Adia Won't Let Hollywood Be Her Only Dream

Bassam Tariq's action-drama Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother is led by a cast of legends, including Mahershala Ali, John Cho, and Giancarlo Esposito. But its true scene-stealer—and the heart of the film—is newcomer Adia. In between scenes of brutal violence and conflict, she grounds the film with her tender examination of a girlhood interrupted by grief.

You’d never know that Adia stumbled into acting. The 25-year-old turned to the craft when she found herself at a crossroads and depressed after a hip injury derailed her plans to become a professional dancer. Eager to continue performing, she took a community-college theater class during her senior year of high school and felt it filled a void.

Adia decided to swing big and moved to L.A. with one thought on her mind: “Let me full send it for shits and giggles. I’m going to see what happens.”

She landed her first roles working for bona fide auteurs Mike Flanagan (The Midnight Club) and Steven Soderbergh (Full Circle). But her biggest gig to date is in the acclaimed Mahershala Ali action vehicle.

In Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, Adia plays Fatiha, a 15-year-old going through her own personal crisis. The Orion Pictures film follows Latif (Ali), a devout Muslim hitman and recent widow who’s now a single father to three kids. As the eldest daughter, Fatiha has to step up to fill the family’s maternal hole, watching over her siblings as her father runs across Houston in search of breast milk. Adia gives a captivating performance as a teenager balancing faith, grief, burgeoning independence, and probing rebellion. Latif’s daughter is both his caustic critic and emotional anchor, forcing him to evaluate what he’s fighting for.

While Adia's character wrestles with different pathways, the star herself is a role model for going off the beaten path. In fact, the rising actress is balancing her breakout moment with a second passion entirely: birth work. Speaking to Marie Claire ahead of Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother’s world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, the now-certified birth and postpartum doula recalls attending an intense training course amid filming.

“There would be days where I had class online, so I would have my phone with me. I would be on set in rehearsal and have one headphone on my ear, one off,” she says. “I'm listening to the class; I'm listening to Bassam. I was like, This is insane. But I passed the class; we finished the film, no one died.”

Adia’s unapologetic about having more than one calling, and she’s determined to stay connected to life outside of Hollywood. She still lives in Washington, D.C., where she grew up, and she has no public social media. Right after she graced the third red carpet of her career at TIFF, she went right back to her birth work.

“While I want to keep working in Hollywood—it's been really cool to see how my career has blossomed in a way I never imagined—I also always want to make sure that I'm staying close to the community and the crux of life,” she says. “That's what I keep trying to instill in myself. It's okay if you don't get every job. Find the things that make you happy…I do the things that bring me joy, and that's it.”

Below, Adia chats with Marie Claire about the personal experiences she drew on to play Fatiha, bonding with Ali, and her dreams of being a midwife.

Marie Claire: Did you relate to Fatiha when you first read the Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother screenplay?

A: The first thing that I related to was Fatiha’s strong force of spirit. I feel like I've always been a very intense and forward person, and I've had to learn how to manage it. She's also learning how to manage it in her teenhood, and it's tough. I’m also the oldest of my siblings. A lot of independence was given to me, and I had to take that on and take things into my own hands in the way that Fatiha had to as well. And we were both homeschooled. I was only homeschooled in middle school and high school, but still I understand.

MC: What was your process in preparing to play Fathia?

A: I broke down every single scene. Bassam probably thought I was insane because I would be coming into our rehearsals for scenes with my little notebook and being like, Okay, so this and this has happened, and this is what she's feeling, and this is what's going on, and these are the things that are happening around them. I wrote down this flow of every scene that I was in so I could understand her story. I also journal in [my characters’] voice for certain scenes or pivotal moments to tap into their feelings a little bit more. And then I let it go. I have almost like a one-liner of what's happening each day and scene, so that I can jog my memory, but then I try to be super present. I'm allowing things to flow in that improvisational way to inform my work. We get the rehearsal to practice the scene, try it out, and then I'm like, Okay, cool. Got it.

