creatively and I needed those characters because I was working on house of cards Luke Cage this show this movie this movie future relic and moonlight at the same time Wow so in doing jumping from those different ones they're just very different parts mhm and and and ask them mean very different things and so Luke Cage that character is so toxic that I would go home with the residual of having thrown somebody off the roof for ten hours that night yo and snapping on somebody and I'm sorry like you can't just go alright good have a good night like if if he or any your body doesn't really know the difference you know if you are pretending that you're about to get hit by a car and you you're breathing quicker your heart rate speeds up and you do that over and over again that is in your muscle memory so you go home having almost got hit by a car 17 times or thrown somebody off the roof 33 times and you feel a little crazy that night and your wife is like why is he kind of like about to snap over there being no rolls and I'll mean like movie roles I mean like bread rolls like yo he didn't say save it so and I apologize because I just was like I just was not fun to be around during that period cuz there's just a residual and it takes a second to shake it but because of moonlight and the way we shot that I would shoot over like a Thursday Friday Saturday travel back be in Baltimore shooting house of cards or Brooklyn shuen-lu cage whatever and I would miss wand like I would think about him not trying to think about he would pop up I would miss working with Barry you know those people who you creatively fall in love with who you just like oh man that dude or she just when they give you life in a certain way when you get to work and you you just can't sleep at night because you just are so geeked about what happened that day and the the sparks that flew and and it's bigger than it's not about you because it's bigger than you and you can only do that with other people and from the craft services to the people shooting and I was having that experience with Barry and with Alex Hobart the little boy like over and over again so I would go back to New York I can pain because I missed being in Miami and working with them but juste obviously to be with my Coulter's crazy self yeah I love Mike working with Mike and all those guys we actually at a Luke Cage question from Richard Harris good name yes Paige yeah one minute I hated him the next minute I felt him one word range wants to know how did you control yourself looking into the beautiful eyes of alfre woodard oh wow she's family there's those people who who who just instantaneously feel like family and she's somebody who I've had a connection with sort of just that one of those satellites in the business so you kind of keep her eye on you see you're at an event or two you got man I love her work and I met her a couple times and then finally we got to work together and and just didn't seen each other for the first time in connection with Luke Cage she was ready to go she was excited and she has something that I see in the women more than men which connects I think to ambition and all this other stuff but she has an energy for the work that is very young still that is very that is open and she's real curious still and wants to kind of see how you doing something and then boom when she plays off of it throws her little thing and she would do things to create a familiarity between our characters so that she felt like we were family so on the first day working and as a woman this is different than as a man I don't really I don't feel as comfortable doing something like this but we were talking to the scene and she kind of like grabs my arm and kind of runs her hand down down my arm so it's like oh that's what family does they feel real comfortable touching each other like that and so there's always a sense when you're a man and even as a person your wife you're still in the scene you're not comfortable just touching their body like that you know even though you are supposed to be married so it helps when there's other actor whoo-hoo kind of have a more leverage be it that status as an actor or be it gender that comes into play where it's like yo it's cool and that created another layer for those characters just from the touch and you don't even think about it you're just like oh yeah they're cousins you know it's because she did little things yeah but she was amazing to work with and it must be interesting you know spending part of your week working with someone as accomplished as alfre woodard and then going back to moonlight where you're working with the amazing janelle monae in her film debut and someone so young as Alex Hibbert's well but she's experienced yes I mean what was it like yeah I see you're going yeah Wow um it's just amazing getting to meet people at different places what I love about Janelle is here it is you guys have this experience I know when you're going in for something and you know you write for that part but then I perform or so and so from some other world gets that job you're like man that you know because I've had that growing up and here's what I would say about Janelle Monae that I love so much and I told her this I said you know you're gonna have opportunities at being a figure from another world walking into a set walking into a casting office with with Fame and an audience and that's going to be attractive to people who cast you in things so the responsibility in that is not for anyone to begrudge you of the opportunity or being mad because you got a chance but just take advantage of it I take