Michael Jai White on his busy 2025 and the challenges of making action movies today

Few people had a busier 2025 than Michael Jai White. In January, his action comedy Don’t Mess With Grandma, about a drunk Army ranger protecting his unaware grandma from home invaders, premiered on Tubi. In August, his throwback action comedy Trouble Man (which he also directed), where he plays a private investigator looking for a missing R&B star, premiered in theaters. So did action comedy Hostile Takeover, where he plays a hitman attending a Workaholics Anonymous group who gets falsely accused of snitching. In November, Exit Protocol, an action movie starring White and Dolph Lundgren, hit theaters. That’s all in addition to a regular role on BET’s crime family drama The Family Business.

We’re just two weeks into 2026, and there’s another new Michael Jai White movie out. This time, it’s Oscar Shaw, where White plays a retired cop looking for vengeance after the death of his best friend. Oscar Shaw is available to rent or purchase on digital platforms like Amazon, Apple TV, and YouTube.

I caught up with White about his very busy 2025, the types of projects he’s prioritizing, his taste in movies and music, and more.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Since we last talked for Outlaw Johnny Black in late 2023, you’ve been very busy. You’ve had eight movies come out since then – dramas, thrillers, action movies, action comedies. As you look at your career right now and your landscape, what are your priorities when you're picking new projects?

I always want to do things that I would be interested in as a fan, as a spectator. We're living in a time where people have seen every kind of movie. And one thing that I think [matters] now is authenticity, and presenting something that you don't see often. I don't like movies that I feel like I've seen. I don't like to be connected to things that I feel like I've seen over and over, those formulaic movies. 

I think the rise of social media is because things have become so formulaic and safe. People are watching movies and they don't get an experience. They don't get anything to take home with them when they leave the theater, a thought might have taught them something. Those are the types of movies I like to do, and those are the types of movies I like to see.

What have you been drawn to recently as an audience member?

I know I'm in the industry, I recognize formula ahead of time, so sometimes I'll watch something that may be formulaic, but I'll be interested in seeing if they put some work into it. I look at it as the craft. I genuinely love to be surprised. I genuinely love to be brought to something that I wouldn't have seen otherwise. Those are the things I look for, but there’s not many, not a lot of movies that really excite me.

Has there been anything that’s excited or surprised you recently?

TV has been the most exciting stuff for me, by far, but I find myself watching movies that I like over and over. They tend to be older movies, because I have such an appreciation for a movie daring to be different. There are a few I may be forgetting, but the last movie I remember I loved was Strange Darling.

Is there a type of project you haven’t had the opportunity to work on yet that you’d like to sink your teeth into?

Several, several, but I’m scheduled to do a horror movie in a way I hadn’t done before. I’ve done some comedy.

I happened to watch Black Friday this Black Friday.

Yeah, well, that’s not a typical horror movie, right? This one’s right down the line horror.

I’d love to quickly touch on your three action comedies that came out last year. My favorite was the one you directed, Trouble Man. What did you take from your previous directorial efforts into directing Trouble Man?

Well, I'm constantly learning. Nowadays, you have to do the same movie folks would have expected 10 years ago with half the budget. That's the trip. Now I know how to do that, I’ve gotten to do that over and over, as somewhat of an editor. I got really deep into editing when I was in college, and so as a director, as a writer, I am pretty sharp with my editing and knowing what to shoot and not waste time. So I've gotten to a place where I'm pretty efficient directing – especially things that have that hybrid of comedy, action, drama—and then presenting it in a way that might be fresh and new, knowing not only the paradigm that everyone else is used to, but knowing structure and convention. You got to know it to veer from it but still have it work for you. You just have to disguise it. And so I'm just getting better at that.

While I was watching Trouble Man, I found myself thinking a lot about the Walter Mosley books I grew up reading. Was that an influence that was present on your mind?

Oh, absolutely, yeah. I grew up loving movies like the original [Trouble Man] starring Robert Hooks. I thought his performance was better than any performance of that type. It set the bar for me. That’s a movie I will never forget. It’s one of the first of that type in that era I ever saw. I remember I saw it on a drive-in theater screen, but I just watched it. I wasn’t in the car or anything. I was at a friend’s house, and I watched that entire movie because you could see the screen from there. Even just the presentation of Robert Hooks just hit me. And then when I got a little older and got a chance to fully see it, wow. To me, he was the first time a tried and true actor was put in one of those roles.

You also got the chance to work with Method Man on Trouble Man. Correct me if I’m wrong, that’s the first time since the Wonderland pilot back in 2000.

Oh my god, you’re right. I forgot all about that.

What was the experience like working with him this time?

He’s my favorite rapper, first and foremost, for a number of reasons. He is so eclectic. When I first listened, I’m hearing Beatles lyrics, I’m hearing Crosby Stills, I’m hearing all these things in hip hop. I was like, This guy is weird. I'm hearing all these different things going on and these influences. That really spoke to me, and the fact that we had a lot in common.

This script was written a while ago, and I didn't even want to go forward with doing it until I had someone to play Money, and Method Man became that character. He then got so disciplined, he worked on his body, his physique, his acting and everything just really evolved to being just this force. It elevated so much. I was like, Wow, he's the guy, because it was written for that person to steal the movie, and he did.

He’s so funny in that role, and his devotion to his partner is so good.

Oh man, he was just outstanding. But I knew I could get this movie done the way it needed to be done with him. I don’t see anybody else who could have played that role.

When we talked about action comedy in the past, you mentioned how it's important to you for the comedy and action to be grounded in drama, not just in comedy. So how did you think about that with Trouble Man, and specifically with the interplay between Jaxon and Money?

Yeah, that's where my most favorite comedy lies. It's not comedy played for comedy. It's about the dramatic quotient in it. That's the way I write, that's the way I like it performed. As a director, I maintain that line, and it's so great to work with Method Man, because he brought things that weren't even in the script. He so embodied the character. It was the movie that I wanted it to be.

Moving on to Don’t Mess With Grandma, which I also quite enjoyed. What stands out to you about that movie?

I liked it because it was like nothing I've ever read. We know these characters, but I've never played a character like that. He's a character that I think represents a lot of people that you don't really see [in movies], even though they're plentiful, especially in the non-coastal states. There are a lot of Black guys in the armed forces that come from rural areas and grow up with Metallica. He’s a character that was very close to me, as somebody who, growing up, my favorite group of all-time was The Eagles. Growing up where I grew up, I seem strange to other people. Like, Whose music collection is this? when people get in my car and it’s like Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles, Chicago. I still had the Isley Brothers and all these other things, but that's who I am. So I relished playing a part like that.

For Hostile Takeover, correct me if I’m wrong, that movie was shot entirely on Volume, correct?

Entire movie shot on Volume.

How was the experience for you?

Oh, it’s amazing. It’s amazing going to one room. It goes over a lot of people’s heads because it looks like another $10 million movie, but it was a fraction of that, and we shot that movie in 15 days.

Michael Jai White recommends: Dope Thief, Strange Darling, and Oscar Shaw

There’s so many great things. The series Dope Thief is my favorite thing of last year. I was talking about Strange Darling. If you haven’t seen that movie, you should see it. Giovanni Ribisi was the DOP.

And then there’s this movie called Oscar Shaw that everybody should see, like today. That movie has Tyrese Gibson. It has one of my favorite actors in the world, Isaiah Washington. It’s why I got him on this thing. He’s been through his ups and downs, but it doesn’t change the fact that he’s one of the most talented actors in the world. And then you got a brother named Michael Jai White, who's also in this movie.