The actor didnt know what to do next.
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At some point in 2021,Yahya Abdul-Mateen IIdecided he needed to build a life.
Thats when I had to do something about it.
During this break, hed ride his bike and hang out in Prospect Park.
Hed buy plants and make a run at keep them alive.
What showed up wasnt a movie.
This came in my box, Abdul-Mateen begins.
And it was like, Whats up?Topdog/Underdog.Broadway.
What you gon do?
That wasnt the message in its entirety, but its how he read it: like a challenge.
Booth istryingto be an excellent three-card-monte dealer.
He wants to coax Lincoln back to or just beat him at his old scam.
Theyre brothers and mirrors and playmates and rivals.
The character is crass and animated and tragic rich material for any performer.
(Jeffrey Wright played Lincoln opposite each.)
Abdul-Mateen wouldnt have said yes to doing the show, his Broadway first, if it werent for Booth.
As an undergrad at UC Berkeley, he studied architecture but took a theater class.
After Berkeley, he had a career in city planning in San Francisco.
Hed still performed only casually.
I didnt consider myself an actor when I was at Yale.
I felt like everybody else was.
Some people had been on Broadway in Tony Awardwinning performances.
The head of the department took note of this during their first-semester check-in.
He told me I was backfooting.
He wanted me to take up more space.
It seems impossible for this guy Aquamans Manta!
to make himself small.
But his gregariousness is tempered; he can turn the charisma up or down.
He seemed pleased that hed surprised me.
But in conversation, he was slow and ruminative.
Booth doesnt have the same emotional dexterity.
Abdul-Mateen is more attuned to that now that hes older, playing Booth as older, too.
He hadnt revisited the material since college but had it in my brain the whole time.
He wanted his life to be a little bit better, Abdul-Mateen says.
None of that comes at the expense of Booths easy charm as Parks wrote him on the page.
It adds to the sum of Booths turmoil.
He got a smart mouth.
He gon to tell you what he say.
Hes got a romantic side, very braggadocious, he says.Thatsthe New Orleans, Abdul-Mateen reports.
His Booth will be sly and bombastic, something they call putting ten on a two.
Do they say that out here?
Like being very extra, I offer.
Doing themooost, he says, stretching out the word.
Thats who Booth is.
One of Abdul-Mateens earliest challenges as a new actor was to gauge whenheshould do the most.
Thats one of the things that Ive had to learn to fine-tune over the years.
The best acting is when the audience can feel the work, not necessarily see it.
AsTopdog/Underdogdirector Kenny Leon puts it, He takes you somewhere you havent been.
But how does the process forTopdog/Underdogcompare to something big and loud likeAquaman?
Everything should be about getting to the truth.
But sometimes you got to know which movie or genre youre in, Abdul-Mateen says.
Something likeAquaman,thats clown work.Aquamanis notThe Trial of the Chicago 7.You gotta get over yourself.
Topdog/Underdogbegins previews September 27.
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