He said on Common’s podcast “Mind Power Mixtape:” “So my old agent called me and said, ‘Mahershala, you got the part.’ And I said, ‘There’s just one thing … There is that one sex scene where they kiss … If there’s a sex scene, I can’t do it.’ ”

Ali, who converted to Islam while getting a master’s degree in acting at NYU, recalled telling his agent, “I don’t do simulated sex.”

In the final shoot, “Taraji and I begin to kiss, and we fall out of the frame … It wasn’t clear if [Fincher] was trying to have like some bumping and grinding … which I doubt he was. But for me even … at that time, 15 years ago, I was still like, ‘OK, I can only go up to this point,’ just because of — just trying to hold a space of respect for my religion.”