Mamoudou Athie

From the Greek Weird Wave cinema of Yorgos Lanthimos to all-out Pixar whimsy, actor Mamoudou Athie is taking show business in his stride. He tells Caitlin Quinlan why community theater might be next.

Mamoudou Athie exudes such warmth that when we begin talking in the lush courtyard of the Carlton Cannes Hotel one afternoon in May, it feels like we’ve known each other forever. The actor—who is in town to attend the Cannes Film Festival’s closing night premiere of his new Pixar film, Elemental—is thrilled to talk about acting as a craft and is meticulously detailed about his process. “Now we’re gonna get into the weeds!” he says with a laugh. Throughout our conversation, he refills our water glasses and engages with passersby, an air of effortless relaxation in every kind gesture. 

Nothing feels labored with Athie, 34, and certainly not his performances. That’s not to say he hasn’t worked extremely hard: The Mauritanian-born actor studied at New York’s William Esper Studio before getting an MFA from the Yale School of Drama in 2014. And while it was easy for him to say he wanted to be an actor when he was a child, because it seemed like “a fun way to make some money,” he soon realized the business wasn’t that simple—nor was that what acting truly meant to him. Athie’s array of work across theater, film—blockbusters, animation, independent cinema—and television is a testament to the dynamism he’s developed as an actor, but it also hints at his desire for liberation in his work. 

“Studying gave me technique and a way to work—a real system,” he says, with the soft gravitas of a seasoned theater actor in his voice. “It gave me a lot of ways to inhabit different kinds of characters and a lot of faith in myself to inhabit different worlds.” These tools have allowed him to deftly switch between the absurd comedy of FX miniseries Oh Jerome, No; the familial drama Uncorked, in which he played an aspiring sommelier (“that role was the reason I got Elemental,” he says); and The Get Down, a Baz Luhrmann Netflix extravaganza about the New York rap scene in the 1970s in which he played musical pioneer Grandmaster Flash. 

He’s not concerned with being “of the moment,” as he puts it. “I recognize through this acting process what I want overall in my life is freedom,” he continues. “That’s why I’m an actor—obviously, there are some restrictions, as in any job, but if it’s all working out then there’s a lot of freedom that is afforded to you.” Besides, going from a blockbuster like Jurassic World: Dominion to the independent, art house environment of AND—Greek Weird Wave director Yorgos Lanthimos’ forthcoming movie—is “all the same” to Athie. “Someone calls ‘action’ and then we do the scene. Sure, it might be magnified depending on the project, but when it comes down to it, it’s just like talking to another person. My first job was with Baz Luhrmann and I was playing Grandmaster Flash—nothing will be scarier than that. Anytime I’m scared I’m like, Hold on, you did that on your first big job? Yeah, everything’s fine.”

Athie has fond memories of almost everything he’s worked on since, perhaps in part due to a kind of mantra he has applied to his career choices—“I only want to work with people that want to work with me”—and the questions he asks of the roles he plays: “What do they like and dislike? And what is good for him and bad for him?” The overarching narrative that their answers may imply about a character’s path in life makes up the bulk of his system and practice. But he also believes that it’s essential to look beyond the confines of the script or the moment in the character’s life that the film might capture. “When you have a character’s super objective, everything is clear to you. You can do more detailed work on the scene and you don’t have to worry about how you’re going to say this or that because the character just drapes over it all,” he explains. Through his work, he simply knows “who the person that I’m playing really is from top to bottom.”

In Elemental—an allegory about cultural diversity and disparate elements finding a home together—Athie plays Wade Ripple, an easygoing if sensitive water element who falls in love with hot-tempered fire element Ember (Leah Lewis). In this world, fire elements are a minority community and Ember’s immigrant parents, who left their home behind to find a better life for their daughter, expect her to find a fire partner and take over the family business. For Athie, who moved to the United States at six months old when his diplomat father sought political asylum, the story resonated deeply. “I’m an immigrant. I became a permanent citizen of the United States while making the film and there’s so many things that paralleled my life in terms of familial sacrifice,” he says. “My dad came to the States doing all kinds of jobs. The man had two master’s degrees and he put all of that aside for the sake of his family. I can’t imagine that level of sacrifice.” Athie is visibly moved as he speaks about his father; there is the sense that he could talk about his father for hours. He pulls out his phone and reads aloud a text message that his dad sent on the eve of his Cannes trip. “Hello, son,” it reads, “do not be surprised, Elemental will win a prize. Go always with good expectations.” A charming end to the festival, the film was warmly received and garnered a five-minute standing ovation.

Athie wears a turtleneck by LUCA FALONI and a jacket by HOMME PLISSÉ ISSEY MIYAKE from Nordstrom.

“There’s something so moving about seeing someone just let go.”

Making work that can have such an impact on people is crucial for Athie. He remembers a woman speaking to him about a play he was in during his time at Yale and, in hearing what it had meant to her, he realized, “I could do this until I’m 80.” “If I could just find projects like that—that mean something to me, that can potentially touch somebody like it touched this lady—then there’s some utility, and I’m not just getting away with having a cushy job like acting,” he says, laughing. “That’s been my guiding light for the bulk of my career.” He explains that he wants his acting to be guided by emotion, and grounded in the freedom of feelings and intuition. “There are so many actors who do a wonderful job of being precise and that’s fine; I can enjoy those performances when they’re expertly done. But I think there’s something so moving about seeing someone just let go,” he says. He cites the work of Joaquin Phoenix in Spike Jonze’s Her as “a beautiful example of somebody not thinking about how they’re going to say something.” 

It’s a skill he wants to hone further in his aspirations for the future, which are as varied as his catalog so far and include playing Hamlet, developing a project on the ’80s Black punk rock scene with his friend Tunde Adebimpe, the lead singer of TV on the Radio, and returning to community theater. “My friend, the actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and I have been asking ourselves lately, What if we really risk it all?” he says. “We’ve just been discussing a lot about this kind of openness and what happens if you finally get to that point. That’s been the goal for me. It’s been very challenging, especially when you have directors that don’t necessarily work that way or aren’t used to it, but I’ve been fortunate that anyone who’s hired me wants to work with me and believes in what I’ve been trying to accomplish. I’m still not there, but I’m getting there, I’m getting close. It’s so exciting.” 

Athie wears a sweater by ISABEL MARANT, trousers by PAS UNE MARQUE and a bracelet by PYRRHA.