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By Lana K. Wilson-Combs | OBSERVER CORRESPONDENT
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Regina King (left) and Forest Whitaker
star in "Our Family Wedding."
Photo © Fox Searchlight / Scott
Garfield. |
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BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Academy
Award winning actor Forest Whitaker and NAACP Image Awards
Nominee Regina King discussed their new movie, "Our Family
Wedding," during a recent press junket at the Four Seasons
Hotel.
Whitaker (“The Last King of Scotland")
is also set to star in an upcoming spin-off of the CBS TV
drama “Criminal Minds,” and King currently can
be seen on the hit TNT show, “Southland." Both
actors talked about juggling their TV and film careers.
Lana K. Wilson-Combs: It looked like you
had a fun time doing this movie and after
doing such serious roles was this part of the decision to
show a bit of your comedic
side?
Forest Whitaker: Yeah. I was kind of burned
out and tired from doing all the other serious stuff. I also
liked the characters and I liked the story. It’s really
freeing to work on a character like this. It’s unusual
when you do a movie about caring and loving and all sorts
of social messages about community and cultures and look past
stereotypes and come to a sense of understanding that we’re
all the same. That’s a nice message inside a movie that’s
so entertaining. That was really part of the big attraction
for me.
LKWC: Regina what struck you most when you
read the script?
Regina King: A couple of things. One was
the unique way that three love stories can be told. You have
these three couples at three different junctures and I thought
that was unique especially with Forest and my character, Brad
and Angela. You don’t see the best friend hooking up
often in that way. And also, things are received better through
comedy too. I felt like it was timely for a story dealing
with cultural differences to come out. I think stories like
this push buttons and make you think.
LKWC: How much fun was that cake scene with
Forest and was it originally in the
script?
RK: It was fun until having to wash it out
of my hair. That scene actually was in the script, but how
it came to be was just Forest and I just going for it. He
loaded up some ammunition. What you didn’t see - because
a lot of things are edited out - was that I went hard on Forest.
He was getting binged by cupcakes. We had to literally walk
out so we wouldn’t slip.
LKWC: Carlos Mencia said that Forest Whitaker
didn’t want the cast to be intimidated by him being
an Oscar winner and all. Did he do that deliberately to kind
of ease the atmosphere?
RK: No. It wasn’t deliberate. Forest
is just a laid-back guy. That’s one thing about his
character. Forest is really like Brad Boyd, that guy in the
movie on the radio with the voice. He’s the laid-back
mellow cat that never wants anyone around him to be intimidated
or uncomfortable. It’s not a thoughtful thing. It’s
just a natural thing.
LKWC: Do you have any great wedding stories
— maybe not as wild as the one in this
movie — that you can share?
RK: We got married in Jamaica. And the day
after, like 90 of my friends took different little boats to
Dunns River Falls to walk the waterfalls. We get on the boats
to go back to the island and the boat starts sinking. Water
starts filling up in the boat. So me and my best friend, we
love to swim and jet ski, we do it all. We didn’t say
anything at first. My friend said we’re going to take
off our life vests and kick. Then one of the girls starts
screaming because the water is up to our knees. What happened
was the boat was too heavy and one of the Jamaican guys shouldn’t
have been on it. He takes a little cup and starts trying to
get the water off the boat. And I say to him ‘get your
ass off the boat.’ He jumped off the boat and we made
it back to shore. That was the strangest wedding related mishap
for me.
LKWC: There’s a line in the movie that
says “their wedding, our marriage.” What do
you think of that?
RK: Well I think for a lot of families, it's
true. Often we put so much into the wedding that we forget
the work in the marriage. The wedding requires so much preparation
and at the end of the day you’re like, it’s over.
The day goes by so quick. Plus, we tend to feel like marriage
is supposed to be a certain way like your mother’s marriage
or your grandmother’s marriage and it’s not. It’s
our marriage. So I think that that line is so much bigger
than the wedding.
LKWC: You’ve established a solid and
excellent movie career. What made you decide to do a TV series
like “Southland.”
RK: Well, because it’s brilliant for
one. Two, being a mother I had turned down four or five movies
because they would have taken me out of the city for more
than two weeks. I was just kind of like, you know I want to
keep working, but unfortunately I am not at the place in my
career where I can choose every movie to be shot in LA. My
manager/agent actively sought TV and that’s how the
“24” (TV show) situation came to
be. That was really the beginning of me doing TV. The beauty
of being able to be OK with that decision is that there is
no definitive line between a movie actor and a TV actor. Years
ago it was frowned upon for a movie actor to do TV. Now Glenn
Close is on TV, Laurence Fishburne, Forest Whitaker, Kyra
Sedgwick and Sigourney Weaver. You have some real quality
people on TV. The shows are better. As far as that one hour
drama - for those of us who love the narrative - all the cable
networks have some great shows on. And honestly you can tune
into that every week. TV is just more
accessible.
LKWC: Is there much satisfaction on the
set of "Southland" given what happened with the
show when it left NBC?
RK: Yeah we are very happy to be at TNT.
