Moonlight, the first original production from ace indie distributors A24, was a buzzy fall festival film which appears to be headed for some heavy Oscar attention. Particularly after a few high profile disappointments from Billy Lynn's Last Walk and The Birth of a Nation have already dropped this month. And such recognition would be well deserved.

Barry Jenkins' (Medicine for Melancholy) film follows a young Miami boy into early adulthood in a three act structure; Chrion's played by three actors at three distinct times in his life, Alex Hibbert, Ashton Sanders and Trevante Rhodes. His mother, Paula (Naomie Harris), is a crack cocaine addict. A neighborhood drug dealer, Juan (Mahershala Ali), is his surrogate father figure. And a young man named Kevin (played both by Jharrel Jerome and Andre Holland) is a childhood friend who provides a sexual and emotional release. This triptych portrait of emotions that are repressed by masculine codes of conduct touches on many heady themes such as mass incarceration, closeted homosexuality, and lack of community options in low income areas, without telegraphing its intent and leaving many things unsaid, Moonlight is a delicate drama with great performances and an expert use of music.

The veteran adult cast of Moonlight—Ali (Luke Cage, House of Cards), Harris (28 Days Later) and Holland (The Knick)—mostly share the screen with exciting newcomers (in addition to the above listed, pop star Janelle Monae makes her film debut). And due to a quick shooting schedule (Harris shot her entire role in only 3 days!!), have only recently come to know each actor that assisted Chiron's coming of age via the film festival circuit that just finished at the New York Film Festival last week.

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Image via A24

In promoting the film, this is the first time that most of the cast is meeting each other. Harris said, “It’s only now, through touring around the continent with this movie, that I’m seeing people’s true personalities, which is lovely. It’s such an amazing cast of people.” Holland agrees, “It’s been super cool trading stories from set, because we were all there at different stages of the movie.”

We recently sat down with Ali, Harris and Holland to talk about their roles, what drew them to the project, what reservations they might have had and how they view their roles in assisting the youth of today to be more confident in their skin. Bonus: the vets discuss a few of their future projects and Holland shares his long personal history of living amongst this narrative for more than a decade.

The Density of the Script, and Working With Barry Jenkins

MAHERSHALA ALI: As soon as I got [to set], I knew that I made the right choice because I observed the way that Barry explores silences. What can be said without language comes out of quiet thought, so instead of just having language to communicate, I loved how Barry chose to expose behavior in silence.

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Image via A24

NAOMIE HARRIS: I only had three days off during a press tour for Spectre, so that was all the time I had to do [Moonlight]. We shot it out of sequence so I was jumping backwards and forwards between older Paula to younger Paul to Paula in the middle and various stages of addiction and with different sons as well. It was very challenging but a hugely rewarding process. I didn’t have the luxury of a rehearsal process because it was literally just three days that I was available, but it didn’t matter because Barry made the process of filmmaking feel like a rehearsal process in the sense that he would just say, “Naomie, what you did there, now I want you to say that one line at camera, or just come into frame and shout.” He just wanted to try different things and experiment with how he’d include the takes and it made me feel very free. When you can experiment together that’s when you do your best work.

ANDRE HOLLAND: Tarell McCraney, who wrote the (unproduced) play that the movie’s based on, is one of my closest friends. I’ve done probably five or six of his plays in the past and when I read the script—which I really read 10 years ago—it’s kind of hard to explain but basically all of Tarell’s plays have very similar characters in them and there’s one character called Elegba, which is in probably four of his plays and that’s the part that I’ve played in his plays. When I read the script I was like, “Oh Kevin is the Elegba of this movie.” What’s interesting about that Elegba character is this character is he’s taken from the Yoruba tradition. It means this deity who is the one that man meets at the crossroads who presents two alternate paths and I feel like that’s what Kevin is doing in this story.

As an actor you read something and you want to be able to say, “Oh this is what this guy is doing.” You know what he’s doing and you feel that you’re on that journey, you’re on that ride. But this Kevin or Elegba character isn’t one who has a huge agenda in mind or an idea of how he wants this night to go. I’m not even sure if when he makes that phone call (to reconnect with Chiron) if he even knows what he’s going to say when he starts dialing the number. So the important thing for me to know about Kevin, is that he’s creating space for Chiron. I think that’s why his intentions feel ambiguous. That’s what I was hoping it would feel like.

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Image via A24

ALI: There’s probably at least 30 minutes of scenes that I do as Juan that didn’t make the cut. I had a rhythm going, but I totally understood why they were cut, because Barry was just trying to have him vanish in a way in which these characters or people can disappear in real life… You need to see the change in Chrion’s body language as he’s trying to keep it together inside—because Juan was such a grounding presence for him when he was younger.

