10 Best Movies Actors Did After The Lord Of The Rings

This role was a far cry from the heroic and devilishly handsome character of Aragorn. Mortensen put on a considerable amount of weight and adopted a Bronx accent for his portrayal of real life figure Tony Lip.

The film explores the complicated relationship between a racially prejudice New York driver (Lip) and his employer Don Shirley, a black pianist. The film tackles race relationships in America, particularly in the south, where Jim Crow laws enforced the segregation of whites and blacks. As the film shows, black musicians were very rarely allowed to enter a building via the same doors a whites, despite the fact they were performing.

The film handled the relationship of these two very different men in a tender enough way, with both characters setting aside the dividing line of race in favour of one another's humanity. Mahershala Ali's and Mortensen's onscreen interactions received wide spread acclaim with both actors delivering sensitive and amusing portrayals of two men from history.

Despite the critical acclaim of the film and the praise landed on both actors, the film did receive some criticism, with accusations of using the white saviour trope to try and tell a story about an accomplished black musician.