advantage of it and train and learn and study and be hungry and get better she walked on that set so humble so happy to be there so curious so just feeling so blessed to have it that you like I got to help how can I help and she was really relaxed she at a certain point she got really relaxed after berry was like there's no mistakes there's there's just different ways of doing stuff and she really dropped in and was really amazing to work with and to see her growth from that experience to hidden figures is like my jaw dropped when I saw the screening cuz she really pops in that moving in a way where I'm so glad I know she works hard to believe me between takes she's over there with Aldous working on some scene they're shooting a week from now and just try going over and trying to try to figure it out and I really respect that from for somebody who who who had that come to her the way that she has because of work she's done in another arena but she's she's a special person and a really special talent so it was great working with her and what we did was we built a home we built we had it we had the task of creating a safe place for this young man and that was beautiful to do with her and working with Alex Alex is somebody who who was in a drama program in Miami but he's just in a school but he's one of those people who at 10 years old when we were working if you saw this young man like take notes or how professionally was and how in the moment he was I I just looked at him I was like this kid is a born actor he is and he has that thing where and I'm all about education and training and all that even if you don't go to one of the grad schools but just being in classes and learning now I would be in class tomorrow if I had the time I could really would but this kid has something you can't teach like if he just does and so when I was across from him I kept going oh dude you got to do less man you're like acting he is not acting he's like being and it was pressure you know really that hated you not intimidating put pressure on him it wasn't intimidating it was it was a it was a positive encouragement mm-hmm too because look how you work with these people Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright are these crazy talented people who've had a lot of success in actor Julianne Moore like I've worked with some great people they've been doing it 30 40 years 20 30 years and it's really worked out and I don't mean that in a negative way working with Philip Seymour Hoffman was crazy I worked with him the day he the day before he died his last scene I was in the scene with him so to see him chop up a scene and they stopped shooting for the day because he was like and we need to kind of rework this I've been around that like up close and it's amazing to watch and see but to be around a kid who does not understand marketing you don't understand publicists and and talent agents none of that I don't understand hits on Twitter and none of that I don't even understand it but he doesn't understand and he's just like okay what are we doing okay cool he's dancing between takes and doing this thing varies like a Alex you know we got you know this one scene come on girls okay and then boom he's in it looking at you the way he does like that like that it was amazing like that I will never forget and I owe a lot of this to him because he was he was the sounding board you know and they would bounce off of him and come back to me and so it was easy to look at him with with with admiration and appreciation and really be connected to that young boy because I loved working with him we have a question from oh I'm so sorry oh it's Danielle Dawson once no what was the most chat what was what was most challenging about moonlight and where did you draw inspiration from oh I think what was probably most challenging about moonlight would be and part the schedule I'm just breaking it up my something you know I'm really about rhythm I hate first days my first days are usually terrible and so I had three almost first days on moonlight because of having to go away and come back go away and come back and and so I hate it breaking it up I like to be in the city I'm not a clubber I don't party I don't really go out I kind of go into the cave when I when I'm working and I go into a city I got my hotel room or apartment I'm renting or whatever and I just walked the neighborhood and kind of get a feel for the town even if they started gonna take place in the town but I just get I gotta get into the soil of wherever I'm working and I would have to kind of get uprooted and so just to kind of find a way to get back in gear you know when you do indie films there's there's a lot playing against you it just is you don't have the money you don't have the time there's 18 people in two trailers you know you know it's just so many things and you just at a certain point it's got to be like this is like just being in school and you just say yes he just dive in you let go of all that other stuff that you've had that you're accustomed to you just got to dive in and just do it and be cool with it so so that was probably the hardest thing about doing it was the breaking up of the schedule because Naomi did that in three days my performance and but it wasn't intended to be that way she couldn't get her visa so it was we were down to the wire and I imagine they were looking at like well who do we go to if we have to cast someone else it was like that and it finally came through and so it ended up being this thing where she had three days and it shifted my schedule all around where I should have been there maybe