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My father had a lot to do with me thinking about acting, though he never saw me act. He passed away probably - he passed away as I was doing my first play, but I just think being exposed to it and being around it. It wasn't something that I ever thought I couldn't do because I grew up around it.

Mahershala Ali

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Mahershala Ali
Age: 50
Born: 1974
Born: February 16
Actor
Basketball Player
Film Actor
Stage Actor
Television Actor
Oakland
California
Mahershalalhashbaz Gilmore
Mahershala Gilmore
Mahershalalhashbaz Ali
Ever
Wasn
Firsts
Probably
Play
Though
First
Acting
Exposed
Something
Father
Passed
Never
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Saws
Think
Around
Couldn
Thinking
Thought
Grew

More quotes by Mahershala Ali

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I think what I've learned from working on Moonlight is we see what happens when you persecute people. They fold into themselves.
Mahershala Ali
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My parents were kids when I was born. My mother was 16. My father was 17, and they got married in high school. And they split a few years later. When they split was when all that was happening also, and he - they were just coming into themselves. But they remained friends.
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I got into [acting] so late because of sports. And then when I was in grad school, I sort of got lulled into basically forgetting I was black, in - meaning that everyone you play at a conservatory, 95 percent of the characters are non-black.
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I always hope to be a better person tomorrow than today.
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How do I transform and be believable as Krogstad in A Doll's House or Sir Peter Teazle in A School for Scandal.
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I'm not much of cook, but I cook a mean bowl of oatmeal.
Mahershala Ali
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It was really a focus on how to in some ways keep moving in this direction towards something that allowed me to express myself in a way that sports didn't.
Mahershala Ali
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At the end of the day we're all spirits having a physical experience. That really comes from my relationship with Islam because it just makes me really conscious of my action.
Mahershala Ali
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To really be conscious of how long the journey is, be patient, push yourself, persevere and always be working on your craft while waiting for your break.
Mahershala Ali
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As a kid, you're starting to grow up and want more freedoms. But if you have people who are absorbing and adopting religious principles and teachings, they start drawing these lines and creating confines in their life to live within certain lines.
Mahershala Ali
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Getting to St. Mary's College was a big deal for me because that essentially led to me getting to go to NYU.
Mahershala Ali
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My connection to music is so strong. I cling to it. I vibe out to it. I release stress to it. Music is really always close to me. It's really present in my work in terms of how I relate to characters is through rhythm and sound, even in their speech.
Mahershala Ali
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I never wanted to accept that. And so I have always fought against that in some way, shape or form and had - I've had people who have supported trying to get me in for things that were beyond the character description.
Mahershala Ali
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At the end of the day we're all spirits having a physical experience.
Mahershala Ali
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It felt, like, so far from - or far enough from the reality of things that we can enjoy it purely as entertainment. And now it feels a little bit too in alignment, honestly, but yeah - so we'll see how season five [House of Cards] goes over there.
Mahershala Ali
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My mother is an ordained minister. I'm a Muslim. She didn't do backflips when I called her to tell her I converted 17 years ago. But I tell you now, we put things to the side, and I was able to - I'm able to see her. She's able to see me. We love each other.
Mahershala Ali
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I was always sort of ahead of myself in some way, shape or form and trying to envision how to get further along and closer to fulfilling that dream of being of being free and having a creative agency, so to speak.
Mahershala Ali
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I think how strict my mother's home could be with my mom and my stepfather, there was a fluidity and freedom in my dad's existence that I enjoyed when I was around him, though the responsibility was just different. He expected me to carry myself a certain way without all the rules and confines.
Mahershala Ali
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I've personally been on the outside sometimes. But I was - I personally was never persecuted especially in the way in which sharing my own experiences.
Mahershala Ali
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I became more curious about the story behind the story [in the House of Cards]. So what was really going on behind the headline? And it's a little bit sad that that show, it doesn't seem so much like entertainment the way it did back when we started doing it.
Mahershala Ali