Although several of her breakout roles, from “his house” to “Lovecraft Country”, have been in the horror genre, it took to see “come out” for the actress Moss To see why the audience would search for that kind of stories. “I thought it was an unnecessary feeling, to be scared,” she told IndieWire over Zoom.
Having an exciting experience that still achieved an impressive level of social comment left Mosaku changed and took her down a path that led to “Sinner“Written and directed by RyanWho sees her opposite Michael B. Jordan as a soulful hoodoo practitioner named Annie.
A Vampire Action Blockbuster, the new Warner Bros. Pictures release, now in theaters across the country, put Mosaku in Oscar-winning creative as a production designer as a production designer Hannah Beachlercomposer Ludwig GöranssonAnd costume designs Ruth E. CarterAs everyone has often become collaborators by Coogler. “I always say that Ryan has the way to explore humanity’s depth and breadth. Working with someone with the talent and vision and ability can inspire,” the actress said.
Naming Cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw and producers Zinzi Coogler, Sev Ohanian and Rebecca Cho, Mosaku says she was in reverence for how the people behind the scenes “Sinners” were “communicate all these ideas visually, spiritually with the character, with the words, with the music … they have it all, they all have it all.
Mosaku worked with filmmakers like that and said that she and her co -stars, such as Hailee Steifeld, Delroy Lindo, Li Jun Li, Jayme Lawson and Miles Caton “Everyone turned out to get so hard to try to match (that kind of shine). Whether it was possible, it really,” really feels, it really feels, it really feels, it really feels, it really feels, it really feels, it really feels, it really feels, it really, “
Below, the “sinner” actress prepares what made her new role so unique, even though she was an experienced star in genre films.
The following interview has been condensed for length and clarity.
Indieview: How did “sinners” get on the way? Was Annie a role you tried for?
Imo Mosaku: I was asked to meet Ryan and before that I was sent a seven -page scene, my first scene with smoke. We did a zoom and we got to know each other and we talked about how we got where we are and what I loved with the stage. He explained to me the movie. I was like, “This sounds fantastic.” And I went to audition with Michael a few days later and we did the stage together. Again, a really warm, loving environment. It was such a wonderful audition. It is very rare.
And then I went out, and he was like, “Wait, I don’t even know why I ask you to go out. It’s no sense to wait. We would like to offer you the role,” and then Michael jumped out of the room as “Hello.” It was sweet. So it was an audition, but I got the role directly. It has never happened before. Felt like a dream.
With only the sides of that scene with Michael, you had a full sense of what film would be? Was the horror element a surprise?
No. When I talked to Ryan, he explained the whole movie to me. It was a surprise when he told me about it, but it was also so much meaningful because it has so much heart. There are so wonderfully prolonged allegories there, and messages and questions it addresses. Ryan explained everything he tried to include in the story too, so it never felt like, “Oh, it’s a vampire film.” It was like, “Oh, these vampires have a purpose.” It’s not exactly like a baddy-goodie. It’s complicated … It never felt like it was just one thing. The vampires are only added to the mystery (and) the artist’s art.
Outside the first chemistry read, was there anything else you and Michael did to develop and explore the rich story between your characters?
Oh, yes, we had two weeks of repetitions before we started filming. Some of that included camera tests and all that, but there was a lot of time with me, Michael and Ryan who talked through their history and mapped their timeline together, how they met, their children, their children’s name. We wiped out their entire history. And to build that type of chemistry, it requires confidence. It requires a safe place, and so part of our repetition was to share with each other our hopes, dreams, fear, love, invite him into my family, me into his. We created community and communion to feel safe enough to explore all corners of the stage.
Curious, was a project like “Loki”, where you navigate through several different timelines and several versions of characters, good training to have to play opposite Michael in the lead role as twins?
I didn’t have to do any of it with Michael. Michael is such a detailed actor that his energy he brought for smoke and his energy that he brought for stack was so different. Even how we interacted on the set when he was smoke, we had this type of harmonious dance between the two of us on and off the camera. We were always each other’s shadow when he was smoke. And when he was stuck we just were not in the same main space, energy space. I was here, he was here, but he was generally in the same vicinity as Hailee (Steinfeld), and they were in his little dance together, and it was so clear. I could say with closed eyes if he was smoke or stack. My energy, what drew me against who I wanted to spend my time with that day was clean through Michael’s energy about who he was. His vocal Timbre, his cadence, his rhythm, his statur, everything felt different to me, and it was like alchemy, so clear.
You also played in the “Lovecraft Country”, which is of similar veins as “sinners”, given the genre and the time the show is canceled. And that project ended something suddenly, with Season 2 is plannedBut the show is not renewed. Was there any part of the “sinner” experience that felt like a form of closing for the “Lovecraft Country” because of these similarities?
No, they felt so different. The world feels so different to me. Annie feels so different from Ruby. Annie’s heart, her understanding, the depth of her spirituality, it’s just so different. Sometimes with this job there is no closing, and that is what it is, and it lives like this, and it feels like unfinished, but you are ok with it. You get used to that feeling. This felt very like its own cause, a beginning, the middle, and now we are at the end where we are sharing it with other people. It is such a different experience to share with the world. Yes. It can feel like worlds apart to me.
Even before that, I read that you were resistant to horror projects, even as a viewer, until you saw “come out.” How did that movie change you about the genre?
For me, the “goat out” was the beginning of me to understand horror as a genre that can make me question and feel included and feel the horror and horror of humanity. Horror is such a powerful genre for it. I didn’t know it could be so powerful before “getting out.” I thought it was an unnecessary feeling, to be scared. I don’t want to be scared, but I want to feel Changed. I want to feel that I have new questions, maybe some answers, maybe new doubts, because of the experience of a piece of TV, film, theater. So yes, I am only interested in things that change me, change society, change someone who feels really far away from me in so many different ways, whether it is economical or from where you are from or religious.
If we are brought in more detail because of a shared experience on the silver screen, or in the theater, it is the stories that I want to be a part of, either as a viewer or that someone who acts in it. That’s what attracts me to these roles. That’s what attracts me to these projects is “Do I feel changed? Do I feel that I’m growing?” And I think “his house”, “Lovecraft Country” and definitely “sinner”, I feel I have grown as a person because of them.
“Sinners”, a Warner Bros. Pictures release, is now in theaters across the country.
