Wunmi Mosaku admits social media is all an illusion — and she’s part of it

The actress sits down with theGrio ahead of “The Social Reckoning” hitting theaters to discuss her role and the merits of social media. 

If you only knew actress Wunmi Mosaku from her social media content, you’d probably gather that her life is just one glamorous cover shoot, followed by one star-studded red carpet appearance after another—but she’d be the first to tell you that isn’t the truth. 

“I’m always like, be true to yourself, be true to yourself… But I only show one side of myself on social media, the side of myself that’s working, and that is it,” she admitted to theGrio over Zoom on Sunday, when, in actuality, according to the actress, there’s so much more to her story.

Besides the balancing act of being a mom of two and a professional actress, she revealed that life is not always so picture perfect; quite a lot of her career as a performer involves being unemployed and grappling with the anxiety of not knowing when you’ll work next.

“I never show that side of it,” she confessed. “I just show the sides where I’m at work, where I have hair and makeup done. Like that is literally all I ever show, and I never show the full truth of being an actor, and it is a roller coaster, and I don’t show the truth of being a mom. I don’t show the truth of being a Brit in America, a Black Brit, a Nigerian in Britain.”

She added, “To me, social media is about illusion.” 

The 40-year-old actress stars in the upcoming film and companion piece to “The Social Network,” “The Social Reckoning,” alongside Mikey Madison, Jeremy Strong, Jeremy Allen White, Bill Burr, and more to tell the story of what happened when former Facebook employee Frances Haugen leaked thousands of internal company documents to The Wall Street Journal, exposing what the company knew about some of its platforms’ harms known as the Facebook Files.

“The thing that I found really annoying when I read this script was that I know all these things happen because of social media, and yet I still engage with it,” the “Sinners” star said. “We all still engage with it because it is now the fabric of our society.” 

“The Social Reckoning,” which lands in theaters on Friday, Oct. 9, picks up with the story of Facebook long after it was a fledgling social media startup in “The Social Network” and after it’s one part of the larger Meta world. Mosaku plays Raya, a member of Meta’s legal counsel who has a rather complicated position in the whole thing, as she is tasked with helping the company and its leader, Mark Zuckerberg, navigate the legal battle. 

“I think Raya is kind of like everyone,” the “Lovecraft Country” alum said. “We all have our morals. We all have our idea of what we think is right and wrong, and we say what we say, but do we always walk the walk?”

There are stakes for Raya, Mosaku noted, including potentially a mortgage, bills to pay, mouths to feed, and a job on the line. It’s also a dynamic Mosaku recognizes in a lot of us, including herself. 

“I can see similarities in my life where I’m like, ‘Ah, the billionaires. I don’t like them.’ But then I still might buy something because I need it quickly, and these are the moments where I don’t walk the walk,” the actress said with a laugh. “I think my version feels less offensive, but it’s still impactful, and we do it all the time.”

Raya was crafted for the story, but she represents a real tension for the audience between the internal work happening behind the scenes and the employee perspective we rarely see when the dirty laundry of these massive empires is brought out and challenged in the light. Mosaku alluded to a battle between her morals and the larger plight Facebook faces.

“Raya is someone who believes something, she knows what she thinks is right and wrong, but she’s also getting a pay paycheck,” the actress laid out. 

Mosaku added, “She’s doing what she’s being paid to do, and that is to guide this guy who isn’t so likable and make him feel more human, more empathetic, or make people more empathetic towards him. She’s doing her job, but I don’t know if her beliefs have changed. I think she knows. She sees what the impact of Facebook is, but she still turns up to work.”

“She’s not a whistleblower. Not everyone’s a revolutionary,” Mosaku quipped. 

The star may not be clocking in at Meta every morning, but when it comes to social media, she understands something about continuing to participate in a system you don’t entirely trust. Social media gives Mosaku anxiety, she noted, because of how much she prefers a transparent and truthful mode of operating and how much it enables the opposite. 

“The best way would be to be truthful. But that’s a very vulnerable place to be because people aren’t kind, and right now people don’t even know how to disagree kindly,” the star explained. “They don’t even know how to communicate with someone who doesn’t agree with them, so it feels like I’m not willing to risk any backlash and hate.” 

As much as Mosaku wishes social media could become a more truthful place, she’s also realistic about how much vulnerability that would require, and just how willing she is to volunteer.

“I’m not gonna be the first,” the actress teased with a laugh.