“Even with the teaser, Mahershala and I were like, ‘How do we explain what this movie is?’” Tariq explains. “Something that I realized was so central to this film is this concept of mercy. Cinematically, it’s not as sexy as justice, retribution, and vengeance, but, to me, mercy is the thread that we hang on. And what’s mercy if it’s not being forgiven or getting a pass when you don’t deserve it? I was always curious, and I’d never seen an action film that dealt with it.”
The aforementioned teaser—which smartly included Ali holding a sword—generated a “fresh and new” level of excitement that the actor admits to having never experienced before. Below, Ali and Tariq fully peel back the curtain on Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, while Ali also explains why he’s done talking about Blade.
GQ: There seems to be a real buzz for the film after the teaser. And including the shot of you pulling out the sword was some genius-level marketing—it plays to the people who’ve been waiting forever to see you as Blade.
Mahershala Ali: I would agree with you, and I’m glad we were able to satisfy that and kind of move on. I’m looking forward to what this film is able to do from the standpoint of incorporating action elements that you’d expect in a big-budget superhero piece, but we did that in a real mom-and-pop, couple bag of nickels way. And I actually love that we were limited. We got to lean into action when it was appropriate, and the story gets to go to an almost magical realism place, which you can do with these superhero stories. But this story presents an opportunity to be uniquely deep. The breadth of what Bassam was able to achieve, there’s so much there to tackle, and I don’t think we could have done that in a big-budget studio film. So if it’s a this or that type of thing, personally, for me, I would take this. It was a really fulfilling experience.
What was the early collaboration like on Blade where you clearly realized that, no matter what happened with that film, you were going to work together?
Bassam Tariq: I didn’t even tell Mahershala this until recently, but, in the earliest drafts of this, I didn’t even have a name for the character — I just wrote “Mahershala.” Because I’ve been imagining, how do you carry dignity and grief, and have grace under fire? It’s a tough thing. Some actors are incredible thespians, but when they move or run, they can’t nail it. Mahershala is an athlete, and I saw the way he uses a sword on Blade. The first time he was doing sword practice on Blade, the stuff coming back was incredible. Then, here, it was exceptional to see the way Mahershala rose to that occasion; he was able to anchor it all.
Part of the anticipation for Your Mother is that people are just pumped to see Mahershala leading a movie. After the success you had with Moonlight and Green Book, I’m sure you were flooded with opportunities, but you seem to have really picked your spots and not just working to work. How do you decide which projects are worth your time?
Ali: I’ve always tried to make choices that I felt like I could stand by. Sometimes you just have to take a job, and I’ve had those moments. When we have success, I think we imagine that the seas part and everything is just thrown at your feet — and that can definitely happen. But I still feel that there has to be a real consciousness around what you say yes to, because then you could be busy just to be busy and lose the specificity in your work and the resonance that has made you worthy of getting those opportunities. And, to be honest with you, some of how quiet I’ve been is not really of my own choosing.