twice and it ended up being this plugging and unplugging and she didn't just I assumed when I heard she only spent three days on the movie it was one time period each day she was jumping time periods though that's incredible and why did you connect with the character of one so much so I think the best way I could explain it is when I was in in school and I'm rereading Chekhov and Shakespeare and and Sam Sheppard and Apes and Arthur Miller and all these people and this is this is real I'm not preaching this is real there's an extra leap you have to make us an african-american to connect these characters but your teachers are not thinking about it life that way you just have this conservatory with like 17 other students so they're really not thinking about oh you're black like culturally it's an extra added leap when the reverse is not done you're not doing August Wilson or Pearl Cluj with six other white actors you're never doing it so that the challenge isn't flipped on the other side right so when you get used to kind of doing that leap all the time and connecting with these characters who are look people there's there's a common humanity between us all absolutely it's true I agree 100% but there's something else about when you go home and when you connect to these people where there's that there's a layer of work that I was like I just don't have to do that kind of work I don't have to do that extra thing to be believable in this for this plainest character like this guy is from home and so I can focus on this other work I want to do with this character then just trying to be of you know place or Peter teasel in the school for scandal who is this 70 year old British dude you know and I've played him and so so having never had that experience of playing a guy that felt like he was a cousin in Oakland or one of these brothers I grew up with who was about to be a superstar and went to prison for armed robbery or like I knew dooms like these are guys I grew up with who were also good fathers or love their kids who were more than their mistakes and so to get to advocate for a guy who I believe probably didn't have the same opportunities as people who grow up in these middle-class middle-income two-parent homes often people come from broken homes all the time but there are there are people who really come from disenfranchised communities who have a couple of options I know in Oakland right now like in there like 70% of them kids they're like dropping out what are they doing then and why are they dropping out and school is is is it's basically crowd control you know you're in there with 50 other kids and and there's behavioral issues who's learning anything so you end up in the system very quickly really naturally I've had situations where I'm walking around with a master's degree on the street in Berkeley and cops rolling up on me going let me see your ID a couple of years ago like thought said you'd 'a' fit the description of a pimp kid you not and this is this is real get pulled over the first question I'm asked is are you on probation no all right your windows are tend to get that fixed that's a normal experience for me with an education who is not trying to wile out so if you're from the hood if you're one of these brothers just walking around maybe you got a little something on you a little joint or something and he's like messing around like that can turn into a life-or-death situation and so to play one of these brothers from those communities from that community that was a block away from me or a city away from me or a cousin away from me folks I got incarcerated right now who will never get out of jail I've never seen that character written in a multi-faceted way like that in a multi-dimensional way so that was more interesting to me than anything else I've ever read because I'm like wow this is art film hey black people and what I know this dude yeah well enough to start not to do a great job from just what I knew but well enough to to go I got in on this guy and let me let me start from right here and was just so appreciative that he came into being you know and audiences have been so appreciative I mean I'm not surprised by the critical success of the film but I know I have seen how people react to it and how they react to you and that must be you know a really nice award in and of itself but I you know the one thing we always hear which is a compliment and also kind of funny is like we wanted you in the movie more we were so sad when you left but it's such a testament to the character of Juan that he haunts the film yeah that that was one of the more interesting things to experience while I was shooting it as I like oh man I wish I got to do more I'd be in this more not from the standpoint of being selfish but just I love being in his bones in his body you know it was and there's 15 minutes of stuff probably of scenes with little and Juan or Teresa and Juan that just didn't make the film because it's a long film and that just the story is about Shiro and it needs to stay about Shiro so as Barry began to really find the movie in the cut there were things that fell to the side but it's just the time I got to be in him was really inspiring and fulfilling and I've had several experiences where I wished I was in something more but never have I felt like it was necessary to not being something any more than what I was than in this example because of the opportunity and the potential because everyone probably doesn't feel that but the potential of some people to turn around in the second and third act and be like what what happened to why you know that the ones