Mahershala Ali on Swan Song, the Films Thought-Provoking Questions, and Blade

With writer-director Benjamin Cleary’s Swan Song now streaming on Apple TV , I recently got to speak with Mahershala Ali about making the thought-provoking original drama with a sci-fi twist. If you haven’t seen the trailer, the film is set in a near future where a doctor (Glenn Close) has recently invented technology that allows someone dying (Ali) to transfer all their memories to a new cloned body without any medical issues. While their original body and consciousness will die, the new version will live on. But the price to do this is the person can never tell their friends and family about what they did. The film explores what Ali’s character, Cameron, is willing to do to shield his family from grief and how far we will go to make a happier life for the people we love. Swan Song also stars Naomie Harris, Awkwafina, and Adam Beach and is produced by Adam Shulman and Jacob Perlin of Anonymous Content, and Jonathan King of Concordia Studio. It also marks the debut of Ali as producer. During the interv