Forest Whitaker
American actor (born 1961)
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- (On his role in The Last King of Scotland (2006)) "It was an experience that changed my life and my thoughts. I went there with the purpose of understanding what it was like to be Ugandan, and I wanted to understand the food, the life, the way they deal with children and wives and with authority figures. I sat with Idi Amin's brother underneath a big mango tree and he told me stories about what Idi was like and how he used to come to town and pull together soccer or rugby games. It all helped me with figuring out the way he behaved and the way he thought, so that 24 hours a day, even in my dreams, I was totally consumed by the character of Idi Amin. It wasn't until the movie was over that I decided I could let go of the character, so the first thing I did was take a shower because I figured I could wash him off by scrubbing myself. I was in a room by myself, so I started yelling to get his voice out of me and get my own voice back."
- When I first decided to act Amin, I had that perception of Amin as presented by the west,
- They're growing up in an environment so different than what I grew up in. I think they're beginning to see how blessed they are. They'll be coming back from now on, I think.
- I'm an actor. And I guess I've done so many movies I've achieved some high visibility. But a star? I guess I still think of myself as kind of a worker ant.
- (On his role in The Last King of Scotland (2006)) "I did a massive amount to prepare for this. First of all I started learning Swahili, learning the accent, then I had to do study all the recording as well as all the books, tapes, documentaries. When I went to Uganda I met with his brother, sister, his ministers, his generals and even to the Ugandan king. I did more research for this role than any other character I've probably ever played."
- (On his career) "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. I've been doing this for 26 years and 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."
- (On being a black actor) "I have friends, African American actors, who've had more of a struggle; hopefully they're starting to see some air and light now. But in my directing career, in my acting career, in my producing career, I haven't been bound by a lot of limitations. When I first started doing these kinds of unique characters, these diverse characters, there was hardly anybody doing them. So I had this open road."
- The Last King of Scotland.
- Hopefully this film is going to open the doors for a lot more films like it to be made.
- (On his children's names - True and Ocean - & his name) "I want those names to be their destiny, for my daughter to be honest and my son to be expansive. I try to be like a forest, revitalizing and constantly growing." As a child, Whitaker admitted that he was teased about his unusual name, but he maintains his name helped him learn who he was as a person. "Kids would tease me, calling me 'Little Bush.' But...I thought being called Forest helped me find my identity."
- In high school I did some musicals, but I never took acting until college. I was studying opera, classical voice, and a speech teacher asked me to audition for this play and I got the lead. And she helped me to get into a conservatory, with a scholarship as a singer, and then I was accepted into the acting conservatory. This agent saw me, the summer before I went to conservatory, and while I was in school, I started working right away. And it worked out. - On getting into acting.
- (On filming the Panic Room (2002)) "The guys on the set, Dwight, Jared, and me, would work for a day, and then the next day Jodie would work. We rarely worked together, so it was all about getting to know some of the guys. With the way scheduling was, she's not in the small frame as all of us. They never did it that way. The thing about the film was you did become closer with some people in ways because it took so long. This is the longest shoot I have ever had. It was about 145 shooting days. We also had rehearsals before that. I think it so long because of the shots taken. It was the most planned movie I've been involved with."
- My parents moved to Los Angeles when I was really young, but I spent every summer with my grandparents, and I'd stay with my grandfather on the farm in Longview. He was retired from the railroad, and he had a small farm with some cows and some pigs. I remember part of my youth was feeding hogs and plowing fields and stuff, so that's apart of me. And my parents raised me to say 'sir' and 'ma'am,' to open doors, things like that. That's the way I was brought up. Also, unfortunately, I was taught not to question too much. I didn't really question my mom and dad. That's usually what they told me to do.
- As a kid, I never had dreams of becoming an actor or director. Even when I was already working professionally, it took me a long time to know whether this was what I really wanted to be. Now I feel comfortable about what I'm doing, but I see that I can continue to make it better, that I can create a deeper balance in my life, and I'm still working on that. I didn't plan for things to turn out this way at all. But I have to say, I feel good about it. I do. - 1998 quote on his career.
- I think that there's an awakening inside of me really honestly, and I honestly believe that the best work of my life is about to happen. I'm finding a balance in myself as an artist from the external and the internal, and so as a result the characters I play are going to be quite different. So what's going to happen is that it's going to lift up the characters I play, we're going to start to see it and I think it's going to change the face of my career. - 2006 quote.
- (On his best work) "If I were to mark three, I'd mark Bird, because I grew immensely as an artist--I learned a lot--and also, I think, it was when people started to take me more seriously. I'd also mark Ghost Dog, because I started to understand something about myself in silence, how I'm capable of communicating certain things without doing much. And then I'd probably mark The Last King of Scotland, which marries the internal and the external in a strong way and brings together all of the things I've learned about my work into one character."
- (On his character in "The Shield" (2002)) "I'm always blown away by people's negative reactions to Kavanaugh. He's a highly moral man who's brought to the breaking point. To me, he's like an angel. Yes, he's obsessive. Anal. Intense. But his goal is to get Vic Mackey off the street. This is somebody who beats people up on a weekly basis, steals money, blackmails people. But I'm the bad guy?"
- Until film is just as easily accessible as a pen or pencil, then it's not completely an art form. In painting you can just pick up a piece of chalk, a stick or whatever. In sculpture you can get a rock. Writing you just need a pencil and paper. Film has been a very elitist medium. It costs so much money. It doesn't allow everyone who wants to tell stories tell stories. The great storytellers however are going to rise to the top, no matter what. That's why independent film is very important to me.
- was a chance to expand myself and deepen my connection with the universe and with God.
- (On choosing studio or independent films) "I go back and forth between indie and studio because I feel like it, not because I feel obligated to do one or the other. The only reason to make a decision like that is financial, you know, you can't live. That doesn't make my decision for me, I do what feels right for me. I'm not going to do a bad movie just because it's a studio movie or an indie film, and there are hordes of bad independent movies. People tend to think that indie movies are always good, but I've seen horrific ones, just as well as I've seen horrific studio films. So I just go by how I feel, it's the only way you can figure it out. Otherwise you get lost in the maze of trying to second guess the people, the studio, how you can make your career long or short. It's easy to get lost in this maze, called life, really, you know what I mean?"
- Little Trip to Heaven.
- He did things like other big men who did things that helped their countries.
- I'm not trying to defend him, the Amin I found was not a good man.
- (On his role in Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999) and how he prepared) "I started reading the Hagekure and other books, including one called The Code of the Samurai, and I watched a lot of films. I tried to find his mindset more than anything. It's more like a trance-like state for this character than it is anything else, based in the ancient book that he follows. But I did a lot of different types of research."