From KCRW, I'm Kim Masters, and this is The Business.

Mahershala Ali has worked for 20 years and has Oscars for Moonlight and Green Book.

But the new drama Swan Song is his first leading role in a film.

He's also a producer on the project, which came naturally since he feels he's been doing some of that work without the credit for years.

Speaking for myself as a black man, you find yourself in a position where you're having to serve as the one who is authenticating a story when there needs to be other voices behind the scenes besides the actor who ends up having to point out all the things that

other people are missing. Ali tells us why taking the lead in Swan Song felt right, even though

it was the director's first feature. And he explains why he shortened his name to Mahershila

from his full first name, which is 18 letters long. Plus, we get a tiny peek at his process for birthing the character of Marvel's Blade.

But first we banter. Stick around. It's the business from KCRW.

Hi, I am joined by my colleague in banter, Matt Bellany. Hello, Matt.

Hi there.

So, we have had a lot of movies disappoint. One of the movies, and we are speaking, like, as this thing is opening overseas and getting ready to open in the U.S., one of the movies is clearly not going to disappoint is Spider-Man No Way Home.

It has already done tens of millions of dollars worth of business overseas.

It seems that despite all of the anxiety about the new variant, people are going to go to see this one.

And I think in the one hand, the message for the legacy studios who are trying to preserve box office grosses and the theaters, it will be very heartening that if you deliver the right thing, they will come.

But on the other hand, everybody else has got to be sitting there thinking, who, I am particularly Stephen Spielberg, you know, I fell awfully far short of that.

Yeah, I mean, this is the kind of movie that has been doing okay in theaters.

It appeals to a younger yet not all children audience.

It's a big franchise.

It feels like something that you might take a risk and go to the movies for, you know,

rather than some of these more adult-driven dramas or musicals that have just

fallen flat. And it's Marvel. I mean, Marvel is the brand. And even though this is Sony Marvel,

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