Mahershala Ali

This is Fresh Air. I'm Tanya Moseley. A hit man drives across Houston with his newborn in the back seat, searching for breast milk. His wife has just died, and nothing in his line of work has prepared him to keep their three children safe without her. That's Latif, the man at the center of Maherschal Ali's new film, Your Mother, Your Mother, Your Mother. The character he plays is a devout Muslim, a devoted father and

And a contract killer. And this film is hard to categorized. It's an action thriller, a family drama. And a meditation on faith set in a world movies rarely show. Black Muslim life in America. And the title comes from an Islamic teaching about the singular place of mothers.

It's the kind of role Ali is especially good at men who look composed while something much more complicated is happening underneath. And true detective, he played a man whose life and memory unfold across decades. In the twenty twenty one film Swan Song, he played a dying man who arranges to be secretly replaced by a clone of himself. And in Moonlight and Green Book, that same restraint help him win two Oscar. Thank you for having me. It's good to be here.

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