that that hits in that way and it makes them feel that loss then he gets to be a little bit of a ghost yeah for the story and that's what young people feel when you grow up in these environments and you with somebody one day your uncle so-and-so who you love and then the next thing you know he snatched up and he's in prison for 15 years or you with him one day that corner boy on the block and then like oh yeah he got shot and he's just gone so when you have a mentor like Tyrone and he's killed and then it give you share something with you so I didn't know Juan was based on a little person oh really I didn't know that either Tarell Alvin McCraney had shared with me that that essentially Wang his name was was blue so that's the in moonlight black goes look blue and so as they got closer as you know blue has taught him how to ride a bike basically that's his stepfather essentially it's his brothers dad and he got shot and killed right before his brother was born and so I learned that out we were sharing the film and at the London Film Festival and he shared that with me but so there's all these little nuggets that have come out that just make that experience mean that much more to me and just being honored that he entrusted me with that part and and I and I had a opportunity just to just to bring that character to life and connect with them for whether it is I don't know 20 minutes of screen time or an hour of it whatever I just I'm just really grateful I had an opportunity to to to be to be and fill those shoes we are almost out of time so I just want to end on this question from Taylor cloyse about that right oh it's a woman I'm sorry I assumed so it's a man I thought it was a woman David well now I'm not gonna read it you're at a point where your work is not only speaking for itself it's singing at this point how will you move forward in the roles that you I think the work you choose to make has character always been the first draw or does this or does story have a ripple effect on how well echo in the world draw you in more it's basically a much more eloquent way than I have of asking what's up next I would you know I would I would I would really work to do both I never wanted to be a character actor I wanted to be as a kid you know I want to be Denzel you know like it not saying that Denzel is not a character actor but Denzel is a leading man right and then at times he really goes in and like if you see hurricane or Malcolm X and then there's time when training day where he really clearly does character work and then there's other times when he's just the friggin man and carrying that story and that's what it was for me growing up and then eventually like when I played hoop I wanted to be Michael Jordan and I had Michael Jordan's number and tried to copy Michael Jordan's move and at a certain point I'm like that is limiting because he his his game is is formatted for his own personal skillset and I can't be Denzel Washington you know I can't that's a mistake and I went at the Golden Globes the other day they were playing they were sharing some of Meryl Streep's work for some of you who got to see her when when that award and it was amazing to sit back and see how different each of those characters were and I finally got it it sounds so stupid but I I was like wow she is a character actor and it really made me want to be a character actor really yeah like watching that it made me go man I really want to have the time to transform because I've always to this day I've been hustling like I've just been like what the auditions at what all right cool memorize these going boom you booked it are you shoot Wednesday let's go and just whatever thing I made up real quick and just doing it I've never had time I really never had time to develop a character how I would like to develop it I've just said yes and squeeze it in my schedule and did it whatever I did an audition I basically did it did a that was my start in the room and when I'm working on set so of course I put thought time to these characters but I've never really had you hear about actors who pick up 30 pounds lose 30 pounds work on your dialect properly and do it getting help hiring help getting an acting coach like I want to do that I want to get to like go in and transform and improve and cuz you just if you have the access doing like I would love to do that level to work so that I could become a transformational actor you know and I just want to grow and part of that has to do with yes size of park or how if who's carrying that art that has something to do with it for sure but I think the other part is is really about committing to working to be and play characters and really kind of take the audience on a journey so that's what I would I would love to do and you could do that in certain ways anyway for sure without having to be the first person on a call sheet and I've tried to do that to this point but I would like to have sitting down having these meetings and go oh we're shooting that in August let me get ready in my own way that's what I love to do because I think I could I feel like I could do better work I can't imagine you could do any better work on you've already done but I can't wait to see what you do next thank you so much for being [Applause] you

Channel: SAG-AFTRA Foundation

Views: 55,808

Rating: 4.9648094 out of 5

Keywords: SAG Foundation, SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Acting, Actors, Mahershala Ali, Jenelle Riley, Q&A, Interview, Career, Mahershala, Ali

Id: 2f9Ie3hHeG0

Length: 79min 30sec (4770 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 23 2017