The two-time Academy Award winner doesn’t want to be volunteered into an entertainment “diversity project.”
ByJaelani Turner-Williams
November 14, 2026
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Key Takeaways
- Mahershala Ali urged Black actors not to chase Academy validation, saying debates over whether an Oscar makes someone A-list “don’t translate to anything real.”
- Speaking on 7PM in Brooklyn, the two-time Oscar winner said political pressure and anti-DEI sentiment shape hiring and greenlighting decisions, while Black actors simply “want to do great material,” not join a “diversity project.”
Mahershala Ali has shared that he doesn’t want Black actors to get caught up in seeking validation from the Academy.
The Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother star was a guest on the Friday (November 13) episode of 7PM in Brooklyn with Carmelo Anthony, where he discussed the pressures Black entertainers endure to receive an Oscar. Ali won twice in the Best Supporting Actor for Moonlight in 2017 and two years later for Green Book.
Around the 31-minute mark of the video below, co-host Kazeem “Kaz” Famuyide hypothesized if Black actors should consider themselves a part of “A-list” entertainers upon getting an Oscar.
“It’s kind of just talk. It doesn’t translate to anything real. It’s just [like], ‘Who’s better, LeBron or Jordan?’ What is who cares? Like, they’re great.”
“It’s not the same world when Sidney Poitier won an Oscar, [or] as when Halle Berry or Viola Davis [won]…It’s different.”
“Even right now we’ve seen because of things that have happened in our political environment and how those have trickled down into hiring practices, DEI being this bad word now — that even stuff like that plays its part in companies feeling any type of healthy pressure to even green light things that can even be perceived as being a diversity,” he continued.
Ali added that Black actors shouldn’t seek to be looped into a “diversity project” but simply “want to do great material.”
Announced in 2019, Ali was set to lead a remake of Marvel‘s Bladebefore plans fell through. The cancellations and delays of other Marvel projects like Wonder Man has caused fans of the production studio to question if Black-focused films and TV shows are being purposely deprioritized.
Bassam Tariq, who was hired to direct Blade, reconvened with Ali for Your Mother, which was released in September.
