Mahershala Ali says Your Mother, Your Mother, Your Mother gave him the on-screen physical challenge he had been waiting for after years of preparing to bring action work to the camera.
The actor spoke about the film at The Hollywood Reporter’s Studio at 1 Hotel during TIFF, presented by sponsor Canada Goose, where he described Bassam Tariq’s new action film as a project that met him on both an emotional and physical level.
“I think [the movie] spoke to me so deeply,” Ali said. “It offered up an opportunity to engage and commit to the type of difficult I want to commit to because this work is gonna be hard regardless — whether you’re in a good film or a bad film. [The film] was something that was very exciting to me. It asked all of us to go very deep emotionally, but it also checked sort of an action, movement, physicality box for me that I had been really yearning to really invest energy in.”
That yearning followed Ali’s involvement with Blade, the Marvel film centered on the titular anti-hero that he and Tariq had been set to make before the project fell apart and was removed from Disney’s lineup in 2024. Ali officially walked away from the project in July, but the experience left him prepared for action work — and his connection with Tariq ultimately helped set the stage for Your Mother, Your Mother, Your Mother.
A role built on grief, faith and survival
In Your Mother, Your Mother, Your Mother, Ali plays Latif, a devout Muslim and contract killer moving across Houston as he tries to protect his three children after the death of his wife. The story places him against a series of dangerous obstacles, including Haun Yoon, played by John Cho.
Haun Yoon is described as an Army veteran and militant church leader who is determined to destroy what he considers great evils. That conflict helps frame a film that, according to Ali, demanded emotional depth while also giving him room to explore the action and movement he had been eager to pursue on screen.
Tariq told THR that the film was partly inspired by his own experience as a new father and “not feeling like you’re enough as a provider.” Ali said the director’s vision immediately stood out when he first encountered the script, even as he wondered how its varied elements would come together.
“Sometimes, you read things and energy starts going off,” Ali said. “It just resonates in a way where you feel called to it — almost as if you don’t even have a choice. You just know that when you read certain things. If anything, it was just more of me having questions about how Bassam was gonna stitch very different worlds together. … You just had to dive in and trust. He is an amazing filmmaker and he was able to, in my humble opinion, stitch that world together in such a fascinating way.”
Ali keeps moving into physical roles
Your Mother, Your Mother, Your Mother is not the only project giving Ali a chance to pursue physically demanding screen work. He is also set to star in season two of HBO’s action-packed series Task, which began filming in July.
The Oscar winner said the Emmy-nominated show has allowed him to continue expanding on the action techniques he has wanted to perform on screen, though he made clear that the work presents a different kind of test.
“I’ll just say that there is some physical work in that as well,” Ali teased. “It’s challenging in a very different way, but I’m getting through it.”
Your Mother, Your Mother, Your Mother premiered Sept. 12 at TIFF before being released by Amazon MGM.