Forest Whitaker stars in "Repo Men" and "Our Family Wedding," both in theaters now.
Forest Whitaker stars in "Repo Men" and "Our Family Wedding," both in theaters now.
In the futuristic action-thriller "Repo Men," humans have extended and improved our lives through highly sophisticated and expensive mechanical organs created by a company called ...
Rating: R for strong bloody violence, grisly images, language and some sexuality/nudity
Length: 111 minutes
Released: March 19, 2010 Nationwide
Cast: Jude Law, Forest Whitaker, Alice Braga, Joe Pingue, Liev Schreiber
Director: Miguel Sapochnik
Writer: Eric Garcia, Garrett Lerner
Lucia and Marcus learn the hard way that the path to saying "I do" can be rife with familial strife. When they return from college ...
Rating: PG-13 for some sexual content and brief strong language
Length: 90 minutes
Released: March 12, 2010 Nationwide
Cast: Forest Whitaker, America Ferrera, Regina King, Hayley Marie Norman, Lance Gross
Director: Rick Famuyiwa
Writer: Rick Famuyiwa, Gina Prince-Bythewood
HOLLYWOOD — Forest Whitaker is best known for his intense, dramatic roles. Early in his career, he played legendary jazz musician Charlie Parker in Clint Eastwood’s “Bird.” He played a doomed captive British soldier in “The Crying Game.” More recently, he revealed the human side of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in 2006’s “The Last King of Scotland,” and scooped up a host of awards for his performance, including an Academy Award for best actor.
“When I was young I did some really serious roles, so my reputation was centered around things like that,” he says in his deep and silky voice.
But the Texas-born giant of a man has a funny side as well. He actually started his movie career in the coming-of-age comedy “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” in 1982, playing a football player. He reminded audiences how funny he could be when he hosted “Saturday Night Live” in 2007, memorably playing an overly ambitious singing waiter in one skit and rapper Bobby Brown’s obnoxious uncle in another.
“The process between drama and comedy is different, but you still have to find the character,” he says.
In “Our Family Wedding,” he plays an overprotective single father (to “House of Payne’s” Lance Gross), who has trouble coming to terms with his only son’s unexpected engagement to a Mexican-American woman ( “Ugly Betty’s” America Ferrera). The only thing he has in common with his future daughter-in-law’s family is that neither wants the marriage to take place. Having been turned off long ago to committed relationships, he thinks his successful doctor son should play the field.
After getting off on the wrong foot with the father of the bride-to-be, things spiral downward. Comedian Carlos Mencia plays his nemesis, a Mexican-American car restorer, who thinks his daughter is making a mistake. The two exchange insults and reveal their prejudices throughout, to over-the-top comic effect.
Whitaker says he simply liked the script. “I thought it was fun but also very touching,” he says. “It explores our racial and cultural differences, but in the end it shows us that we’re all coming from the same place, and it’s about love.”
Whitaker’s Brad Boyd is rich and a bit obsessive-compulsive. He likes order and quiet in his well-appointed hillside home. It is only with great reluctance that he agrees to have the wedding reception in his home, complete with the bride’s rowdy relatives — and a goat.
“My character’s damaged because his wife left him years earlier and he had to raise his son by himself,” explains Whitaker. “He’s frightened of relationships, so he goes out with women who are much younger, who aren’t looking to get married.”
The one woman he trusts is his lawyer and confidante (played by Regina King), who’s helped him raise his son since the divorce. Whitaker, 48, says he tried to convince King to work with him on a previous project but she declined.
King recalls, “There were only a couple of scenes with Forest (in it) and I remember thinking, if I’m going to do a movie with Forest, I want to do a movie with Forest. I want to be on the screen with him more than a little bit. But he was on my wish list of people to work with — and still is. I want to be able to do it again.”
King calls Whitaker laid back and easy to work with. “He creates an energy that makes everyone feel comfortable without forcing it,” she says.
Whitaker is similarly enamored with his co-star. “I was really happy when she decided to do this movie,” he says, smiling. “She’s a great actress — centered, and she’s got great comedy chops. It was easy to feed off and be captivated by her.”
Whitaker plays a completely different — and much scarier — character in the futuristic action thriller “Repo Men.” As Jake, he is sent to retrieve the transplanted heart of his former partner (Jude Law), who can no longer make the payments on it. Jake has orders to retrieve the heart by whatever means necessary. The chase, pitting friend against friend, is on.
Whitaker says he was interested in the fractured relationship between his and Law’s characters.
“I’m always trying to challenge myself to do something new, to try do something great, whether it’s sci-fi or comedy or whatever,” he says. “The friendship and separation and people growing in different directions — it was all part of the story.”
“We knew ... it was going to be extreme,” adds Law. “I constantly thought, how are we going to get away with it? But like Forest said, it’s fun to try new things.”
Whitaker credits director Miguel Sapochnik for creating a believably bleak futuristic world. “He created a universe that allows you to fall into it,” says the actor. “You believe and trust in what we’re doing, and we were committed to those motives. We would do anything as far as we needed to get inside the truth of what this universe is.”
An accomplished filmmaker himself ( “Waiting to Exhale,” “Hope Floats” ), Whitaker is set to get back behind the camera with a biopic on Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong next year, in which he also will play the legendary trumpeter and singer.
In the meantime, he is headed to Shanghai to star in the drama “Little Treasure,” about an American couple’s journey to adopt a child.
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