MAHERSHALA ALI
MAN ON THE RISE
Unofficially the best-dressed man at this year’s Townhouse, Mahershala Ali
— or Herschel to his friends back home in California — is set for a very big year. Having broken through in House of Cards, then winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in Moonlight, in 2019 he stars in the third series of True Detective
(out in January on Sky Atlantic) and the muchheralded Green Book
(in cinemas 1 February), a film that follows Jamaican-American classical pianist Don Shirley on a tour of the US Deep South in the Sixties. Though it has the easy charm of an odd-couple buddy movie (and directed by There’s Something About Mary’s Peter Farrelly) it packs a much bigger punch thanks to Ali and costar Viggo Mortensen, and the Oscar buzz is building.
On reading the Green Book script:
After the Oscars and Moonlight, I was doing a lot of soulsearching, a lot had changed in my life and I was really looking for something I could wake up for. Sometimes when I read projects, in my mind I feel like, “I could do that.” And when I have that feeling that’s when I know it’s not the project to do. I think it’s really important to have some element of fear so that you know you’re going to have to garner all your energies. When I read this script the character scared me a bit because he’s so different from me. On the stealth power of comedy: I think it is an extraordinarily effective way to deal with issues that are traditionally very serious. If you think about Chris Rock or Dave Chappelle, people go to see them because they know they’re going to have a great time and laugh, but they also know underneath that they’re going to hear a message that has real substance to it. You set the audience up for being able to have a good time but also slip a message in there that they need to hear.
On moving on from House of Cards:
I knew it was time to get off House of Cards when I would walk down the street and people would call me “Remy”. I don’t want to be identified solely by any character as I think it ends up robbing the audience. If they’re watching a film and seeing you as some superhero character you played, I think it gets in the way of the work. On shooting the scene in Moonlight when Chiron tells Ali’s character Juan he might be gay: That’s the scene that terrifies you. And that’s the one where you go, “Ooh, I don’t know”. I absolutely knew this was a special scene — a scene we collectively had to get right.
On True Detective season three:
I play the lead detective in a story that takes place over several decades in Fayetteville, Arkansas, in the Eighties and they’re trying to solve a crime. The journey is epic in scope. It’s an extraordinary season. I kid you not, the final episode is the best piece of television I’ve ever read in my life.