As part of a new partnership between Amazon Studios and Blumhouse TV, the house of horror is launching four new films this October under the new "Welcome to Blumhouse" campaign: Veena Sud's The Lie, Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour's Black Box, Zu Quirke's Nocturne, and Elan Dassani and Rajeev Dassani's Evil Eye.
The Lie and Black Box are now available to stream while Nocturne and Evil Eye will debut on Monday, and ahead of this week's initial launch, we were able to sit down with star Mamoudou Athie and discuss his process behind getting into his very duplicitous character in Black Box.
Our conversation doesn't hold back on the SPOILERS, so it may be best to head on over to Amazon to watch the excellent sci-fi horror thriller before revisiting the following discussion. Its synopsis reads, "After losing his wife and his memory in a car accident, a single father undergoes an agonizing experimental treatment that causes him to question who he really is."
Check out the full interview - WITH MASSIVE SPOILERS - below:
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ROHAN PATEL: This movie had a very a similar feel to something like Get Out with maybe a splice of Shutter Island - I was thinking a lot about that Leo quote from that movie, "To live as a monster, or to die as a good man?" When prepping to play your part, was there anything specific you looked at to to get into that headspace?
MAMOUDOU ATHIE: Oh wow, straight out with the spoilers, huh? *laughs*
There’s not a whole lot of research to be done with that kind of thing because as far as I know, that’s all purely imaginary, so it was a matter of agreeing with Emmanuel about what direction he wanted me to go in. It’s your imagination, you can go anywhere really, but we did have to contain it to the bold concepts explored in the script. I just had to make sense of how that could be and how that would exist.
ROHAN: This character gave off similar vibes to your Sorry for Your Loss role. In that show, your character Matt was dealing with depression privately, and here, of course, it’s much darker with Thomas masquerading around as Nolan, living a double life. It's interesting to see you tackle these parts that are almost sort of duplicitous in nature - is that generally a level of complexity you seek when picking out a role?
MAMOUDOU: Not necessarily, actually it totally depends. My first couple parts when I was starting out didn’t have a whole lot to do with mental health issues in particular, but I do believe that one was one of the reasons I was hired for this. Emmanuel saw me in Sorry For Your Loss and wanted to work with me on this as a result of that.
ROHAN: Phylicia Rashad is so great, as she always is, and while there isn't really a villain, she is essentially the primary antagonist in the film. Her character deals with a lot of the process behind transferring brainwaves and AI. Out of general curiousity, did you look into any of that after signing on?
MAMOUDOU: I just went by the script, my character doesn’t know anything about any of that stuff, so considering the amount of the time that we had, I was just using the script and just talking with Emmanuel, but my character’s knowledge was pretty appropriate to my own knowledge, so I thought that was adequate.
ROHAN: Yeah, that makes sense. What was your experience working with her? I mean, she's a legend, any big takeaways just watching her work?
MAMOUDOU: Oh man, I’ve been saying this a lot today, but there aren’t enough good things to say about her. She’s the best, I love her so much and she’s so great as a person, as an actor, as a scene partner. The way that she just handles her business, and I mean that literally, on-screen and off-, it’s just awe-inspiring. I don’t have the vocabulary to describe how awesome she is.
ROHAN: Were you also playing your contorted double version in the black box?
MAMOUDOU: Oh, you thought that was me, bro? *laughs* - No, no. There are moments where I’m in there foe the close-ups, but not many cause I can’t do what that guy - Troy James - can do, there’s no reality in which I’m capable of doing that.
ROHAN: He really did a great job... sufficiently creepy.
MAMOUDOU: You need to be there for it and you’ll see how creepy it is. *laughs* He can do it in a balletic sense, but for this, he made it real weird.
ROHAN: I think he was on The Flash too, if I’m not mistaken...
MAMOUDOU: Yeah, yeah, I believe he was.
ROHAN: The climax finally reveals that Nolan is still very much alive and there's a showdown between you and Donald's character at the end. Did you do anything specific to just convey that sense of helplessness?
MAMOUDOU: Well, it was pretty easy, he beat the crap out of me. *laughs* “Please Donald no!” *laughs* Donald’s the man, I love that guy. There were no complications really, in a practical sense, because you know, it’s a fight, it’s a scuttle, and I came out on the losing side, so I had to react appropriately.
ROHAN: The film thankfully ends on a relatively happy note, but do you know if there was ever a darker ending envisioned?
MAMOUDOU: Not that I was aware of, that’d be a really good question for Emmanuel. I signed on, then we had Christmas break, and then I was in New Orleans filming, so there wasn’t a lot of time for me to see prior scripts. I’m sure Emmanuel would be able to answer that.
ROHAN: I mentioned Sorry for Your Loss earlier, which I loved and just wanted to get your thoughts on what would've happened in a potential season three, or if you knew going in what had happened to your character Matt Greer?
MAMOUDOU: I think we all had different ideas, but I’m not going to put them on print. *laughs*
ROHAN: No worries. I did enjoy that show a lot. It was very sad, but it was a very well-made show. You, Lizzie, and Jovan were excellent.
MAMOUDOU: That means a lot, thank you. We’re all very proud of it.
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