-You won an Oscar for "Moonlight."
I've never had you on the show.
What is that like? What do you remember from that?
-I don't remember much.
[ Laughter ]
I don't. I had to go back and watch it on YouTube.
[ Laughter ]
-What did you think of your performance on YouTube?
-You know, I did all right.
I walked past The Dude
and had to go back and give love to Jeff Bridges.
-Oh, the actual Dude. -Yeah, The Dude.
But, you know, we had a baby, like, four days before.
And my wife was 10 days late.
So I was a little concerned that I wasn't even going to make it
to the Oscars, you know.
So it ended up working out.
It was pretty extraordinary, you know, seeing Denzel,
and, you know, everybody.
All of the people I really respect and admire.
-I love the name Mahershala. -Yeah.
-Do you -- Is it -- What's the origin of Mahershala?
-My name is 18 letters long.
[ Laughter ]
It's the longest word in the Bible.
Mahershalalhashbaz, Isaiah chapter 8, verse 1 and 3.
-Wow, that's a long name.
-Yeah, so, Mahershala is my Nickname.
People say, "You know, what's your nickname?"
I'm like, "Mahershala is my nickname."
[ Laughter ]
-It's a good nickname, yeah.
Because you also went by a different name at one point.
-Uh... [ Laughs ]
[ Laughter ]
-I don't know if you know what I'm talking about,
but I'm talking about my man Prince Ali, the rapper.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Oh, no.
-You know that guy?
Quest, you know -- -Yeah.
[ Laughter ]
-When did you do this?
-Uh, well...
I'm retired, brother. I'm retired.
[ Laughter ]
-No, it's not bad. It's not bad.
It's just something that happened.
-That was 2007 we shot that.
But I -- you know, early on,
just coming up in the arts and whatnot and being creative --
I got an indie deal like in '97.
And then we pressed up a bunch of wax,
and literally a week later I got into grad school.
And I was like, "Well, I'm gonna go do this thing."
And so then I came to New York and really focused on acting.
So I kind of let it go.
And I knew I had a very clear vision
of what I wanted to do as an actor.
And I was waiting for the opportunities to catch up
with how I saw myself, you know.
And so -- And that took a while. -Good for you.
I'm glad that you made the right choice
because, gosh, everything we've seen you in --
"Moonlight" and "House of Cards."
-Yeah.
-And now you're gonna be in the new "True Detective."
Is that true? -Yes, yes.
-I mean, come on. [ Cheers and applause ]
That's gonna be great.
-Yeah, I'm excited about it.
It's Nic Pizzolatto, the show creator --
He did an extraordinary job with this season.
It's eight episodes over several decades.
It's fantastic.
-That's gonna be a big deal.
When is that -- Do you know when that comes out?
-January 13th. -January 13th.
In the meantime, you guys have to go check out "Green Book."
This is -- My man Peter Farrelly directed this.
Beautiful, beautiful movie.
It is funny. It is heart-warming.
It is -- It's just a smart movie
and it really just tells a beautiful story
based on a true story. -Yeah, yeah.
Two gentlemen who go on a road trip.
One of them -- I play Dr. Don Shirley,
who is a highly educated man,
talented, extraordinary concert pianist.
And he lives on top of Carnegie Hall.
Wealthy.
And then, this guy, this bouncer from the Bronx,
who is a bit of a brute and a racist.
-"Excuse me." -Yeah.
-"Hey, yo, what's the problem over here?"
-Yes, yes, yes.
[ Laughter ]
-"We'll drive a car" -- You guys are great, though.
-Yeah, yeah. Thank you, thank you.
-I saw some line where you said,
"I thought I was making a drama when I started this movie
and then, in the middle, we started getting
some comedy out of it because the chemistry was great."
-I thought -- The script read --
It pretty much read like a drama.
And when I met with Pete, he was like,
"Yeah, I'm making my first drama."
So, here it is, I'm excited
because you're almost working with a first-time filmmaker
with 25 years of experience, you know?
And so, but we felt a little tricked.
Not intentionally because there was the dynamic
between Viggo and myself.
I think the dynamic of the characters, excuse me,
I think there's more comedy than was initially on the page.
-Yeah, because you feel the chemistry --
-We were having to pull back from the comedy a bit
to make sure that we kept it in the zone of having that balance
between the dramatic elements and comedy.
-There's some tough scenes in there.
This is set in the '60s in America.
-Yeah.
-And you're traveling through the South.
And there actually is a thing called "The Green Book"?
-Yeah, yeah.
Green Book was put together by Victor Hugo Green,
who was a postal service worker in, I think, 1938.
And he basically -- It was, essentially, like a rolodex
or a reference book for anywhere black people
could get gas, could eat, could sleep.
And it was basically a book and a guide on
how to survive the South if you were black.
-You learn from each other,
and it becomes, really, a good buddy movie, kind of.
-Yeah, yeah. You see two very different people come together.
Yeah.
-We need that in this country right now, so it's great.