Mahershala Ali has apologised to the family of Don Shirley after the movie he starred in to tell his story was deemed inaccurate.
Ali’s thoughts below…
Don Shirley was a brilliant musician who employed a white man named Tony Vallelonga to serve as his driver and bodyguard as he toured the horrific south.
Horrific, due to the cruel and cowardly attacks on African-Americans launched by lowly white supremacists.
Unfortunately, the movie Tony’s son created to tell their story (named ‘Greenbook’) has been panned and slammed by Shirley’s relatives who say it isn’t accurate and insults their loved one’s legacy.
They now say they have received a sincere apology from Ali.
What he said was, ‘If I have offended you, I am so, so terribly sorry. I did the best I could with the material I had. I was not aware that there were close relatives with whom I could have consulted to add some nuance to the character.
Write a book…..get the deets from that offering.
NEXT…..
P.S. Great ACTING Mahershala Ali none the less.
Their criticisms are going to hurt his chances of securing another Oscar nomination. They were well aware that the film was in production over a year ago. Their issues should have been centered at that point. NOT once the project has already been released.
Despite all this drama, I thought the film was very well acted. Perhaps it shouldn’t have any screenplay noms, but the acting was definitely first rate…
Actors instinctively want to meet the living family members of the people they portray in a biopic, so if he went through the entire filming process never once trying to learn about the man’s surviving family, then he probably needs to not ever play the role of a real person again. Respect the man by doing your homework next time.
Oscar worthy