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THE FILM STRIP: Powerful and positive performances hit the screens with Forest Whitaker, Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, Raven-Symone and others
Because of his many low key roles, Forest Whitaker had to do a lot of convincing to land the part of Idi Amin in "The Lst King" Laughing at the preconception of being meek in most of his movies, Whitaker pointed out he was a hit man in "Ghost Dog."
With Whitaker's track record, there should have never been a doubt in anyone's mind that he could pull off any kind of role. Oscar is written all over his performance in "The King of Scotland."
Explaining why he took on the role of one of the most reviled men in history.
"All of a sudden he [Amin] was there, a soldier who was never groomed to be a politician and now here he is running a country. He became the head of the African Union and is speaking for the whole continent," says the actor. "So I think that wanting to understand him and wanting to understand that kind of psychology is exciting. I always take it with a grain of salt when someone tells me that a person is a beast. I always think, 'Oh, what does that mean?' If I see something on the news and they're saying that this guy is like this or that, I have to think about that."
Becoming very immersed in the country while living there during the filming helped Whitaker immensely to delve into his character.
"Because I was continually driving throughout the country, all the way through the shooting, I would pick up or learn something. Whether it was going up to the Mosque on top of Kampala or it could be going out to a country road and hanging out with the villagers there. I rode my bike through the streets, I drove cars. I did so many things. Just sitting and eating in people's homes would change some of my lines in the script."
Any preconceived notions about Africa?
"Yeah, I guess I did," Whitaker confessed. "I always thought that I would go to West Africa first because that's where my ancestors are from. So when I went to East Africa, it was different. Kampala is like a very – although set in the '70's – modern kind of town. It's really unique. I don't think that my imagination had played on me enough to be able to imagine sitting overlooking the Nile with my friends. My guys would bring me to the source of the Nile and pull out a shirt and say, 'Here. This is for you.' It's my badge. So there was no way that I could've imagined it the way it was."
Whitaker's co-star James McAvoy, who also put in a powerful performance, explained his attraction to the project.
"The fact that I had the opportunity to make, to show that a really normal, unexceptional person can be just as destructive and just as bad and just as evil and just as corrupting. Really. That was it. Because you know, you look at my character as completely different. But actually, they're both charismatic and bold, but one of them is exceptional, and one of them is clearly not. Nicholas is not exceptional in any way. And yet, he's just as destructive. And he's just as self serving."
Wayne 'The Rock' Johnson plays an exceptional individual in "Grindiron Gang." He was up in Harlem n New York City to help launch one of the city’s leading youth programs’ new school year. After-School All-Stars of New York (ASASNY) is one of the city’s leading providers of out-of-school programs for middle-school children. The students were not only privy to a special screening of “Gridiron Gang” at the Apollo Theater, but words of encouragement from him.
Founded in 1996, ASASNY provides comprehensive sports programs and academic instruction to New York inner-city youth during the out-of-school hours. Inherent in each of ASASNY’s programs are the following goals: to keep children safe; to teach them new skills; to build self-esteem; and to develop in each child that which is unique. Since its founding, ASASNY has served over 20,000 youth from New York City’s public housing and homeless facilities, through daily after school programs and through The After-School All-Stars of New York's CampUs.
Johnson plays the real life character Sean Porter in "Gridiron Gang." Porter, a juvenile detention camp probation officer along with another officer Malcolm Moore (Xzibit), turn a group of hardcore teenage felons into a high school football team. The kids in the film are very familiar to Johnson and Xzibit. They, too, had many run-ins with the law before they came to their senses.
“What this movie did was reaffirm a feeling that I had about people that are out there who really, really care,” Johnson told The Film Strip. “A guy like Sean Porter is in a thankless job. He’s a selfless guy who still works to this day at a prison for kids. He just wants to change their lives. He really, really cares. Having been arrested numerous times, it was a Sean Porter who helped set me on the right path.”
Fans of Xzibit may have to wait a while before they saw Xzibit on the big screen again.
“I pass on a lot of scripts because I refuse to do the stereotypical, buffoon type of roles,” he says.
Big Screen actor Delroy Lindo has a lot to offer in his TV series "Kidnapped." Several years ago he starred with Mel Gibson in "Ransom." In both he starred as an FBI agent. Before "Ransom" Lindo got the lowdown on inner working of the FBI.
"In my case, I specifically sought out agents of color," Lindo allowed. "With African Americans there are a couple of things right off the bat that I had to negotiate. I wanted to encourage the writer include specific elements.
"For an African American man to reach this level of seniority inside an institution like the FBI suggests certain things to me. It suggests certain abilities in terms of this man ability to deal with an incredible political environment." Movies and now TV have a fixation with kidnapping. Offering up an explanation, Lindo says "It's possibly because it taps into our deepest fears. I read some very harrowing newspaper articles that had to do with child pornography…Some of it is mildly legal…It's disgusting.
"I’m a ridiculously over protective parent. I watch my son like a hawk, everywhere all the time. It takes only a split a second so it further increases the vigilance that I have to protect him from whomever, whatever. He just started kindergarten the other day. It’s so interesting because all the parents are more scared than the kids."
Action blockbuster star Orlando Bloom ("The Lord of the Rings," "The Pirates of the Caribbean") gets busy with Zoe Saldana in the small indie film, "Haven." Although there is great conflict because of their relationship, Bloom says it's not because Saldana is Black and he's White. "It has to do with class."
