Mahershalalhashbaz Ali Interview On 'Benjamin Button,' Brad Pitt, David Fincher, His Wild Name

Mahershalalhashbaz Ali plays a father figure to Benjamin in the most buzzed about film of the year, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Starring alongside Brad Pitt, in the titular role, and director by David Fincher, Ali had a strong feeling that this film was going to be a hit. “This was my first film having done a lot of TV,” Ali told Uinterview in an exclusive interview. “I knew it was special from the day I read it.”

Born in Oakland, Calif., as Mahershalalhashbaz Gilmore, Ali was originally named after one of Isaiah’s son in the Bible. He appeared in several films including Umi’s Heart in 2008 and Making Revolution in 2003.

Now, Ali is reveling in working opposite Pitt — or at least someone who looks a lot like him in Benjamin Button. “The scenes that I had worked on with Benjamin were really played by little people who were later changed to look like Brad Pitt,” he told Uinterview. “They put Brad’s face onto about 12 little people.”