Mamoudou Athie doesn’t mind taking risks. In fact, he’s rarely tempted to say “yes” to something that’s a sure thing.
That doesn’t mean he hasn’t landed everything from streaming indies and Emmy nominations to franchise features and animated Oscar winners. He stays booked in hip-hop musicals like Netflix’s The Get Down, psychological horrors like Archive 81, and prestige mini-series like FXX’s Oh Jerome, No. Most recently, he landed a new gig opposite Robert Pattinson and Zendaya in an A24 romance that will likely break the internet thanks to its star power.
But the success Athie’s seen in his career isn’t strategic. It’s just the byproduct of his very simple philosophy of what acting should be: fun.
“There’s 1,001 different reasons to do a movie,” he tells Uproxx. “It’s not just about, ‘How does this get me to the next lily pad?’ Look, that’s a way to do it, and some people do that successfully, but it’s just not as fun. And if I’m going to be an actor, I better be having fun.”
Of course, Athie’s idea of fun might be slightly different from others.
We’re talking about his work in the latest entry in the Yorgos Lanthimos’ Weird Cinematic Universe, Kinds of Kindness, which you can stream on Hulu. The baffling, darkly comedic trio of fables sees Athie playing a variety of roles – a swim instructor, a coroner, a cop – while navigating everything from cults and cannibalism to, what might be, one of the year’s most uncomfortable sex scenes.
With Kinds of Kindness, a film so rooted in grotesque absurdism you’re psychologically clawing your way to its hours-long finish line, Athie’s a steadying presence, someone relatable and empathetic in the modern mythic trilogy of monsters and the men who become them. It’s unlike anything he’s done before, a project that practically terrified him at times. That’s exactly why he was so quick to dive in.
“There’s a kind of dignity and self-respect that you have to have as a human being and a particular kind of shamelessness as an actor to be able to do what’s required of some characters,” he explains, noting that a Yorgos film requires plenty of the latter. “If I want to be my fullest self as an actor, then I can’t hold myself back by commenting on something that’s scary to me or undesirable or even disgusting.”
Athie says he felt “tremendously self-conscious” filming some of the more graphic, outlandish scenes. He credits Yorgos’ approach to rehearsals, something the director is famous for holding weeks ahead of filming, for helping to strip him of any ego that might’ve made all the group sex and wound-licking and limb cutting less impactful.
“It was very reminiscent to me of clown class,” he says. “That was one of the best gifts I’ve ever received as an actor, getting to go to Chris Bay’s clown class while I was at school because it just frees you from your ego. It’s now ‘How good can I get it?’ or ‘How interesting am I?’ It’s like, ‘Where’s the fun? Where’s the need of this character, and how do I fully express that?’
“It’s very silly,” he’s quick to assure me. “We’re all grownups doing the most ridiculous things. I enjoy and really do respect my job, but I do understand that there’s a level of ridiculousness involved in it, and you have to be okay with it, otherwise, it’s not going to work.”
Few actors Athie’s age seem to love their craft in the same way. When rattling off influences, the names the Yale drama school grad tosses out are older, more established, often viewed as character focused. They’re the Sally Hawkins, the Vincent Cassels, the Sam Neills, the Courtney B. Vances of the world, plenty of whom he’s gotten the chance to study under in projects like Netflix’s Uncorked, the watery Kristen Stewart thriller, Underwater, and a Jurassic World sequel. Kinds of Kindness co-star Willem Dafoe makes that list too, someone Athie says is always game to “go there.”
“The reason he’s so interesting is because he’s not really trying to be interesting,” he says. “He just genuinely loves acting. No matter what he feels or looks like, he’s just going to do it because of the job.”
It’s here, as Athie starts to spout off words like “dramaturgical” and “facsimile” that he stops himself.
“I sound like such a fucking acting nerd,” he laughs. “I’m intolerable.”
Along with being charmingly self-deprecating, Athie’s also quick to deflect praise. When I bring up how Essence recently named him “Hollywood’s Next Leading Man,” he insists he’s flattered, then he lists out all of the things he finds more important about his job than fame, then he claims the fridge in his AirBnB is making an odd sound, then he changes the subject to talk about the importance of diverse storytelling and indie filmmaking.
“You need to make room, a lot of room, I would say the most room for original stories,” he says. “This is how you move the medium forward. If everything’s all about money, then you’re not going to have much left. There’s not going to be niche stories that, by the way, are the ones that connect with the widest audiences. But if you try to sanitize a script and make it just palatable to all 8 billion people on the planet, then you’re not going to have much.”
That brings us back to the idea of risk, the notion that nothing is a sure thing, especially in the moviemaking business, so why not create freely, push relentlessly, and invite fans to appreciate the end result instead of chasing algorithms and dollar signs.
“Independent filmmakers are some of the most driven people,” he explains. “To make a movie is insanely difficult. And to get a lot of people to agree to help you make that movie, it takes a lot of ambition and courage. So, they will find a way, but I’d like us, as a business holistically, to help. Let’s just make movies and accept that there’s inherent risk in making them.”
That train of thought jogs Athie’s memory just before we end the conversation.
“Oh, there’s somebody who just approached me about doing a movie. I owe him a call.”
Kinds of Kindness is now streaming on Hulu.