‘The Man in My Basement’ has been drumming up buzz on a global scale.

Led by Corey Hawkins and Willem Dafoe, the Nadia Latif-directed film tells the gripping story of Charles Blakey, a man forced into a morally complex arrangement that challenges his understanding of power, responsibility, and survival.

Based on Walter Mosley’s acclaimed novel, the reimagined incarnation pairs powerhouse performances with Latif’s striking vision of tension in confined spaces.

That Grape Juice’s Nadia M caught up with Hawkins, who spoke on stepping into such a layered role and the wider themes of the movie, as well as Latif, who unpacked her approach to building atmosphere, guiding her cast, and ensuring the story leaves audiences questioning long after the credits roll.

Check out the interviews below:

 

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That Grape Juice: What drew you to this story now?

Nadia Latif: I read the book 20 years ago, and I was so drawn to it. There were so many images from it that had stuck in my mind. When I heard there was a film adaptation in the offing, and that a film company had the rights to it, I thought, “This is mine. I’m going to go get this job.”

I turned up with a 90-page deck with storyboards showing how I wanted to do it, the themes I was interested in. I think everyone responded to the fact I had a very clear devotion to the story, but also a strong point of view.

I knew it would not just be the book, it would be me looking at the book. I have my own political beliefs, my own personal beliefs, my own politics to bring to this, and I felt I could bring that to a visual medium. Walter wrote some earlier drafts, and I wrote later drafts. It has been a really wild ride.

That Grape Juice: Which theme, race, power, or morality felt most urgent to show on screen?

Nadia Latif: For me, it was the idea that there are different moral universes, influenced by where and how you grew up. I was very interested in two men meeting each other: a Black man from a rarefied, protected enclave, and a white man who has experienced the whole world and its cruelty. These two moral universes meet.

I was also interested in intention. Does what you do matter more than what you intended? Where does intention lie? Can you say, “I was just there, so I am not the bad guy”? Or does being there make you the bad guy?

Looking at major conflicts in history, you see different moral universes from the ones we live in. But they are still real, still happening, and people like us are involved. These are people with hearts, lungs, and brains. The film says, “Yes, it could happen. Yes, you could be involved.”

That Grape Juice: How did you keep tension alive in such a contained space?

Nadia Latif: My DP Ola Pontikos, and I talked a lot about this. Much of the film happens in very few locations, but you have to feel like those locations change over time. We had inches, not miles, to work with, so we focused on small shifts like eye lines and camera heights to create a constant sense of change.

By the end, you do not quite know how it is the same room. We are still only using the same three practical lights, but small changes accumulate. Even Willem would make slight changes to where the furniture sat to reinforce that shifting atmosphere.

That Grape Juice: Corey Hawkins and Willem Dafoe have very different energies. What dynamic did you want between them?

Nadia Latif: I love stories about journeys. The journey is the point, not the arrival. And I love stories about strangers meeting. It is interesting across genres. Because their characters do not know each other, I rehearsed Willem and Corey separately. It made their first meeting on set feel real.

Corey is in almost every frame of the film. Willem only appears with him. Corey had to work in two registers: a naturalistic world with the other characters and a darker, more baroque world with Willem. It was all about embracing difference. They are different ages, races, and backgrounds. We did not need them to meet in the middle.

That Grape Juice: The basement feels like its own character. How did you build that atmosphere?

Nadia Latif: I worked with a fantastic production designer, Catherine Ida. We thought of the basement as both a place of death and a slightly holy space. Underground spaces distort time and gravity. We studied what pitch black does to you, what happens with no natural light, or under a tungsten bulb.

We only had three lights. It was all about minute changes, making corners feel further away, shadows larger. We used some split-diopter shots and slow-moving shots sparingly. We storyboarded the whole film so we would not repeat how we showed the basement. Each new angle made you feel differently about the room.

There is a shot where you suddenly see the basement from a new angle, and it feels like a different room. Just like with the characters, we wanted to shoot the basement in surprising ways.

That Grape Juice: What do you hope audiences are still debating after the credits roll?

Nadia Latif: I wanted to make a film with more questions than answers. I want people to walk away thinking, “How do I feel about that? What would I do in that situation?”

Corey’s character goes on a journey of awakening. He becomes aware of the world. I hope audiences walk out more aware of the world around them. Whose histories am I hearing? Who is telling me this story? Am I cut off from violence around the world? Do I turn away, or should I turn into it?

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‘The Man In My Basement’ is Out Now on Disney+

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