Corey Hawkins and Anna Diop are two of today’s most compelling talents, each bringing a distinct legacy of powerful performances to the screen. Hawkins, a Juilliard-trained actor, has showcased his versatility in everything from his breakout role as Dr. Dre in “Straight Outta Compton” to critically acclaimed turns in “BlacKkKlansman,” “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” “In the Heights,” and Broadway productions like “Topdog/Underdog.” Diop, born in Senegal and raised in the U.S., has steadily built her own legacy, captivating audiences as Starfire in “Titans,” delivering a standout performance in Jordan Peele’s “Us,” and earning accolades for her haunting portrayal in “Nanny.” 

Now, the two star opposite one another in “The Man In My Basement,” an adaptation of Walter Mosley’s novel. Hawkins steps into the role of Charles Blakey, a man drowning in debt and haunted by his lineage, while Diop embodies Narciss Gully, an academic committed to preserving Black cultural legacies. Together, their performances hold the film’s eerie tension steady, grounding it in humanity.

When asked what the project revealed about evil in its quietest, most insidious forms, Diop leaned into the metaphor at the film’s core. 

She explained that “we all have a shadow, this metaphorical man in the basement,” adding that it’s something we must face, analyze, and wrestle with in order to heal. 

“We meet Charles who is so pained and stuck, lonely and lost in the world, while having incredible shadows he needs to face from his past,” she said, connecting his unraveling to the ways we often ignore our own. 

Hawkins took the thought global, pointing to director Nadia Latiff’s insistence on tying personal pain to political violence. 

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“There’s this sort of everyday evils,” he said, invoking atrocities like genocide that the world consumes through headlines and then forgets. 

“The story is set in 1994 because the backdrop is the Rwandan genocide. It feels so distant, but it’s so close to who we are.” 

For Hawkins, Charles’s struggles fromwith financial, emotional, and psychological issues are not just his own, but a reflection of what happens when people disconnect from history and community.

Diop carried that thread into a larger reflection on innocence and the cost of ignoring self-awareness. She admitted that too often, people move through life unaware that their shadows are steering the wheel. 

“Self-awareness is a gift,” she said, explaining that Charles’s suffering stems from a refusal to look inward. His healing, however, offers a roadmap for us all. 

“He has this beautiful scene with his friend when he says, ‘I’m sorry that I was so awful to you earlier. I was jealous.’ That kind of healing is what I think is necessary in each of us as individuals. Once we do that, we, as a collective, will have greater empathy.”

For Hawkins, the story is also about what society tries to bury, particularly the truth of Black resilience. 

“Sometimes we live in a world where we get constantly reminded otherwise,” he said. 

“Particularly with Charles and this movie, society will push and culture will try to remind us that we cannot do the unimaginable. Still, we continue to exceed it. We continue to build culture, not break it down. We’re interested in building and loving each other. That’s what we come from. That’s what we know.” 

It was a reminder that the film’s tension isn’t just about one man’s battle with good and evil, but a broader testament to survival and legacy.

Diop, meanwhile, framed innocence as both fragile and dangerous. “It’s a beautiful thing, but in equal measure discernment and awareness and responsibility is just as important,” she noted. 

In her eyes, innocence without maturity can be weaponized in a world full of “bad intentioned evil forces.” 

Hawkins closed the loop by tying innocence back to inheritance. 

“It can always be tainted,” he said plainly. “This film reminds us to connect with our land and our legacy. Our legacy is not just legacy and land is not just land. It is survival, and it is our inheritance. We are resilient.”