HARRIS: I made a commitment to myself when I started my career because I thought there are enough stereotypes of black people and women that I decided that I was going to make my choices based on representing women in a positive light and making choices that break black stereotypes instead of reinforcing them. So I drew a line that I was never going to play a crack addict, but then this role came and I was very conflicted because I thought, “Oh God, this is an amazing script.”

I first spoke to Barry and said, “I have this reservation,” and he said that he had similar reservations, and “I don’t want to ask you to play yet another crack addict but this is my mother’s story and it’s Tarell’s mother’s story and we need someone to tell that.” That deeply touched me because—he’s right—you can’t wash people out of history and pretend that these addictions don’t exist. Ultimately, it’s not just positive but it’s about choosing a role that’s progressive and leads to an understanding for the audience. I thought that here’s an opportunity to play this character with layers, with compassion, and to understand addiction in a different way.

I did not have the luxury to meet Barry’s mom, but I did interview two crack addicts in my neighborhood. I also watched a lot of documentaries to understand addiction and also to break down my own judgments about it and my perception of what it means to be an addict and realize that there we are all running away from our pain through different means; there are socially accepted forms of running away from yourself, like that guy drinks too much but he’s fun or over-eating or sex addiction is understandable, but drug addiction has been put into this spot that wrongfully gave me pause. There’s all these kinds of things that we’re doing to escape the reality of our own pain.

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Image via A24

HOLLAND: On the set (of The Knick) Steven [Soderbergh] and I would have these conversations about film and basically what I said is, "I’m trying to go forward I’m trying to get better work, what do you think?" He said, “Well you've got to find a way to do work with people that you really like, directors you think are really good. Regardless of the part, regardless of the size of it. Just find directors who you really respond to.” And so I asked, “Who are some of the guys you see that're coming up and really interesting?" And the first name out of his mouth was always “Barry Jenkins.”

Now, Barry and Tarell grew up like two blocks from each other but they never met each other. They went to the same school but they never met each other. And ironically Barry and I also went to Florida State at the same time and we never knew each other. We had friends in common. This whole thing I laugh because I get so embarrassed, but yeah it’s a weird thin, Barry and Tarell growing up like down the street from each other, Me and Tarell kind of meeting by chance and then spending 10 years working on plays together only to find out that Steven-fucking-Soderbergh mentioned Barry to me for a year and a half and then Barry and Tarrel working on this script together. Only to then find out that Barry and I were in college at the same time and had some of the same friends? Get outta here! It’s crazy, man, it was crazy. Jeremy Kleiner who runs Plan B and produced Selmawhich I had a smaller part in—was the one who sent the script over and it was just worlds colliding, man. I read it and immediately. And I was like this is a definite "yes"; if they want me I’m there. 100%.

Image via A24
Image via A24

ALI (on working primarily with first time actors): It put pressure on me to try to connect with something that was more authentic and do the least amount of acting as possible.

HARRIS (on shooting on location in Liberty Square): What really impressed me was how much people actually wanted us there and how accommodating they were. I think people really felt that they knew Barry was from that neighborhood, that’s where he grew up and there was immense support for him and the project. There was an incredible sense of humility and pride in the fact that we were there. They wanted their story told. That’s an experience I’ve never had anywhere else because most of the time when you’re filming, people are just tolerating your presence.

HOLLAND: I flew down to Miami four or five days early just because I wanted to be there. I wanted to go to set and I want to see what [the younger Kevin] is doing. I want to spend some time with the younger me but when I got there Barry said “no.” He wouldn’t let me meet him. He wouldn’t let me see anything he’d shot. He was just adamantly against it and it frustrated me at first because I thought well, man I’ve got to do some work here and this really sucks. But at the end of the day Barry really wanted us to just concentrate on the essence of the story—that it’s broken up into three parts and so much happens to them between the two chapters that they’re almost different people each time.

But yeah, I showed up early, and everyone was very kind but I definitely got the feeling that I should leave. I should go away. So I went to go tour around roots from where Tarell and I grew up together so I had him take me around the area where he grew up to show me the places where some of these things happened to him as a kid. I just spent like four or five days just walking around the projects in Miami. I went to the cafe where the reunion happens he wrote it with this particular place in mind.

Themes of Masculinity 

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Image via A24

ALI: I really related to some of the struggles that Little/Chiron has. Kids feel like they have to puff up or shrink. These reclusive qualities begin to develop because you feel that who you are is going to either be accepted or rejected by your family and friends. The things that people won’t totally accept come in all shapes and sizes and forms and I can relate to that in my own youth. For this movie, it clued me into how important it was for Juan to relieve some of that pressure for Chiron.

HOLLAND: The adult Kevin is there to create some space for Chiron. I think Chiron’s character has really retreated into himself like so far and Kevin is just there saying, “It’s okay to come out just a little bit.”

