Interview met Mahershala Ali

RDJ134 17 december 2016 om 16:36 uur

Mahershala Ali is één van de meest opkomende acteurs in Hollywood. Want hij viel mij voor het eerst op in de TV serie The 4400 door zijn acteerwerk en uitstraling. Daarna dook hij op in diverse films als The Hunger Games, maar brak pas geleden pas echt goed door bij het grote publiek met zijn rol als CottonMouth in de Netflix serie Luke Cage. De website Collider had een interview met hem en daar van kan je hier onder een stukje lezen.


And your character in Luke Cage, Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes, is very different from Juan in Moonlight. He's one of the most complex, complicated and layered villains on TV this season, and it's an interesting balance of cool and cold-hearted that's so compelling to watch. How much of your performance in that came from what was on the page, how much came out of conversations you had with Cheo Hodari Coker, and how much was just what you felt?

ALI
: It was probably a third of each, maybe. One of the first things I did, upon reading, I think, just the first two scripts because they're so secretive over there. It's even harder, if you're in it, to get a script. I was like, "Look, I've gotta get on book and memorize my lines!" I think they would love it, if you could just come to work and they could upload the dialogue for that day, and then you go do it. But upon reading the first two scripts, what I did was I wrote a really detailed backstory for Cottonmouth, or Cornell, which isn't all that common for me, but I've tried to start embracing it more. Normally, I just try to figure out how to do the work and approach things in a manner that just feels right for that project. So, I emailed that to Cheo, and we never really talked much about it, but I know some of those things made it into the story, later on. He did mention that a lot of what my instincts were, about the character's background, were right on point with what they were thinking.

They're just so secretive over there that they don't share a lot with you, and rightfully so. They're worried about things leaking because there's such a hunger for information from the Marvel fan, so they have to be really careful. I just wanted to walk into it with some history in mind and have ways to anchor myself to this guy to make him real. That way, whatever it was they put on the page, I was able to metabolize that information, that dialogue and those thoughts in a way that was more human than what it would have been, if I hadn't approach him as a real person with a real history. I don't think I'm special, in that regard. I think most actors would have to approach it in a similar way. So, it was a combination of what they wrote, what I thought of the character and his history, and just what we discovered on the day. Also, when you work with Alfre Woodard, as much as I did on that, you're just going to be better. You can't not be. She's so terrific, and she was so real and human and truthful as Mariah that she was fairly easy to connect to.

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