00:01Our next guests are teaming up to tell a little-known true story from one of the darkest chapters in
00:07the civil rights era.
00:07You've seen Mark Wahlberg in the Transformers series and The Departed.
00:11Yahya Abdul-Mateen II starred in The Matrix, Resurrections, and The Trial of the Chicago 7.
00:17Now they are playing an unlikely pair in the new crime drama, By Any Means.
00:21Abdul-Mateen plays FBI agent Wayne Strider, who teams up with mob hitman and FBI informant Greg Scarborough, played by
00:26Wahlberg.
00:27They investigate the murders of civil rights leaders in 1960s Mississippi.
00:31In this clip, the pair meet up for the first time.
00:35Here's what I want to know.
00:37Sure.
00:40How do you break the case?
00:43Maybe they don't tell you, do they?
00:46Let's just say there's a point where everybody talks.
00:53So not real police work then?
00:55Do I look like police?
00:58They brought me down here the last time.
01:00I did what I do, and I found those poor kids.
01:05Factors recently stopped by the studio to talk about the movie.
01:09Mark Wahlberg and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II join us now.
01:13Good morning, fellas.
01:14Good morning.
01:14Good to see you.
01:15I'm good.
01:16I'm good.
01:16Thank you for joining us.
01:17The film is incredible.
01:18Let me just get that out the way.
01:19I saw it.
01:20I got a sneak preview.
01:21I'm going to go see it in the theaters again.
01:23That's how much I love it.
01:24But this film is inspired and driven by the real murders of four civil rights activists
01:28in Mississippi in the 60s.
01:30What can you tell us about them and also why it's important to retell this story now?
01:35The story picks up with the murder of three civil rights activists down in Mississippi.
01:42And the FBI finds the car, but there are nobodies.
01:46Nobody's talking to the FBI.
01:48So this is a world where they figure that they have to do unconventional measures in order
01:53to get good done.
01:54And that's where Greg Scarper is called in to rough him up and get some information.
02:01So that's really the type of world that we're living in.
02:04And then the murder of Vernon Dahmer really expedites the cause in the movie.
02:10And, Mark, you've been in this industry a long time.
02:13There's a certain weight that comes with a film like this.
02:16Yeah.
02:16How do you take on that responsibility?
02:20Well, it's a massive responsibility that we take very seriously when there's real life
02:24tragedy involved.
02:25You know, that responsibility weighs heavy on you.
02:27This is innocent people having these tragic events happening to them.
02:31And so I think the wish fulfillment also that happens in this movie and how they go about
02:36getting justice has been very fulfilling for audiences.
02:40But, yeah, you know, we talked about it a lot, even with Greg and his family, you know,
02:44having Greg Jr. there and Linda there.
02:47Did you learn more about Greg?
02:49I learned quite a bit about Greg.
02:51I learned more about Greg, the family man and the father.
02:54But to realize that he was a dad, when I walked out of the hair and makeup trailer, his kids
02:58were like, oh, my God, it's daddy.
02:59And, like, they thought.
03:01And there's a 70-something old guy who just did 35 years in prison himself and his daughter
03:06who had seen a lot of, like, real violence in her life during the Columbo Wars and her
03:11growing up in Brooklyn.
03:13And that just kind of put a, it just put a, you know, a different spin on it for me.
03:17And, Yahya, you're playing a fictional black FBI agent in Mississippi in the 60s.
03:23Now, black folks at that time, they didn't trust the FBI.
03:26They didn't trust local law enforcement.
03:28Now, on the flip side, white folks at that time didn't trust a black man with a badge.
03:33So, how did you navigate that tension between the two?
03:36Yeah, well, you know, this movie takes place, from Wayne's perspective, in a wicked world
03:41where he's trying to do good.
03:43I want to make a change, and I want to take care of myself and my family.
03:46And as long as I stay the course, everything's going to work.
03:50You know, that allowed me to have thick skin, you know, as a character, to, you know, portray
03:56this character with dignity.
03:57But also, it put me in a dilemma very, very, very quickly because I got into some situations
04:02where Scarpa's saying, hey, man, how long are you going to stay this course?
04:05Like you guys are both saying, there is this duality that your characters are dealing with.
04:10Yeah.
04:10And as you're watching it, as an audience member watching it, I feel it.
04:15And there's times where I'm talking to your character.
04:17Yeah.
04:18I need you to bend the rules a little bit.
04:19Yeah, yeah, yeah.
04:20And then I'm talking to your character, and I'm saying, I need you to chill out a little bit.
04:23Bro, yeah.
04:24Sometimes, you know, if you're dealing with people that are that bad, you have to be just
04:28a little bit badder.
04:29Yeah.
04:30You know, and he did a phenomenal job.
04:32And that morality that your character is dealing with, trying to figure out where the edge is,
04:38and if I need to cross it in order to do the job that we set out to do, how
04:44do you tap into
04:45that?
04:45Like, do you pull that from personal experiences, or is it just an actor being an actor?
04:50I think it's training, it's fun, you know.
04:55Mark was just saying, we both had our roles to play.
04:59I know where the story's going, you know.
05:01So my job is to hold the line and try to stay good as long as possible, you know.
05:07And that was my job.
05:10You could tell how much I was annoying him.
05:13He didn't tell me until after, you know.
05:16And that was Greg's job.
05:17But, you know, it was a game of trust, you know what I mean.
05:20I mean, to play Wayne sort of straight-laced a certain way, I said, okay, well, Mark is
05:28doing the job of, like, keeping that engine going, you know what I mean.
05:30And I'm doing the job of trying to get the train on the positive track, you know what
05:35I mean.
05:35But at some point, there's going to be a collision in the story where Wayne is going
05:39to have to make a choice and say, bro, what are you going to do?
05:41Y'all, y'all, I've heard a lot of people talk about working with Mark.
05:45What did you notice about working with this man right here that has been in this game a
05:50long time?
05:51Flexing his skill.
05:52Man, Mark, you so laid back, dude.
05:55I really, you know, Mark's a pro.
05:58Pro.
05:59And his approach, your approach is extremely professional.
06:04Yeah.
06:04Extremely prepared, but there's always a little joke running up underneath everything.
06:10And I think that's cool.
06:11But I think the most important thing is, you're only as good as the guy next to you.
06:15And I've seen a lot of great actors who are, like, so busy worrying about doing their thing
06:19that they have a tendency to forget about the person that's in the scene with them or
06:22the movie as a whole.
06:25It's just servicing the vision of the filmmaker.
06:27Elegance had a very specific vision.
06:28And it was my job to go and basically embody Greg, play that part, so the more I could
06:34get him to try different things.
06:36And we have now a movie, because it's really about these two guys, where, you know, we don't
06:40actually become friends in the end, but we understand each other a lot more.
06:44Yep.
06:45And that's the thing that I think people will take away from the movie.
06:48Well, listen, you guys have been very intentional about the work you put out into this world,
06:53and it's been fantastic.
06:54This falls in line on the list of another well-done film by both of you.
07:00I am going to see it again in the theaters.
07:04And by any means, as in theaters today, make sure you go see it.
07:07It is a really, really good movie.
07:09It's intense, and you have two of the best actors now.
07:12Oh, I remember reading about the true story back in the day.
07:14Yeah.
07:14I definitely want to see it.
07:15And you recommend seeing it on a theater as opposed to on my computer screen.
07:19Right.
07:19Go to the theater.
07:20Where we get these links.
07:21No doubt about it.
07:22Go always to the theater.
07:22It's one of those movies you go run to the theater to watch it.
07:25Yeah.
