These two actors share the screen in two films — ‘Hidden Figures’ and ‘Moonlight’ — which are both up for best picture. Jen Yamato talks with Ali and Monae about the films and working together.
The most potent acting pair to grace the films nominated for this year’s best picture Oscar aren’t Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, singing and dancing their way across “La La Land,” or even Denzel Washington and Viola Davis powering through August Wilson’s stage-to-screen prose in “Fences.”
That honor goes to Mahershala Ali and Janelle Monáe, two breakthrough stars who helped drive not one but two best-picture contenders in the same year: Barry Jenkins’ gay coming-of-age drama “Moonlight” and Theodore Melfi’s inspirational tale “Hidden Figures,” about three black women fighting for equality at NASA in the 1960s.
Ali’s exceptionally fruitful year saw his 16-year career skyrocket in 2016 with an Emmy nomination for his fourth season as “House of Cards’” Washington insider Remy Denton, an acclaimed run on Netflix’s “Luke Cage” and a role in “Hidden Figures” as a charming Army officer who with Monáe’s encouragement romances Taraji P. Henson — after first making the mistake of underestimating her.
But it was his riveting turn as an empathetic drug dealer who takes a fatherless young boy under his wing in “Moonlight” that earned Ali his first Oscar nomination (along with co-star Naomie Harris, who is up for supporting actress) and sent the actor on a whirlwind awards tour collecting one trophy after another, including the Screen Actors Guild award for supporting actor.
A week and a half before the Academy Awards, Ali, 43, was happily taking a break from the madness of his first awards season. He’d flown home from shooting a film in Austin, Texas, in time to join his wife, the artist, actor and musician Amatus Sami-Karim, on baby watch. The couple were anticipating the arrival of their first child.
“It is its own award season,” laughed Ali, “equally demanding of your presence.”
The break, however, gave Ali what most Oscar nominees rarely get ahead of their first Big Day: A moment to take it all in.
I’m an artist, and I want the space to be able to do my work and keep certain things private. But I felt a responsibility to shed light.
— Mahershala Ali
“It’s carved out space for me to stop and tend to some other parts of my life,” said Ali from the couple’s home in Venice. “Suddenly I feel like I’ve found a little bit of my equilibrium again. As appreciative as I am of the experience and how generous awards season has been toward me personally, and toward ‘Moonlight’ … you don’t want an experience like this to pass you by without a few moments to take inventory and chart your growth.”
Ali was already enjoying a solid working actor’s career when producer Adele Romanski recommended him to her old friend Jenkins for “Moonlight.” Romanski had worked with Ali on the Bay Area-set independent drama “Kicks.”
Jenkins, making his sophomore feature (after 2008’s “Medicine for Melancholy”), cast Ali as Juan, a dealer in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood, who sees in a young boy named Chiron a desperate need for guidance and protection.
It’s a quietly powerful performance that makes Ali’s presence felt throughout “Moonlight” long after his character departs the story.
“Juan felt like heart and good intentions to me,” said Ali, who credits years of working in supporting roles with teaching him to make the most of even limited screen time. “He felt like love. Even though it’s not spelled out on the pages, you can feel it and sense it in some of his actions.
