Why Mahershala Ali is everywhere at the moment – including the new comedy-drama Green Book
Mahershala Ali might well win an Academy Award for his moving performance in Green Book. Critic Sarah Ward explains why he’s everywhere at the moment – from Green Book to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and the new season of True Detective.
Come February 25, Australian time, Mahershala Ali could make history. If his name is read out by Alison Janney, recognising his performance in Green Book and anointing him the next Academy Award-winner for best supporting actor, he’ll become the first African-American actor to win two Oscars in the same category – and two Oscars in three years, too. After Denzel Washington, he’ll become only the second black star to earn two competitive Oscars ever. And, he’ll be just the third actor of any race to nab two Oscars in the supporting actor category within a three-year period, after Walter Brennan (who achieved the feat twice with three awards between 1936 and 1940) and Jason Robards (who won two back-to-back in 1976 and 1977).
Before this year’s nominations have even been announced, Ali is already the frontrunner to take home a new statuette – a companion for his 2017 gong for Moonlight, when he became the first Muslim actor to win an Oscar. He also picked up a Golden Globe for Green Book this month, and he’s favoured to earn a spot in the record books at the Screen Actors Guild, by becoming the only multiple best supporting actor winner in the awards’ history.
The acclaim and accolades are well deserved, with Ali putting in a subtle and moving performance as Green Book’s Dr. Don Shirley. In his hands, the real-life musician is a figure of immense talent and resolute dignity, all while trying to survive on tour in the racially divided, overtly intolerant Deep South of the 1960s. Ali might be contending for awards glory in the supporting category, with his co-star Viggo Mortensen badged as the film’s lead for his part as Tony Lip, Shirley’s driver; however there’s no doubting just who is Green Book’s shining light.
From the bleak reality of needing a white escort on his road trip across the country, to the vulnerability of becoming a target of violence and discrimination due to his race and sexuality, Ali’s vision of Shirley is stoic but soulful. It’s an understated portrayal that burrows beneath the character’s skin, and, in the process, into the hearts of the audience. Shirley is forced to sport a firm facade to endure life’s injustices, yet remains as sensitive and delicate as his exceptional piano-playing abilities underneath. To Ali’s credit, he never veers from one extreme to another – to see Shirley with his guard up is to sense the pain simmering inside, and to see him in his rare relaxed moments is to still feel the steeliness that he’s had to make second nature.
Releasing in Australia on January 24, Green Book arrives at a booming time for Ali. At the moment, he’s everywhere. He’s the voice of a crucial character in the best animated film of 2018, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and he’ll soon hit cinemas as part of Alita: Battle Angel’s all-star cast. He’s also the lead of one of the biggest TV returns of the new year, headlining the long-awaited third season of True Detective, which arrives four years after the series’ last run of episodes aired.
The best actors experience prolific phases, where it’s easier to recount the movies and shows they’re not in during a particularly busy period. Ali’s current streak speaks to one of his biggest skills: his versatility. He can bring unshakeable poignancy to his Green Book scenes; voice the enigmatic, cool uncle in Into the Spider-Verse; jump into an effects-heavy sci-fi effort in Alita: Battle Angel; and bear the scars of a life spent solving others’ miseries in True Detective. In the latter, he does so across three separate time periods.
Indeed, watching Ali as True Detective’s Arkansas police detective Wayne Hays, an inescapable truth becomes apparent. No one else could’ve played this pivotal part in the way that he manages, wearing the weight of the show’s bleak murder-mystery plot in every step, glance and shift in this seat – the latter evident in the series’ two later timelines, which involve his character recounting the main storyline and conveying its personal impact. It’s a thoughtful, commanding performance that says much with silence; that says almost everything, in fact. Originally Ali was offered a supporting part, with Hays written as white, but no other actor could’ve done the role justice.
Along with Green Book, it’s the latest highlight on a resume that keeps amassing them. That’s a trend that’s only certain to continue. Moonlight, and his brief but effortlessly tender part as the unofficial mentor to a yearning, confused, otherwise ignored Miami boy, opened his career floodgates.
Before that Oscar-winning performance, Ali had a healthy list of credits to his name. Sizeable stints across a series of television shows (Crossing Jordan, Threat Matrix, The 4400, Treme, Alphas, House of Cards, Luke Cage) all displayed something different – and film appearances in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Predators, The Place Beyond the Pines, two Hunger Games movies, Free State of Jones and Hidden Figures, too. For an actor with such a distinctive presence, he’s long been a convincing chameleon. Whether or not he makes history with an Oscar for Green Book, he won’t be leaving the screen any time soon.
