Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen on Green Book and the music of Don Shirley

Director Peter Farrelly’s new film Green Book gets its name from The Negro Motorist Green Book, a Jim Crow-era guidebook written by Victor Hugo Green that black Americans could use to know which establishments were safe for them to patronize. The film follows black concert pianist Dr. Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali), and his hired driver, Italian-American Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen), as they tour from Manhattan to the Deep South, relying on the Green Book to guide them along their way. Ahead of the movie’s premiere, we sat down with Ali and Mortensen to talk about Green Book, the actual Green Book, and the music of Don Shirley.