As one of the producers of "Haven," Bloom at first turned down the role.
"Initially, Shy (Bloom) was going to be a young kid who was going to have an encounter with Andrea (Saldana), but it wasn't a love thing. We kind of made it this soulful 'Romeo and Juliet' type of Shakespearean tragedy."
Prior to speaking to The Film Strip, Bloom went on the Jay Leno show and got himself into some hot water.
"I used one of the lines from the movie," he chuckled. "I said, 'In the Cayman Islands the banks will give people loans for cars, but the locals can't get enough to buy house.' There are all these ex-patriots getting in there and buying it all up and it's ridiculous that the locals can't get it."
Zoe Saldana related very well with her sheltered character in "Haven."
"I got interested in Andrea because the character I played... she was so hurt by the people she trusted the most in her life, the three men in her life--her father, brother (Anthony Mackie) and the man she loved. She trusted them and they failed her. That's very popular in a very conservative, traditional culture where the daughter is seen as a prize and her virginity is more like the golden token.
"The perception most people who visit the Caribbean have is nothing like what it really is. They have no idea about the people who live there. This film offered an authentic look at that. At some point you have to become aware that you are visiting this country as a foreigner. This country has families that go back seven or eight generations. They're a part of Caymanian folklore. It's not just beaches and fried fish. You have to respect the culture that's been there been there for years. "Haven" portrays that well."
Don't believe the hype. Most headlines would have you believe Jet Li is retiring, but he's not! He will not be doing any more martial arts movies. His last martial arts film, "Fearless," had to be special.
"We've made a lot of action movies and usually people focus on the fighting, physical fighting, violence against violence," Li states. "That's the only message you would get out of it - beat, beat, beat. A lot of people only talk about war and fight and nobody talks about stopping. I wanted to find a story that has room to tell about this character's philosophy, physical and mental, about my beliefs in the past. That's why I say that this is the last Wushu movie for me. There are some movies that I will still make like Lionsgate's film, 'Rogue,' where I play an FBI agent."
Far from murder and mayhem is the family friendly animated film directed by the late Christopher Reeve, "Everyone's Hero," that also includes voices Forest Whitaker as Lonnie Brewster, Raven-Symone's (Marti Brewster) father and Whoopi Goldberg as Darlin'. I commented on the fact that although her role is small, it's very significant. Raven was quick to agree.
"I think it’s fabulous that we’re encompassing the whole entire ethnic background of how baseball was back in that day. My father is very important in the film. My father, a member of the Negro league, is one of Austin’s favorite players. I love it especially since she’s a girl too. Most of the time it’s like, 'ok let’s go meet up with the boys.' 'Nah, she’s a girl, she’s loves baseball, she’s black and she’s flavorful. God, I love it."
Raven helps Jake T. Austin (Yankee Irving) get Darlin' (the bat) back to its owner and 11-year-old J.T. is no novice on-screen or off when it comes to baseball. I’ve known baseball all my life, so the Negro League was the second league that I knew. It was really cool to learn how all these players came to be like Satchel Paige, who never played a game in the Major Leagues, but he’s one of the greatest players of all-time. At the same, it’s just as important as regular baseball. Hank Aaron never played in the Negro League because by the time he started playing, African Americans were now playing in the Major Leagues."
It has been quite a while since speaking with Zach Braff for "Garden State" and he tells why.
"First of all, I'm very lucky. A lot of actors don't have a great day job like I do on 'Scrubs.' So I don't need to run out and get a payday for some piece of crap. I can wait for something that I really like and that is the biggest blessing of 'Scrubs' for me. I do this revolutionary thing where I don't want to do a movie unless I would like it and go see it. Do you know what I'm saying?
"You see a good actor in an awful film and it's like, 'What we're they thinking? I guess they needed to put a wing on the house or something.' So I'm really going to strive to make the kind of movies that I would want to go see, and unfortunately those don't come out very often. Maybe once a year or twice a year do I go to the theater and go, 'Wow, that was a great movie.' So I have to pass on a lot of things. So after 'Garden State' I waited until I found something that really struck me and was something that I really could relate to like this, 'The Last Kiss."
In the Crates
Still fresh in the crates is "Akeelah and the Bee." Please, if you haven't seen this film at the theater, pick this one up. This fantastic and incredible film stars the fresh and talented Kiki Palmer as Akeelah, Laurence Fishburne as Dr. Larabee and Angela Bassett as Akeelah's mother.
Digging down deep in the crates is the wonderful and delightful, but underrated 2004 film, "The First Daughter," directed by Forest Whitaker. When the DVD was first released, I couldn't f find a copy at most Blockbusters around the city, even in Harlem. One store manager said the studio didn't expect the film to do well, so the supply was very limited. Katie Holmes stars as the President's daughter and Michael Keaton as the president and Marc Blucas from the TV series, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Yes, I admit, I'm a big Buffy fan. The colorful cast of "First Daughter" also includes Amerie as Katie's roommate, Lela Rochon, Dwayne Adway, Alex Avant, Austin Priester and Denise Gillyard.
FRED HAMMOND IS BACK!!!
The Architect of Urban Praise & Worship
Music Returns With The Release Of His
Career & The CD The Whole World's Been
Waiting For!! Free To Worship In Stores
October 3rd, 2006!!!
www.fredhammondmusic.com
www.verityrecords.com
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