Mahershala Ali Faced His Biggest Acting Challenge Yet In “Jurassic World Rebirth”
Mahershala Ali took on Jurassic World Rebirth not just for the dinosaurs or the spectacle but to challenge himself in a space far bigger than the indie dramas that made him a two-time Oscar winner.
“Doing something this big is very new to me,” Ali told Vanity Fair. “It’s a little bit of a test for me personally: Can I exist in a space this large, in something that is so much bigger than you and maybe your own specific talents? It’s just hard to pull it off. I think the bigger things are, the harder that can be.”
Ali plays Duncan Kincaid, a black-ops logistics specialist who works alongside Scarlett Johansson’s covert operative Zora and Jonathan Bailey’s paleontologist Henry.
Together, they infiltrate an island that once housed the original Jurassic Park research facility.
The Moonlight and Green Book star, known for his emotionally layered performances, said the role’s physical demands were a new kind of test.
“I was really going into it hoping to bring something special and buoyant to that character, to really bring an energy and heart to him,” he said.
“These big, blockbuster films, they’re not filmed in a way that’s necessarily going to set you up to feel that all the time because it’s so hard shooting these action sequences and running from a tennis ball and things of that nature.”
While Jurassic World Rebirth marks his first time leading a tentpole of this scale, Ali is no stranger to big-budget fare.
He’s appeared in Predators, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 and 2, and Alita: Battle Angel. He’s also been attached to Marvel’s long-delayed Blade reboot since 2019.
Still, Ali said he looked to past blockbusters for inspiration.
“But there were people in Jaws and in Jurassic Park, in Star Wars and these huge tentpole films that resonated with authenticity and a certain truth and purpose that made those films worth watching again and again.”
Jurassic World Rebirth is the seventh film in the franchise and opens in theaters on July 2.