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Phil Morris played such a wide range of diverse characters across his nearly 60-year career since making his debut as a child star in Star Trek: The Original Series in 1966. While the actor would also return to the franchise across several films and TV series, he’s amassed an impressive filmography amassing over 200 projects in live-action and animation. He brings so much life to his characters in things like Doom Patrol, Seinfeld, Black Dynamite, and Smallville, to name a few. I spoke to the actor about his latest project, the revisionist supernatural thriller Ghost of the Ozarks for XYZ Films, the psychological challenges he faced, and the bond he had with co-star Thomas Hobson.
The film, directed by Matt Glass and Jordan Wayne Long (who co-wrote with Sean Anthony Davis and star Tara Perry), is set in post-Civil War Arkansas. A young doctor (Hobson) is mysteriously summoned to a remote town in the Ozarks only to discover that the utopian paradise is filled with secrets and surrounded by a menacing, supernatural presence. “The character of Matthew [McCune interested me in the film],” Morris said. “He’s such a nuanced character, and I found that what I wanted to try to bring was a rendition, a depiction that showed that nuance and that didn’t really just depict him as a kind of a mustache-twirling villain. He had other controls that were at work that wasn’t necessarily on the page of the script, and I wanted to bring those to life. It was really a challenge as an African-American.”
Prior to getting the role, Morris dug deep into how African Americans in certain areas did thrive in the post-Civil War era. “At the time, there were several communities that were trying this experiment of diversity and inclusion,” he said. “Probably the most famous was the Tulsa, Oklahoma with Black Wall Street. So I researched many of those communities, their leaders, how and why they did it. In terms of Matthew, I think he had all the best intentions with Torb [Tim Blake Nelson] and the other elders. It worked really, very, very well until something was discovered. I don’t want to blow the movie, but there’s something discovered in the town that changes the dynamic. Matthew becomes very much like the overseers, the Masters he was living under on the plantation. You learn learned to control and psychological domination from them. How would he know? He was a slave. So he learns it from the people who are dominating him and utilizes some of that psychological terror on the townsfolk of Norfolk. That was really interesting for me to play.”
Upon filming, Morris developed a familial bond with Hobson, giving him a nickname that Fresh Prince of Bel-Air fans might appreciate. “The first time I met him was doing it for his scenes in my office,” he said. “To have an actor who is willing to have an actor who’s present, to have an actor who is courageous and prepared, ‘You could play the man! You can play!’ Just start the cameras up and let us do our thing. That’s kind of what happened, and it was a really wonderful relationship. Still to this day is, he calls me ‘Uncle Phil.’ That’s the beauty of our business. Sometimes you can instantly create these connections with people that are so organic and so dimensional. I think that’s the relationship that we created, and that’s what you see on screen.”
When Morris accepted the role for Ghosts of the Ozarks, he was impressed by how thorough production was on COVID protocols. According to Hobson, just the second production was approved by SAG when the industry opened back up. “I had just finished the season of ‘Doom Patrol’ when I left Atlanta; they shut everything down,” he recalled. “So I was aware that stuff was getting really serious. When I got home, this was offered to me, maybe ten days later. I was not concerned, but I was interested in how they were going to continue to go forward with it, and they nailed it. They had a mitigation specialist and a phlebotomist on set every single day. All of the craft services and food were packaged. They had rented an entire floor of the hotel that we stayed at, so nobody else could be on the floor except for us, but there was no room service. I went out every day or night to get food brought it back to my room. I didn’t go anywhere. I didn’t socialize other than with the cast and crew of the movie. We were tested all the time, and it didn’t affect one thing. Everything worked beautifully. Everybody understood the gravity of the situation, and if we blew it, it could hurt other productions down the line. We’re the canary in the coal mine, and it was beautiful.”
As part of this historical drama, Morris had to dig deep psychologically to play his character. “My toughest moment was before I got there. ‘Phil Morris’ is not that like Matthew. I don’t have these things that run me. So I had to entertain them and see them really in order to play them. I’ll be honest…I had a bit of a nervous breakdown prior to getting there because of the weight I felt that was on my shoulders to play him, not as a typical cookie-cutter villain, but as somebody who had these controls, learned from his own bondage. As I talk now, I get so emotional because as a black man, especially as one in America, some of these things still exist. I couldn’t wait to do this movie because it reflected some of the things that exist in this society to this day. This isn’t 1872 anymore. It’s 2022, and you still have these burning division and racial inequality issues. I felt a great responsibility on my shoulders to play a man who was affected by these things and tried his best to create answers for them and then was taken over by corruption himself. That’s a tough challenge. When you get it under your skin, know what I’m saying. For me, the toughest moments before I even got to this Arkansas, everything I was doing was ready to go.” Ghosts of the Ozarks, which also stars Angela Bettis and David Arquette, is currently on demand and digital.
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