And even though I do feel like I’ve had a real opportunity to push him quite a bit each time we worked together, I don’t know that the gas pedal has ever hit the floor for him, even in the roles that we did together. So I thought this would be a really special opportunity for him as an actor, but even more so for us as an audience, right now, to see this guy that we think we know so well, pushing himself in a way that’s different than maybe I could imagine.
To me, that’s exciting. When you see somebody who’s a proven movie star, who you think you know, do something completely different from what you seen do before, I think that’s always exciting for me. You know what I mean?
He and I were talking about both of the brothers, and I was telling him that Stack especially felt like a role that we have never seen him play on screen. And he was telling me that he kind of felt like that most represented who he is in real life. Would you agree with that?
I would, man. He’s definitely closer to Stack than he is to Smoke, for sure. But people don’t know that. You got to kind of know Mike to know that when you see him in a movie, that’s not him. And working in this industry more, you realize that people who are really either skilled or gifted, experienced, or some combination of one of those three, they make being a different person look very easy. To the point where I’m numb to it now because it’s my job. But the first time I met Stallone for instance, I was like, “Yo, you nothing like Rocky.” You almost can’t believe it, how different he is from this character that he created.
And with Mike, it’s some Mike in his Oscar performance [from Coogler’s debut film Fruitvale Station], some Mike in Adonis [from Creed], it’s some Mike in [Black Panther‘s] Killmonger, but he’s very far from those guys. Man, Mike’s very funny and mercurial and energetic. So the Stack performance is more who Mike is, all of a sudden, than any of his other characters. And to be honest with you, crazy enough, me knowing Mike, I was actually more disturbed by his Smoke performance.
Really?
Yeah. I don’t know what it’ll be like for audiences. But as somebody who knows him, when he was in character as Smoke, there were a few times I was unnerved.
Did you write these roles with him in mind even before you guys had talked about it?
For sure. I knew I would need an actor I was very close with. And the decision to make them identicalâitâs a different movie if theyâre fraternal [twins], but I thought that making them identical twins would be better. I was trying to play with archetypes and tropes a little bit. And you know how every neighborhood, if you say, “Hey man, where are the twins at?” There’s going to be some twins. They’re always local celebrities. And kind of always known to be a little nefarious. You see this character come up in different cultures, and I wanted to play with that.
So would you say when it comes to your guys’ working relationship now, it’s almost telepathic?
It’s like a sports analogy. I can throw the pass and know that he’s going to be there. But this role was challenging, bro. We had to talk more than ever just with all of the complications that came with it, the technical complications, obviously in delivering the image with two Mikes. And then we had a twin double who we would work with, and who would have to kind of be there for Mike, be where he’s going to be once he’s the character. That was a very interesting song and dance. And it was helpful that Mike had directed a movie. Because sometimes you would have to communicate with his double Percy in ways that was more intimate than even I could. It’s funnyâit’s a genre movie, but his job just delivering these characters, bro, was his most challenging job. So we did have to talk quite a bit.
I’m glad you brought up him becoming a director, because I was going to ask, especially with you saying earlier that you two kind of grew up together, what it’s been like to work with him since he’s unlocked director mode.
Honestly, it makes him much more understanding, of everybody. I think it increases patience because I think he has a little more, I would recommend it for any actor who has the curiosity or the desire to go make something. It is the same way that they would make us in film school. They would make us act. It was a non-starter, you had to do it. If you’re going to go talk to actors and convince them to do X, Y, Z, you got to go do that yourself, see what it feels like. So I think it expanded his patience, and I think he was always very empathetic towards me, but even more now with the process. I would say this is his first role where he’s like a man. I don’t know if it’s for me, just as a filmmaker, but as a viewer, these feel like the oldest characters he’s ever played, these are fully formed men there’s nothing boyish about these guys.
Because they’ve seen a lot more.
Yeah but what it really is too, bro, I think if somebody feels like their fate has been sealed, they are who they’re going to be. Every other time I’ve worked with Mike on something, thereâs a sense of, Hey, maybe this guy is going to change, and become something else than who he was at the top of this thing. And I felt that these charactersâthey kind of are hard-baked, they know what they are. And that contributed to the weight and made me see these characters as more mature. But also Mike has a maturity to him now, as a man of this age, than he ever has had on a movie before.