The Big Picture

Julia Roberts and Mahershala Ali star in Sam Esmail’s adaptation of Rumaan Alam’s acclaimed novel, Leave the World Behind. During a chat with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, Roberts and Ali pinpoint something they appreciate about the other as a scene partner. They also discuss the movie’s extremely charming and unforgettable dance scene.

Even wildly accomplished industry icons like Julia Roberts and Mahershala Ali learn something new and/or push themselves further with each and every project, and that was certainly the case on the set of their new Netflix movie, Leave the World Behind.

The movie is an adaptation of the Rumaan Alam novel starring Roberts and Ethan Hawke as Amanda and Clay. They opt to rent a house out on Long Island and take their two kids for a little getaway. One night, there’s a knock at the door. It’s Mahershala Ali’s GH and his daughter Ruth (Myha’la). They claim they own the house and had to return due to a blackout in the city. All living under the same roof, this group of strangers is challenged to figure out how much they can trust one another while a potentially catastrophic disaster develops.

With Leave the World Behind arriving on Netflix on December 8th, I got the chance to have a brief chat with Roberts and Ali about their experience working together as scene partners, what it was like doing that unforgettable dance scene, and the Leave the World Behind co-star they’d trust the most in a disaster movie scenario.

Check it all out in the video at the top of this article, or you can read the interview transcript below.

Leave the World Behind A family’s getaway to a luxurious rental home takes an ominous turn when a cyberattack knocks out their devices, and two strangers appear at their door. Release Date November 22, 2023 Director Sam Esmail Cast Julia Roberts, Denzel Washington, Ethan Hawke, Kevin Bacon, Mahershala Ali Main Genre Drama

PERRI NEMIROFF: Can you each tell me something about the other as a scene partner that you appreciated, maybe even something they did to help you reach something in your own character that you might not have been able to without them?

JULIA ROBERTS: Well, I will say this, I work hard at my job but there’s always this internal feeling inside of me as soon as you hear action, I’m ready for it to be done. I’m ready to hear cut. And I think the time that I was able to share that creative space with Mahershala and his thoughtfulness and his sort of elegant way of holding that space and time, it sort of made me more aware of my inside clock, and I think I was able to slow those moments down for myself in a way that was new for me.

What a beautiful answer! Can you top that Mahershala?

MAHERSHALA ALI: I don’t think I can top it, but I can say that what I loved and really appreciated about working with Julia was this inner sense of always saying yes. So, if Sam wanted us to do something different or if something felt challenging there was this willingness to say yes and try it. Acting, projects, they can become these things where people start eating each other up through being pessimistic and it can go downhill, or, because filmmaking is very difficult and things always go wrong, you can have people that are constantly looking for the light and you can kind of follow there and create something beautiful together and so, that was my experience in working with Julia, so thank you so much.

It very much sounds like the same is true of this entire ensemble.

‘Leave the World Behind’s Dance Scene Was a Tough One for Roberts & Ali

There’s a specific scene I have to ask you both about. I need to know everything about that delightful dance scene. Was that song always what was scripted, and how did you find the specific dance moves that you thought suited your character in that moment, too?

ROBERTS: There was a lot of rehearsal time for that. A lot of it was just talking about how to hold the space, how to share the space, how to be apart from each other, how to be close to each other. A lot of it was just me being able to look up into Mahershala’s eyes and not have my cheeks turn red and start kind of getting teary-eyed and giggly like a 15-year-old girl. There was a lot of that, and you were very patient and sweet. And it’s a complicated scene. I mean, we were just talking, it’s maybe, for us, one of the harder scenes that we had together in the movie.

ALI: Definitely.

A silly question to end on about disaster movie scenarios – let’s say real world, real you, there is a blackout just like what happens in this film. You can team up with one Leave the World behind co-star. Who do you choose that you think will give you the best chance of surviving?

ROBERTS: [To Ali] It would be you.

ALI: We’re together. We survived it already.

ROBERTS: Yeah, not Sam and not Ethan because they would both be like, “What do we … What?”

ALI: [Laughs] Right. No, we’re here!

ROBERTS: And they’ve said that!

Image via Netflix

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