The fall of Marvel’s Blade led Mahershala Ali and Bassam Tariq to create an entirely different hero

Mahershala Ali waited seven years to suit up as Blade in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But the collapse of Marvel’s troubled vampire reboot led Ali and director Bassam Tariq, who was slated to direct Blade, to make Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, a bloody, soulful action thriller that grew out of their abandoned superhero collaboration.

“There are so many things that are unique about this project and this experience … I think this film is singular,” Ali, 52, says, seated alongside his director.

Two-time Oscar winner Ali plays Latif, a sword-wielding hitman forced to care for his three children after his wife dies. As he searches for breastmilk for his youngest child, Latif becomes drawn into a violent feud between a Muslim pornographer (Abubakr Ali), and a Christian fanatic (John Cho).

The morning after the film’s world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, Ali and Tariq spoke about turning a failed superhero project into something entirely different.

The two of you were supposed to work on Blade. How did Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother get born out of that experience?

Ali: Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother is something Bassam started writing before we met going into Blade and committing to working together on that … I was able to step into Latif’s shoes as a result of him finishing that script and me being blown away by it.

Bassam, how did you come up with the story?

Tariq: After my wife gave birth to our son, she had an infection that landed her in the hospital. My son would not take any formula … I had to figure out a way to get him breastmilk. I was in New York City … trying to figure out a way to get him some milk and nobody had any for me … That’s the genesis of how this whole film came together. How I couldn’t be the thing that my child needed.

Mahershala, I imagine you did some sword training for Blade. Was it nice to be able to utilize those skills?

Ali: It was very fulfilling … to exercise those acquired skills. That was a lot of time and energy and I don’t like my time to be wasted … I’m very happy they ended up being used for Latif.

This movie puts fatherhood, faith, violence and redemption all into one character. What did you want to say about how all those things can exist in one person?

Tariq: When you’re a father, you’re spinning all these plates all the time. You’re living in multi-dimensional genres all the time as a father. I think I wanted to bring that reality to life …

Mahershala, what compelled you to want to play Latif?

Ali: I’m hungry. … there’s a lot of meat on the bone. As far as looking for a character, this requires you to immerse yourself and go deep … I think if you were to remove the action elements from it, some of the fighting, it still would have been pretty profound and phenomenal …

The action is perfectly balanced. Did you find yourself having to rein any of that in?

Tariq: Sometimes you want to bring it up to 11 and you want to go further and further with the action. We had a great stunt coordinator — Adam Hart — and he and our DP were always asking, ‘What does the story need?’

Ali: He of all people encouraged some of the trimming of the action …

Tariq: He’d say if it wasn’t helping the story, it was gratuitous … This guy did Superman. He’s doing Man of Tomorrow, right now. He knows when to go there and when not. We had this film that feels like this Charles Burnett film called Killer of Sheep and Harakiri. How do we bring these two art house movies together and make it accessible and make it fun?

Is there a lesson or takeaway from Blade not happening?

Ali: I mean man’s plans and God’s plans … We all have good intentions and put our energies toward things and sometimes they work out, and sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they work out into something else. I think the lesson is like life, just keep moving forward … and apply what you’ve learned to the next thing … I think if it had been a this or that, I would have chosen this every time. That’s no dis to (Marvel). … But this is a little bit more aligned with the type of work I want to be known for.

Tariq: The advice I give to myself and others is, ‘Don’t overthink it. Just show up every day.’ It’s like riding a bike uphill. You just have to keep pedalling …

Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother is now playing in select theatres.