Mortensen: The friendship thing can go any number of ways. Every part’s different, every actor, actor relationship is different. With Mahershala [Ali, costar of “Green Book”], I happened to get to know him nine months before we did this movie and we connected. We were in one of these things where they have these lunches, like the Independent Spirit Awards, where the people who are nominated can come. And usually it’s like a big room that you’re like, ‘OK, how do I get through it and out quick?’ 30-second conversations, a minute at most. And I found myself in a corner with my son, who came with me as my personal bodyguard, holding my hand, basically. I’m by the bathroom door in this corner and I look and there’s Mahershala. And I go, “Hey,” you know, how much I liked his work and before we know it we’re talking for half an hour about anything but, and I think we were both relieved to get out of the hobnobbing. We ended the conversation as we do sometimes, if you get along with someone, “Well maybe someday we’ll end up doing something.” Next job for both of us is [“Green Book”]. So we did have a jump and that was helpful actually.
Source: latimes.com – Los Angeles Times