There is a part of me that I really and totally thought I
had gotten beyond the NBC of it all. And it would be different
if it wasn't a good show. I kind of liken it to being in a
relationship and you think everything is going great and then
he suddenly dumps you and you're like, 'but you just bought
me flowers yesterday and took me to a great dinner. And so
you're like really! One day I'm driving down Sunset between
Fairfax and Doheny and I see nine billboards for the show
"Parenthood" Tuesday nights at 10 p.m. Now mind
you, I really do think "Parenthood" looks like a
great show. I will say that. But there was something in me
that just went.. Ooh. (She makes a slow stabbing gesture to
her stomach). (Lots of laughter). That reaction was something.
You know it's like after that happens you have a new boyfriend
but you see him walking down the street with a girl and you
go ooh. (Lots of laughter).
LKWC: Do you think "Southland"
is a better fit at TNT?
RK: It's a lot better fit and I'll tell
you why. Although "Parenthood" looks like a great
show, it's really sad that NBC is crashing and burning right
before our eyes. They don't have anything other than "Parenthood."
They're scrambling because they made this "Jay Leno"
decision and now they don't know what the hell to do. It costs
them a lot of money. They moved three steps back to move six
steps even further back. So it's sad to see. There's that
part of me, I'm not the type of person who likes to see people
fail. There were a lot of jobs involved there. A lot of people
with the Leno decision were out of work because that was five
hours of TV that was gone. So as a person who really respects
the entire crew and cast that is hard to see. I don't want
to be associated with something that is doing badly. Then
you have TNT on the other hand. They are smart at marketing.
They are specifically going after the audience that likes
narrative TV. They're not interested in a reality show. "Men
of a Certain Age" is like a comedy that you've never
seen before. They're not scared to push the envelope which
was what NBC was in the beginning. I grew up on NBC with "227."
I learned everything, to be a professional on NBC. This was
the network that brought us "Hill Street Blues"
I grew up there when Brandon Tartikoff was making incredible
choices. It's tough to see what's happened. But I feel lucky
to be part of this rebirth on TNT.
LKWC: Forest, are you going to get in the
director's chair again?
FW: Next April I'm going to direct “Satchmo,”
the Louis Armstrong biopic. I’m going to play the character.
I won't play the whole of it. It starts when he's born. But
a couple of people will be performing the character.
LKWC: Have you done any casting?
FW: I haven't cast the movie. I probably
shouldn't be talking about it because I'm still in the budgeting
stages. I have ideas for casting, but I feel that as of now,
every person I've approached to be on the crew who has read
the script has attached
themselves to it. I feel as though the same will occur with
the actors because the roles are pretty amazing, really great
characters. We'll see.
LKWC: Any other movies coming up?
RK: No just "Our Family Wedding"
for right now.
LKWC: And you Forest?
FW: I have “Repo Men” with Jude
Law (April 2). I’m producing “Single Shot,”
a documentary that takes place in an Angola prison. Ninety
percent of the inmates die there so when people get old, who
cares for them? It's a volunteer group within the prison,
so it's really about compassion, about them trying to find
redemption.
LKWC: What about the “Criminal Minds”
TV show spinoff?
FW: I'm shooting that now. They’re
going to weave the pilot into the show at the end of the season.
I’ve always been a big fan of the original show. My
character, Sam Cooper, is a guy who came back to this unit
only if he could operate under his own rules. He doesn't have
an office. The show is set in Washington. We also shoot in
LA.
LKWC: Were you disappointed that “Hurricane
Season” went straight to DVD?
FW: Yeah, I think that was a travesty. I
think the Weinsteins should ... it's not just about me, the
fact that they didn't do what they said they were going to
do is amazing to me. I think that is modus operandi. But a
lot of people are telling me they saw the video on DVD and
really responded to it and don't understand why it wasn't
released and I say, "You'll have to talk to the Weinsteins
about that. I can’t help you.” I tried though.
Even when I tried to get a deal for it, they wouldn’t
make a reasonable deal for anyone.
LKWC: You mean to help distribute it?
FW: Yeah, I was going to get another distributer
to help them and they wanted so
much money...
LKWC: A couple other films of your have gone
straight to DVD. I know it's out of your control, but what
do you think about that?
FW: “Hurricane Season” was pretty
disappointing. Some of the others are just different. Maybe
“Powder Blue”... it's not that many films. But
“Hurricane Season” is a big deal. Again, it's
not about me, it's about that story. It's no reflection on
Oscar or anything or on me, other than whom they choose to
have a relationship with. The same thing happened with the
marketing for “Raising Harlem,” which I first
did with them. Same thing. I personally feel Denzel (Washington)
made an amazing film with “The Great Debaters,”
but it was marketed poorly so people didn't see this amazingly
beautiful film. I have too many things I'm doing, I don't
think about it that way. I do think of the impact it would
have if people were to understand what happened to Katrina.
There's not another film about the situation, about inside
the feelings about what was going on with the people.
“Our Family Wedding,” also stars Lance Gross,
America Ferrera and Carlos Mencia, opens nationwide March
12.
Lana K. Wilson-Combs is a Sacramento based syndicated
movie and entertainment
writer. You can read her movie reviews and celebrity interviews
each week in the
Sacramento Observer, SacObserver.com and on her Web site at
www.N2Entertainment.net.
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