Whitaker, who is currently working on a spin-off of the television crime drama “Criminal Minds,” proves that great actors are just that — great, regardless of how widely distributed the project may or may not be.
“I am planning to do a movie in China [Little Treasure] about adoption. It involves an interracial couple, a black man and a Chinese woman who are trying to adopt a child. It’s a little movie that may not make it to theaters, but I like it. I’ve always kind of done what I wanted to do [and played] the characters that appeal to me, whether it was an independent movie or a studio movie,” he says easily.
Whitaker has also had recurring guest appearances on the TV dramas “ER,” and the gritty cop drama “The Shield.” “You know what was so weird about my character on the show — people really did hate him and I was only trying to do the good thing. It was so horrible in Boston because in Boston people were yelling ‘Leave [Vic] Mackie alone,’ ” he says, still stunned at the visceral reaction from viewers.
The actor-director is acutely tuned in to what audiences want and when they want it. His latest film, the romantic comedy Our Family Wedding, is a sharp contrast to the 1992 blockbuster The Crying Game, a film that didn’t shy from exploring sexual taboos and could have conceivably cemented his fate in a darker, more controversial genre.
“I had a lot of fun doing Our Family Wedding. It was freeing. I didn’t have to carry so much weight and between takes I could relax and deal with the other actors. I had done some stuff early on like Rage in Harlem, but I hadn’t done too much comedy. I hosted ‘Saturday Night Live’ and I think that’s what prompted it,” he says reflectively. “But this movie also humanizes [the issue of racism] and it makes people believe that you can fight through the racial stereotypes … and find a commonality. You can find a connection that [means] we are all the same. That’s important. I think this movie really addresses that in a great way,” explains Whitaker.
“But I also believe that documentaries and dramatic films that are serious, straight on, straight ahead dramas about issues that are going on between races are also important. It feels like in [our] country — and in the world in some ways — people are trying to come together and people are trying to find a common space. They are stepping up together to try and [solve] problems in a way, that in my lifetime, I’ve never seen done before. It’s all just pieces of the puzzle,” he adds in a more introspective tone.
While Whitaker’s hugely expansive body of work and accompanying fame, lend themselves to a study of ethical dilemmas, he is paradoxically private and removed from the paparazzi mayhem of Hollywood. He’s hardly fodder for supermarket tabloids or insider gossip.
“To relax, I deal with the family. I like martial arts and I like chess. I study a lot and I’m really into studying at different colleges around the country and different types of practices here or away. I spend most of my time learning. … The places I go are probably not the places where [the paparazzi are] going to go. They wouldn’t even expect to see me there and they’d be thrown off,” he says furtively.
Although the actor’s relatively reticent lifestyle might be considered a recipe for eventual obscurity, his voluminous filmography keeps audiences waiting with baited breath for the next powerful performance. From his excruciatingly suspenseful performance in Panic Room in which he plays a burglar with a soft heart, to his role as a reserved educator in The Great Debaters, Whitaker’s films range in variety and his roles span a broad spectrum of characterizations. One thing that remains constant is the authenticity he injects into the characters he’s opted to bring to life.
What is most striking about this unlikely leading man is that he is astonishingly accommodating and congenial — character traits he has been able to translate to the screen. From his hulking frame to his engagingly awkward stare, audiences love those physical nuances that remind us of our own frailties and humanity. “I’ve never been a player. I’m not suave [and] I’m not smooth like that. I was never the kind of guy that could walk into a club and walk out with the girl,” he says laughingly.
“When I was a little kid I didn’t know I was going to be an actor,” he says. The only people to really watch for memorable performances were like Sidney Poitier and then comedians like Richard Pryor and Bill Cosby. Other than that, everybody in my neighborhood was like repeating the lines to Taxi. You know, ‘You talking to me? You talking to me?’ ”
The sometimes brooding detachment (Bird) and sometimes childlike innocence (Phenomenon) of Whitaker’s characters are the contrasts that make him one of the most sought after actors in Hollywood. “I remember in the beginning, I was talking with one of my godfathers and I said, ‘I’ll never be able to play these characters right, I always see myself.’ But he said to me, ‘What makes you think that when you see yourself [in a character] that it’s not another dimension of you, or that it’s not real and doesn’t exist in you.’ I kept working on it through the years and I figured out how to shift myself and vibrate differently so I didn’t even see myself,” explains Whitaker. “This is a journey and more a spiritual journey than it is an acting journey,” he adds.
That journey took a turn in late 1995 when he directed his first feature film, the screen adaptation of Terry McMillan’s best-seller, Waiting to Exhale. As film critic Roger Ebert observed, the tone of Whitaker’s directing resembled his acting style, “measured, serene, confident.” Whitaker continued his directing career with the romantic comedy, Hope Floats, starring Sandra Bullock and Harry Connick Jr., and he directed Katie Holmes in the romantic comedy, First Daughter.
“I’ve been really fortunate. I’m continually working on something. I’ve even gotten to write songs. That’s fun too. I should sit still and try to celebrate it more, but I’m always moving on to the next thing I’m trying to create or do. I don’t stop and celebrate what’s already happened,” he explains.
The accomplished thespian has co-starred with Hollywood elites, including the late Paul Newman and Tom Cruise (The Color of Money), Nicholas Cage and Sean Penn (Fast Times at Ridgemont High), Robin Williams (Good Morning, Vietnam) and later in with Willem Dafoe and Charlie Sheen in Oliver Stone’s disturbing war film about the same conflict, Platoon. More recently, Whitaker received notices for his roles opposite Colin Farrell in Phone Booth and Denzel Washington in The Great Debaters.
But it was Whitaker’s chilling portrayal of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in the film, The Last King of Scotland that so rightly earned him the Oscar along with multiple awards and honors from every corner of the industry. Whitaker’s performance has been lauded as one of the greatest of modern movie history. He gained 50 pounds, learned to play the accordion, traveled to Uganda and immersed himself in research to prepare for the role.
“It’s part of my attempt to continue to evolve and connect to something greater than myself. As an actor, I’ve always wanted to do characters that would help me find my connection with others and connect all of us together. You always want the energy of the character, the spirit of the person, to enter you. [But] I used to take showers, just trying to get [Amin] to leave me. I needed to wash those darker passions away. … Some of the things I’ve done are always with me. Maybe it’s a word, maybe it’s a gesture, maybe the sound, maybe it’s a new understanding about something. I look at it like a past life because I keep going over and over what I have done,” he says.
Whether it’s his subtle awkwardness, his serene demeanor or his intensive character studies, Whitaker has incredible chemistry with audiences and we continue to look forward with great anticipation to his next effulgent performance.
