The Emmy-winning actor talks By Any Means, Wonder Man, Jason Momoa, Ben Kingsley and the surprising details that shape his performances.
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II has built the kind of career that is almost impossible to define with a single role. He has moved from the swaggering Cadillac in The Get Down to Black Manta in Aquaman, Bobby Seale in The Trial of the Chicago 7, Dr. Manhattan in Watchmen and Simon Williams in Marvel’s Wonder Man. His latest transformation takes him back to 1966 for the crime thriller By Any Means.
Directed by Elegance Bratton and written by Sascha Penn, By Any Means is inspired by events surrounding the murder of Hattiesburg businessman, NAACP chapter president, and voting rights activist Vernon Dahmer. Abdul-Mateen stars as Wayne Strider, a composite character representing a Black FBI agent working within a system that forces him into an unlikely partnership with real-life mob enforcer Greg Scarpa, played by Mark Wahlberg.
During a conversation with Nerdtropolis, Abdul-Mateen opened up about the surprising amount of research that went into creating Strider, the small physical detail that finally transported him into 1966, and the roles he believes best represent the different sides of him as an actor.
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II Researched Black FBI Agents of the 1960s
Playing Wayne Strider required Abdul-Mateen to understand more than the basic mechanics of being an FBI agent. He wanted to understand what it would have meant specifically to be a Black agent working during J. Edgar Hoover’s era.
That led him to historical material examining the Black men who served inside the Bureau during the 1960s.
“I looked at some of the— I believe it was Ebony magazine. They did a big profile on Black FBI agents in the 1960s. That was a big part of my research,” Abdul-Mateen told Nerdtropolis.
He learned about the standards these agents were expected to meet and the level of training required to reach those positions.
“Reading and learning about what it was like to be a black agent under the Hoover administration, learning that you know these guys were always the top of the class,” Abdul-Mateen said. “You know they that they had excellent gun training and hand-to-hand combat training, and just arming myself with with with with that type of skill set.”
The goal was to mentally build enough of Strider’s world that he could step onto the set without feeling like a modern actor simply wearing a period costume.
However, after all that research, the final ingredient turned out to be something much simpler.
His shoes.
“The last thing that really always solidified it on the day, speaking of shoes, was Wayne’s shoes,” Abdul-Mateen explained.
The actor described them as black, hard-bottom leather shoes that were carefully kept clean and polished. The production’s costume work was designed around the textures, silhouettes and craftsmanship of the period, and Abdul-Mateen specifically wanted to spend time wearing Wayne’s shoes so he could become accustomed to how they felt.
That physical connection helped complete the transformation.
“Anytime I put on those shoes, I know what the, what the ground feels like under my feet,” Abdul-Mateen said. “And that was the thing that made me feel like I was, I was ready to go.”
Unexpected Friendships With Ben Kingsley and Jason Momoa
Unlikely partnerships are also at the center of By Any Means. Strider and Scarpa come from dramatically different worlds, yet circumstances force them together.
That idea gave me an opportunity to ask Abdul-Mateen about the unexpected relationships that have emerged throughout his own career.
One of the first people who came to mind was his Wonder Man co-star Ben Kingsley.
“That was a really, really cool partnership. I learned a lot,” Abdul-Mateen said of working with Kingsley.
He also pointed to his relationship with Aquaman star Jason Momoa.
“I can, you know, um, pick up the phone and call that dude,” Abdul-Mateen said.
Beyond their work together as Arthur Curry and Black Manta, Abdul-Mateen said he paid attention to how Momoa operated behind the scenes, particularly the importance he placed on family and making room for the people close to him while working on a production.
Abdul-Mateen also named filmmaker Baz Luhrmann and Regina King among the meaningful connections he never expected his acting career to bring into his life.
“I never even, you know, thought that I would be doing this thing,” he said.
His approach to each production remains relatively simple: arrive, do the work, do it well and eventually return home to his life away from the set. Still, that approach has resulted in relationships that became far more meaningful than he anticipated.
“I have made some pretty special connections along the way,” Abdul-Mateen said.
The Get Down, Wonder Man and the Roles That Show His Range
Trying to reduce Abdul-Mateen’s career to two performances is not particularly easy. He apparently agrees.
When I challenged him to create a two-project double feature that could best demonstrate who he is as an artist, he immediately went back to the beginning of his television career.
“I would start off with The Get Down,” Abdul-Mateen said.
Baz Luhrmann’s Netflix series introduced him as Clarence “Cadillac” Caldwell, a wildly charismatic figure who gave the then-new actor a chance to embrace a particularly theatrical kind of performance.
“There’s a certain flash and flair that I get to share with that,” he said.
Years later, Abdul-Mateen sees a connection between Cadillac and his Marvel character Simon Williams.
“Simon Williams in Wonder Man is also like the new version of Cadillac,” Abdul-Mateen said, explaining that the character hopefully reminds viewers “that there’s a sort of different flavor that I could cook with.”
It is a telling comparison considering how varied his career has become. Abdul-Mateen has jumped between comic book blockbusters, horror, action movies, prestige dramas, television and theater without allowing any single genre to completely define him.
His choices for a career-spanning double feature soon turned into more than two titles.
Alongside The Get Down and Wonder Man, Abdul-Mateen singled out Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7, in which he portrayed Black Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale.
“That was some, you know, personal work that, that I was really, really proud of,” he said.
He then jokingly acknowledged that he had not exactly followed the rules of the question.
“I think I managed to name 2, but I also managed to sneak sneak in for,” Abdul-Mateen said. “So do with that information what you will.”
By Any Means Continues Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s Expanding Career
By Any Means brings another distinct character into that growing body of work.
The film places Wayne Strider opposite Wahlberg’s Greg Scarpa as an investigation into Dahmer’s murder reaches a dead end, and an unconventional approach brings together two men whose backgrounds, methods and relationships with authority could hardly be more different.
For Abdul-Mateen, the performance once again appears to come down to finding the specific details that separate one character from everything he has done before.
Sometimes that means extensive historical research. Sometimes it means understanding a character’s physical training, worldview, and place within American history.
And sometimes it simply means putting on the right pair of shoes.
By Any Means opens exclusively in theaters September 4, 2026.
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Sean Tajipour
Sean Tajipour is the Founder and Editor of Nerdtropolis and the host of the Moviegoers Society and Reel Insights Podcast. He is also a member of the Critics Choice Association. You can follow on Twitter and Instagram @Seantaj.
