Kyle Meredith talks with Willem Dafoe, Corey Hawkins, Anna Diop, and director Nadia Latif about turning Walter Mosley’s novel The Man in My Basement into a psychological thriller where race, trauma, and grief haunt every frame. The story follows Charles Blakey (Corey Hawkins), a man on the verge of losing his ancestral Sag Harbor home, who agrees to rent his basement to the mysterious Aniston Bennett (Willem Dafoe) for the summer—only to find himself pulled into a chilling reckoning with history, family ghosts, and the root of all evil.

Dafoe digs into acting as “pretend” courage, why first days on set still terrify him, and how genre lets hard truths sneak up on an audience. Latif reflects on making her feature debut and weaving her own story of loss into Mosley’s text, while Hawkins details playing Charles’ transformation opposite Dafoe in a basement where time itself bends. Diop speaks to how horror and thriller connect with Black history in ways straight drama can’t. From prosaic lines that ring like bells (“People die every day”) to lighting tricks, skewed timelines, and even maggot wrangling, the team unpacks how The Man in My Basement becomes a story you can’t shake.

Listen to Willem Dafoe, Corey Hawkins, and more of the cast of The Man in My Basement discuss the new film or watch the interviews on YouTube here and here. Please take the time to like, review, and subscribe to KMW wherever you get your podcasts, and keep up to date with all our series by following the Consequence Podcast Network.

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