Although several of her breakout roles, from “His House” to “Lovecraft Country,” have been within the horror genre, it took seeing “Get Out” for actress Wunmi Mosaku to see why audiences would seek out that type of storytelling. “I thought it was an unnecessary feeling, being scared,” she told IndieWire over Zoom.
Having a thrilling experience that still achieved an impressive level of social commentary left Mosaku changed, and took her down a road leading to “Sinners,” written and directed by Ryan Coogler, which 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 nationwide, put Mosaku in the orbit of Oscar-winning creatives like production designer Hannah Beachler, composer Ludwig Göransson, and costume designer Ruth E. Carter, who have all become frequent collaborators of Coogler. “I always say Ryan has the way to explore the depth and breadth of humanity. Working with someone with that talent and vision and capability can inspire,” said the actress.
Naming cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw and producers Zinzi Coogler, Sev Ohanian, and Rebecca Cho, Mosaku says she was in awe of how the people behind the scenes of “Sinners” were “communicating all these ideas visually, spiritually with the character, with the words, with the music … they all have it and they’re passionate about it.”
Working with filmmakers like that, Mosaku said she and her co-stars, like Hailee Steifeld, Delroy Lindo, Li Jun Li, Jayme Lawson, and Miles Caton “all showed up to set wanting so hard to try and match [that kind of brilliance]. Whether or not that was possible, that was always the goal for every single person on the set and that feels really, really good when we all have that same goal and drive.”
Below, the “Sinners” actress elaborates on what made her new role so unique, despite her being a seasoned star of genre films.
The following interview has been condensed for length and clarity.
IndieWire: How did “Sinners” come your way? Was Annie a role you auditioned for?
Wunmi Mosaku: I was asked to meet Ryan and ahead of it, 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 spoke about how we got to where we are and what I loved about the scene. He explained to me the movie. I was like, “This sounds amazing.” And I went in to audition with Michael a couple days later and we did the scene together. Again, a really warm, loving environment. It was such a lovely audition. That’s very rare.
And then I walked out, and he was like, “Wait, I don’t even know why I’m asking you to walk out. There is no point in waiting. We’d like to offer you the role,” and then Michael jumped out of the room like, “Hey.” It was sweet. So it was an audition, but I got offered the role straight away. That has never happened before. Felt like a dream.
Having only the pages for that scene with Michael, did you have a full sense of what the film would be? Was the horror element a surprise?
No. When I spoke to Ryan, he explained the whole movie to me. It was a surprise when he told me about it, but it also just made so much sense because it has so much heart. There’s such wonderfully drawn out allegories in there, and messages and questions that it brings up. Ryan explained everything he was trying to encompass in the story too, so it never felt like, “Oh, it’s a vampire movie.” It was like, “Oh, these vampires have a purpose.” There isn’t just like a baddie-goodie. It’s complicated … It never felt like it was just one thing. The vampires only added to the mystery [and] the artistry of the message.
Outside of that initial chemistry read, was there anything else you and Michael did to develop and explore that rich history between your characters?
Oh, yeah, we had two weeks of rehearsals before we started filming. Some of that included camera tests and all that stuff, but it was a lot of time with me, Michael, and Ryan talking through their history, mapping out their timeline together, how they met, their child, their child’s name. We fleshed out their whole history. And to build that kind of chemistry, it requires trust. It requires a safe place, and so part of our rehearsal was sharing with each other our hopes, dreams, fears, loves, inviting him into my family, me into his. We created community and communion in order to feel safe enough to explore all corners of the scene.
Curious, was a project like “Loki,” where you’re navigating through several different timelines, and several versions of characters, great exercise for having to play opposite Michael starring as twins?
I didn’t need to do any of that with Michael. Michael is such a detailed actor that his energy that he brought for Smoke and his energy he brought for Stack was so different. Even the way that we interacted on set when he was Smoke, we had this kind 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 Stack, we were just not in the same head space, energy space. I was over here, he was over here, but he was generally in the same vicinity as Hailee [Steinfeld], and they were in their little dance together, and it was so clear. I could tell with my eyes closed if he was Smoke or Stack. My energy, the thing that was pulling me towards who I wanted to spend my time with that day was purely through Michael’s energy of who he was. His vocal timbre, his cadence, his rhythm, his stature, everything felt different to me, and it was like alchemy, so clear.
You also starred in “Lovecraft Country,” which is of a similar vein as “Sinners,” given the genre and the time the show is set in. And that project ended somewhat abruptly, with Season 2 being planned out, but the show not being renewed. Was there any part of the “Sinners” experience that felt like a form of closure for “Lovecraft Country,” because of those similarities?
No, they felt so different. The worlds feel 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 closure, and it is what it is, and it lives like this over here, and it feels kind of unfinished, but you’re OK with that. You get used to that feeling. This felt very like its own thing, a beginning, middle, and now we’re at the end where we’re about to share it with other people. It’s such a different experience, to share with the world. Yeah. It may feel like worlds apart to me.
Even before that, I’ve read that you were resistant toward horror projects, even as a viewer, until you saw “Get Out.” How did that film sort of change your mind about the genre?
For me, “Get Out” was the beginning of me understanding horror as a genre that can make me question, and feel included, and feel the horrors of humanity, and the terrors of that. Horror is such a powerful genre for that. I didn’t know it could be that powerful before “Get Out.” I thought it was an unnecessary feeling, being scared. I don’t want to be scared, but I do want to feel changed. I want to feel like I have new questions, maybe some answers, maybe new doubts, because of the experience of a piece of TV, film, theater. So yeah, I’m 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’s economically, or from where you’re from, or religiously.
If we are brought closer together because of a shared experience on the silver screen, or in the theater, then those are the stories that I want to be a part of, whether as a viewer or as someone acting 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 like I’m growing?” And I think “His House,” “Lovecraft Country,” and definitely “Sinners,” I feel like I’ve grown as a person because of them.
“Sinners,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release, is now in theaters nationwide.
