Mahershala Ali Lost Sleep Over Eternals’ Blade Cameo: ‘I Hate How I Sound’

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Mahershala Ali Lost Sleep Over Eternals’ Blade Cameo: ‘I Hate How I Sound’

Mahershala Ali is set to step into the role of Blade in an upcoming Marvel film but is already anxiously awaiting the chance to finally get to film.

During a recent appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Ali was asked how his experience with the world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been so far. The actor said that he was excited and mentioned this being the first time he’s stepped into a role that already has so much anticipation surrounding it.

“The anticipation is so great,” Ali said. “My excitement for any role is pretty equal, honestly, because I feel the responsibility is always the same. But I’ve never walked into a role where the anticipation of it was so great. Where people were already so familiar with the character. And have real opinions, and points of view, and all that. So it feels different. There’s clearly an added layer of pressure, which I will embrace.”

Ali also touched on his very minor role in Marvel Studios’ Eternals, which was just a voice line, but still had Ali extremely nervous.

“You just lose a lot of sleep over it,” said Ali. “I was losing sleep over this line [in Eternals] because, ideally, you want to be talking once you are filming. And 100% of the time, my first day on any set, on any job, I hate it. I hate how I sound. I don’t believe myself, ya know. So you’re trying to get comfortable in the character… so to have to talk before you’re even actually filming was challenging. But I’m grateful for it. Because it made it feel real. It’s like okay, now we’re going.”

Ali then joked that he was going to have to get muscular for the role and noted that he’s already got a workout plan in place.

The Blade trilogy from New Line Cinema helped shepherd comic books and superheroes to the big screen. Combined, the three films brought in over $400 million at the global box office. Blade was created by writer Marv Wolfman and artist Gene Colan as a supporting character in the comic book The Tomb of Dracula #10 in July of 1973.