ALI: When Juan’s on the corner he compartmentalizes his work presence to reflect the rules of the trade. But there are different levels to him. When he’s around “Little”, he’s softer. I just think that’s who he is. And I don’t think we see enough of that in movies, the different versions and colors of people [in this world].

The drug dealers that I knew growing up were different according to the circumstances. I know someone from growing up, who is in jail right now for the rest of his life, but he was one of the sweetest people I ever knew. Once we got out of high school he started hustling and next thing you know he killed someone execution style and he’s going to be in prison for the rest of his life. But I still love that brother. He was a great guy. People do bad things but that doesn’t mean they don’t have other colors or qualities. I feel like Barry did a wonderful job of giving me the range to capture the little breadth in Juan.

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Image via A24

HOLLAND: Personally, masculinity and what that means has always been a question. And with me growing up in a pretty rough neighborhood there is a certain performance that I get into that happens and I see that in the younger Kevin. That these are characters who don’t have fathers around them. I think as young black men they’re trying to figure out what does it mean to be a man on their own. So they kind of grab at whatever examples they can find and they put that on, which is why I feel like for Kevin from story two to story three he goes from being this guy who has this strong confident swagger—he’s got the girl and the game and everything—somehow he goes from that to being a guy who is open about where he’s been where he wants to go. He’s become a father you know and he picks up a phone and calls a person who he once loved—and also the person who he once hurt and for whom he was responsible in hurting. I think that’s an enormous shift. That’s an enormous shift for a black man to be able to go from what he thinks masculinity is to being okay being vulnerable.

This (Kevin) is a guy from the projects in Miami who’s somehow come to this place where he’s able to say it’s okay for you to be who you are and it’s okay for me to be who I am and it’s okay for us to be together in whatever way we decide and I think that’s a seismic shift and that’s one of the things I love about this movie.

Their Future Projects

Mahershala Ali on Battle Angel Alita; Naomie Harris on The Jungle Book and James Bond; Andre Holland on The Knick

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Image via Business Jump

ALI: We start shooting (Battle Angel Alita) this month, in late October. I am excited about it. Vector is a villain, but he’s a little grey. I think there’s space for you to understand and connect with why he is the way that he is. He holds a position of power within. Let me stop there. I think it has the potential to be a really good film and Robert Rodriguez is really excited by it. I can tell by how he speaks on it that he and James Cameron have worked really hard and for a long time on this project. They really wanna knock it out of the park.

I wasn’t familiar with it prior, because a lot of these cult-ish things are not really my world, so it becomes an education for me. Even Mockingjay. I’d seen the first Hunger Games but it was after I was cast that I went and read the books and got educated in that world. These aren’t projects that were originally [marketed] to me; they’re not trying to get me to go to those movies or read those books initially.

HARRIS (on The Jungle Book): I worked with Andy Serkis before in Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll and he’s an amazing human being. So I really wanted to be a part of Jungle Book because I love him. That’s why we all came aboard, Cate Blanchett, Benedict Cumberbatch, we all love Andy. He’s so genuine and enthusiastic and I knew he would be exactly like that as a director because he’s so full of love. He has a level of enthusiasm that makes you feel great as a performer because you think whatever you do is accepted and brilliant and it gives you security. What we’re doing in The Jungle Book is exposing ourselves constantly as performers by playing animals, but to have someone that makes you feel safe in that environment is really special. We just had no makeup, no costumes, and just headpieces to wear that captured our facial expressions. We were crawling on our knees and it felt like being back in drama school or doing a school play. There was none of this let’s wait for a lighting setup or anything like that, we could just go for it on all fours, there’s a light over here and everything is being captured. I can’t wait to see that movie.

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Image via Sony Pictures and MGM

HARRIS (on Daniel Craig returning as Bond): Absolutely, I want him back! Yes, I do, 100%. I don’t even know who would replace him! I know people are brandying these names around but I think he’s the perfect Bond. As a modern Bond, I think he’s the best and I really, really want him to come back. I’ll lay down the law [laughs]. Everyone loves Daniel and I know the producers really want him back, so it’s his decision.

HOLLAND (on if he could possibly return to The Knick): It’s all kind of still trapped in a lot of mystery. I’ve heard the same thing that you guys have heard—that they do want to jump forward several time periods—and from what I understand they said they want to recast. Although, anything’s possible so [Soderbergh] may call a few of us to come and be a part of it. But the plan always was we could do two years and then some change would happen, but we didn’t know what that meant. I think after the first year we had such a good time doing it that everyone on the cast was basically begging let’s do one more let’s do a third. So I think that kind of got in his head at one point but it always was kind of the plan to do two and then reinvent the whole thing and do another two.

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Image via Cinemax

 

Moonlight opens in limited release Friday, October 21; expansions to follow.

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