I didn't have a lot of time to work on it [on set], because I was also in class. I was doing a whole other course outside of shooting, so I was kind of split-brained, but I would try to take as much time to focus on, Okay, this is what she's feeling, do my warm-up, and then just be present—just be present to hold the energy of the work, and whatever comes is what comes.

MC: You were simultaneously balancing this huge role with a doula program. How did you balance the two?

A: It was wild. I asked to take time off [for the shoot], and they were like, 'If you take more than three days, you're getting booted from this class.' And they only do this course every few years or so. It was ridiculous, but I made it work. I honestly don't really have much FOMO at all, but people would be going to the wrap party, and I was like, 'I can't come. I have to go back home to DC and do my skills class.' There would be some times where I would miss out on hanging out with everybody because I would be like, 'No, I have this five-page paper I have to turn in, and I also have to do peer review.' I'm really happy the film is reaching people, because I had a lot of faith that the work I did in preparation prior to filming was going to carry me through. I couldn’t dwell on whether or not I did a good job or bad job. I was just like, Trust that you did it. Trust that Bassam got what he wanted. Let it go, because you have class.

MC: What was it like working with Mahershala Ali as a scene partner, and depicting that complicated father-daughter relationship?

A: I had a wonderful time working with Mahershala. He really took on the role of almost a quasi-uncle to me, in the sense that he was so down-to-earth and genuinely wanted me to succeed. He gave me so many tips and words of encouragement, and would check in on me on a human level, like, 'How are you doing?' He was present, and I really appreciated that.

We were joning on each other, cracking up. There was one scene where we're both outside crying, and we shot that quite a few times. I remember every time in between our resets, we were kiki-ing it up and laughing. It was just like hanging out with a family member.

I felt like I had a comrade-in-arms with me while we were working on this, and I had no intentions of that happening. I was very much like, I'm just going to go in, do my work, go home. But it just organically happened, and I had such a wonderful time.

MC: Even though this is your breakout moment in film, you've already worked with celebrated actors and auteur filmmakers. What is the biggest lesson about building a career in Hollywood that you've taken from the people you've worked with?

A: Do you. Stay true to yourself. Because the minute you start trying to embellish, change, modify, or redefine yourself to fit what you think they want of you, then you’re no longer the reason why people really wanted you to begin with. We all have this as actors. We audition, and we get rejected, and we audition, and we get rejected. We think, Oh, well, if I just do this and that, maybe it'll be better. And it might be, but are you better off as a person? That's where I have this sit-down conversation with myself, always, because you always have these pulls where you're like, Oh, if I could do this a little bit different, or I could change this about my look or my hair or how I present myself, maybe I'll get more roles. But it's like, Is that what you really want? Will you be happy? Will you be content and satisfied? Never be content with mediocrity. Always strive for the best of yourself—not of somebody else's idea of yourself, but of yourself. How you wish yourself to be viewed.

MC: It’s really impressive to hear you speak about your passion for birth work, and having another calling in addition to acting. What is your ideal life of balancing your Hollywood career and your doula career?

A: I always said I would give myself a good 10 years dedicated to acting. I'm about six years in, so I have four more years to see how it goes. But I've always had this dream that I really want to be a midwife. That's something that I feel like I must do in this lifetime. I mean, we'll see how it unfolds.

I do know that as we're doing this press tour for this film, I'm on call. I literally have a client who is due the first week of October. As soon as I get back from TIFF, I'm back into my postpartum work. My work as a doula is just as important, if not more important than my work as an actor. [Awards] campaigning and going to these red carpets are an added bonus and flourish to the world of performing, and it’s great, but that's not how I got into this. I want to act. I want to do birth work. I'm still figuring it out as I go, and constantly reminding myself to be close to real life. Whether that's through my birth work, going solo camping a lot with my dog, or going diving and swimming—doing things in life outside of this Hollywood world, because it can be a bubble.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.