(Image source: DeviantArt)
While promoting his new action movie "Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother", Mahershala Ali has inevitably faced a steady stream of questions about the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s "Blade" reboot—and he has never been shy about sharing how he truly feels. In his latest GQ interview, Ali opened up about the sacrifices he made and the major life changes he planned around the long-delayed project.
Ali told GQ that he had moved his family to the planned filming location and reluctantly turned down numerous roles because Marvel had tied up his schedule. But the studio kept pushing production back until the movie ultimately never happened. “I should have made more movies over these last eight years, but ‘Blade’ didn’t happen, and I definitely think that affected the direction certain things took. I’m not saying I simply kept my schedule open for Marvel. I was working during that time, doing the kind of preparation I needed to play the role.”
(Image source: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
Ali continued, “Kevin Feige, the president of Marvel Studios, said ‘Blade’ was the biggest failure of his career, and I agree with him 100 percent. He should feel that way. I trained for ‘Blade’ for more than a year. I committed so intensely that I injured my knee. They kept delaying it, and I kept training—learning sword fighting and just about every martial art you can imagine. I even moved my entire family to Atlanta and waited there for production to begin, but they just kept postponing it until nothing was ever filmed. Then the writers’ and actors’ strikes happened. So that’s where things ended up.”