Interview: Mamoudou Athie on ‘Kinds of Kindness’
Yorgos Lanthimos has a steady line-up of actors he regularly works with. Among them is Emma Stone, who’s worked with the filmmaker in three, soon to be four, films. (Five if you count short film Bleat, which screened at the New York Film Festival last year.) There are also Colin Farrell, Olivia Colman, Willem Dafoe, Rachel Weisz, Margaret Qualley and Joe Alwyn, who have each been in two of Lanthimos’ films.
A new addition to the Lanthimos roster is Mamoudou Athie. Known for his acclaimed performances in Uncorked, The Front Runner, Cake and Sorry For Your Loss, Athie stars in Kinds of Kindness, described as a triptych that weaves together three distinct stories, where he tackles three separate characters.
Athie’s journey with Kinds of Kindness started with a late-night call. “I got a late-night call from my agent, which was highly unusual. And I was like, ‘What’s up, man?’ And he said Dixie Chassay, the casting director, wanted to chat with me,” Athie recalls. What followed was a conversation that would connect him with Lanthimos, who was interested in working with him after his scene-stealing role in Jason Reitman’s 2018 film The Front Runner. “I got an email from [Yorgos]; he actually mentioned The Front Runner as the reason that I caught his interest. That was deeply flattering.”
Athie says he jumped at the opportunity to work with Lanthimos, who he had been a fan of since he saw The Lobster back in 2015. “You obviously see a singular talent who’s willing to push the envelope, not for the sake of pushing the envelope, but for the sake of discovery,” Athie says. “From there, it was just like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to work with this guy.'”
Kinds of Kindness is spread across three different stories. The first tale follows a man struggling to gain control over his life after breaking free from his domineering boss and mentor; the second centers on a policeman whose missing wife returns after getting lost at sea, appearing changed; and the third focuses on a woman in a cult searching for a figure she believes could be their salvation. Each of the actors (bar one) plays a different character in each story, even though they appear to be loosely connected in the end. For Athie, who started his career in theater after graduating from the Yale School of Drama, playing multiple roles within the same project was both a familiar and challenging experience.
“Oftentimes, in theater, you end up playing multiple different characters in the same play. That is obviousky a very different situation from having time off and then getting to revisit another character [like you’d do in film],” Athie explains. “But, for me, this experience felt like a homecoming to rep theater, which I really love the idea of.”
Of the film’s three parts, each of which is wildly different in tone, scale and style, Athie admits that the final story, which centers on Stone’s cult member Emily as she attempts to find a woman who is able to reanimate the dead, is his personal favorite. “I have been saying the final installment, but I’m not sure. The introduction to the whole world in the first [story] is still fascinating. Willem [Dafoe is] just domineering in this very placid manner. His character is really scary to me,” Athie reflects. “But I think [my favorite is] still the third one. There’s a bit of hopefulness in it that is extinguished in the end. But there’s something there that’s really interesting to me.”
Athie’s time on set also provided him the opportunity to work closely with Jesse Plemons, whom he says he had long admired. The two play police partners who also happen to be close friends in the film’s second story, which sees Plemons taking center stage once again after the first installment of the film. “He’s one of those actors that I immediately had respect for,” says Athie of his experience working with Plemons. “What you’re going to get with Jesse in terms of dedication and commitment is unparalleled. He’s one of my favorite scene partners. It felt like simpatico.”
As for working with Lanthimos, Athie describes the director as a filmmaker with a clear, singular vision, but someone who is also open to collaboration. “It’s funny because I had such a high regard for his work. I came in, I wouldn’t say deferential, but I asked to talk about the script,” he recalls. “You want to make sure you’re playing in the right toolbox. Whenever I felt like I was drifting off, he’d lead me back, and it was as simple as that.”
Despite some of the film’s intense themes (it deals with BDSM relationships, cannibalism, sexual assault, death and murder, among other things), Athie notes that the mood on set was surprisingly light. “Even though the movie is really intense, it was a very fun set,” he says. When asked if he would work with Lanthimos again, Athie doesn’t hesitate to say yes: “Yeah, I’d love to. I think he’s the real deal.”
Outside of Kinds of Kindness, Athie is currently preparing to return to the stage for the first time in nearly a decade. He’s starring in Good Bones, a play by James Ijames, which centers on Aisha and her chef husband Travis (played by Athie) as she embarks on a work opportunity to revitalize the blighted neighborhood she grew up in. “I’m in New York rehearsing the play,” he says. “It’s been nine years since I’ve done a play. I left it a bit too long but here I am back at it.”
Ultimately, for Athie, what draws him to a role—whether it’s on stage or on screen—is its ability to engage with humanity. “Humanity is important to me,” he stresses. “Something that feels like it’s really engaging in one’s humanity, or sometimes, in the case of Kinds of Kindness, the lack thereof.”
Kinds of Kindness is now available on home video courtesy of Searchlight. It is also streaming on Hulu.
Ahmad W.
Aspiring critic and poster designer.