Mekhi Phifer Says Lights Out Relates to People ‘Trying to Put Food on the Table’

For many movie buffs out there, he’ll always be Future. But Mekhi Phifer has put his stamp on a plethora of movies and TV shows since 8 Mile swooped in and even nabbed an Oscar all those years ago. The seasoned actor has a new movie out this week, where he plays an ex-con who entices a military vet (Frank Grillo) to join a sort of underground fight club in Los Angeles. These secret societies actually exist, as we learned in a separate interview with Lights Out director Christian Sesma.

We also recently caught up with Phifer himself to learn more about his now-extensive work alongside Grillo, why he almost passed on 8 Mile, and his other projects hitting the masses soon.

Co-Starring With Grillo, a ‘Consummate Professional’

What life would you turn to, if you were out on the streets and in desperate need of money? In Lights Out, Grillo plays an unhoused veteran who gets seduced, in a way, into a violent life by Phifer’s morally ambiguous character, Max, after being noticed for his flawless fighting skills. “You look at life as an American, inflation is going up, the job market is a little bit better, but it’s not great room for advancement in life,” said Phifer in discussing his role. He continued:

“Just all of those different things that I think stress out the everyday man and woman in America and in the world, just trying to put food on the table, feed your family, provide for the ones you care about, I think that was more of the motivation, just trying to make it but still trying to be a good person at doing it, too. Even though [Max] is in the sort of underworld, the seedy underground situation, he doesn’t really want to do harm to somebody else.”

Phifer and Grillo have terrific chemistry, even for this sort of B-movie that often offers cheap thrills — in the form of nasty, often hard-to-watch fistfight sequences. “That was our first time working together,” Phifer told MovieWeb.

“But since then, we’ve done another movie that we have coming out later this year, which just shows you the bond that Frank and I have formed together. And it was great working with Frank,” continued Phifer. “Frank is a consummate professional, definitely comes in ready to work, do his thing. We worked very hard on this because we wanted to build out the heart of it. The underground fighting [in Lights Out] ultimately leads to shooting and all this other stuff, but it really has to be about the people in order for you to follow the story and root for our protagonist, which we try to call ourselves, or the antihero, whatever you want.”

Related: 20 Movies to Watch if You Liked Fight Club

Phifer went on to detail his upcoming movies:

“I have three other projects coming out this year. One is called
The Silent Hour
with Joel Kinnaman, Mark Strong, and a bevy of other great actors. The other one is called
Land of Grace
, with Frank Grillo, just a bunch of wonderful actors… We had that SAG strike last year, which kind of held up some of the projects, as far as being promoted. But we’re back now, and here I am.

Name-Dropped in Eminem’s Oscar-Winning Song

Most millennials have probably seen 8 Mile at least once, whether it was in theaters, on TV with commercial breaks, or on demand in more recent times. It’s a classic that really skyrocketed Phifer into stardom, so it’s no surprise he stays in touch with some of the guys. “Unfortunately, we’ve had some people pass on the film for various reasons, and they’re always in my heart, wholeheartedly,” he said.

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“As far as Eminem and Omar Miller, I was just on the phone with him two days ago. Everybody, Anthony Mackie, everybody else. And rest in peace, Curtis Hanson, our director. We formed a bond during that movie. I mean, we had such a good time, I think it’s apparent that it shows it on screen, we really had to trust one another, a lot of raw energy. We were all young, in our 20s, I believe, and had a really great time doing it. And it’s very rare that you get to be a part of filmmaking in that way.”

It’s also funny to think that Phifer almost passed on the iconic role of Future. He told us, “Well, when it came down the pipeline for me, I was all ready to start with the show ER, which I loved playing Dr. Greg Pratt, and I was excited about doing that. And when I got the offer in 8 Mile, I didn’t really take it seriously except for Curtis Hanson, who had already done L.A. Confidential and Wonder Boys and a bunch of other great things, and I respected him as a director and a storyteller.” He added:

“But then it was right around 9/11, so flying somewhere was like crazy talk. Because I was in Los Angeles, and they wanted me to fly to Detroit to meet with Eminem and meet those guys. And I was like, ‘This just doesn’t make sense to me, just let me be this doctor,’ because I’d never played a doctor before and I was really excited about that. So it took some convincing, but I read the script, the script was awesome. I saw what I could add to it, and I flew to Detroit and met with Eminem, and the rest was history.”

And how many people can say they were mentioned in a track that took home a trophy from the Academy Awards? “Eminem put my name in [“Lose Yourself”]. I didn’t ask him to do that. He just one day said, ‘I put your name in a song.’ And it happened to win an Oscar, so I’m mentioned in the Oscar-winning song.”

And he’s more than mentioned in this gritty new thriller. From Quiver Distribution, Lights Out will be in theaters, on demand and on digital Friday, February 16, 2024.