Despite his pledge to ensure he has time to shed one character before moving onto the next, the 'Moonlight' star only has a week to prepare himself from 'Green Book' to 'True Detective'.

• Feb 25, 2019

AceShowbiz - Mahershala Ali tries his hardest to create space between projects so he doesn't inadvertently let his characters bleed into one another.

The "Moonlight" actor has been enjoying another successful awards season with his portrayal of pianist Dr. Don Shirley in Peter Farrelly's "Green Book", for which has so far won the Golden Globe and BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor. He's also the favourite to take home the Oscar on Sunday.

The 45-year-old has now explained that he cares deeply for all his characters and projects and gives "everything I have to give" to each role, so he likes to ensure he has time in between each part to completely shed one character before moving onto the next.

"You just have to shed those characters and in some way, try to create space between projects so that you can avoid character bleed and taking one project and somehow those attributes make it into your next project," he told reporters at the recent BAFTA Film Awards. "I don't ever want to (do) that and so as best I can I try to create space or do things that sort of allow each project to live in its own time."

However, he was unable to do so after "Green Book" because he only had a week before he began filming the current season of HBO series "True Detective", and he admitted that there was a short period of time when those projects "blended together for me".

He added that he still hasn't quite been able to let go of his "Green Book" character due to the press tour and awards circuit but he is determined to carve out some time to let go of him.

He told reporters that the project, about a road trip Shirley takes to the Deep South with his Italian-American driver, played by Viggo Mortensen, was a dream because it was a collaborative effort.

"I think the spirit of it was right, just in how we sit down and approached it and really worked to make these characters three-dimensional and really lift them off the page," he said.

"Green Book" is in cinemas now.