State of Grace
After taking a hiatus from acting, Forest Whitaker returns with his soul and confidence intact.
by Jamie Painter
Forest Whitaker is a great man, and I don't mean just because of his 6'2", 250-pound frame. He's got heart and soul to go with it. The 38-year-old actor has managed to retain something that's unfortunately lost too often in Hollywood-integrity-and it's never been more evident than in his latest performance as the title character in Jim Jarmusch's film, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai. (Jarmusch is profiled on page 11 of this issue.)
In the tragicomic film, which hits theatres this month, Whitaker plays a reclusive New Jersey hit man whose Mafia clients make the ill-fated mistake of double-crossing him. If there were such a thing as a killer with great karma, Whitaker's Ghost Dog has it. Borrowing from such samurai films as The Seventh Samurai, Whitaker infuses his performance with those ancient warriors' meditative, poetic grace and kick-ass martial arts moves.
Prior to Ghost Dog, Whitaker took a virtual hiatus from acting for five years to concentrate on directing (Strapped, Waiting to Exhale, Hope Floats) and producing. He's now trying to balance all three, and is happy to return to performing. He can next be seen in Battlefield Earth opposite John Travolta and in the upcoming films Four Dogs Playing Poker with Tim Curry and Witness Protection.
Whitaker first came to our attention for his small but memorable role in the now-classic Fast Times at Ridgemont High. His many credits since then have included Vision Quest, The Color of Money, Platoon, Good Morning, Vietnam, Stakeout, the Clint Eastwood-directed Bird (for which he won Best Actor at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival for his portrayal of Charlie Parker), A Rage in Harlem (which he also produced), Diary of a Hit Man, The Crying Game, Body Snatchers (the 1993 remake), Pr't-Ã -Porter, Jason's Lyric, Smoke, Species, and Phenomenon.
What is evident when speaking with Whitaker is how at home he is with himself. There is a gentleness to him that's apparent from the moment you walk into his Hollywood-based production company, Spirit Dance, and every element of the space reinforces this feeling of serenity. Natural light spills in from the ceiling; the soothing smell of incense fills the air. And Whitaker sits on a cushy leather sofa to share his feelings with no hint of discomfort.
Back Stage West: In addition to being a fan of yours, I'm also a big fan of Jim Jarmusch's work. It seems like he's really been reinventing himself with the past few films he's done-particularly with Dead Man and now Ghost Dog. It also feels like you've reinvented yourself with this film. Your character, Ghost Dog, is such a strong force and seems so fresh to the landscape of contemporary film.
Forest Whitaker: Jim was really creating an urban myth-a real archetypal character. There's some sort of primordial type of truth [to Ghost Dog]. Working with Jim was exciting. We started just from a series of conversations and what he came out with, I think, is pretty powerful.
And it gave me an excuse to do a lot of things that I love to do anyway. Working on this character took a lot of internal work. All characters do, but this one a little more so, because he doesn't speak for maybe the first 30 or 40 minutes of the film. I mean, you hear him in narration, but you never see him speaking to anyone until a half-hour into the film, and that takes a lot of trust in yourself as an artist. It was difficult.
I watched a lot samurai movies, like The Seventh Samurai and the Lone Wolf and Cub films, and to watch the confidence that some of those actors had-knowing that they didn't have to do much to convey their feelings and their thoughts; their spirit was allowed to come through-I was hoping to find a place like that. Even after my character speaks, I still don't say that much throughout the whole film. It's not about words.
I kind of got a chance to work on my meditation, because I do meditate a lot in my daily life. With this character, I probably meditated like two or three hours a day, and put myself in an altered sort of state so that when I was working, you'd be able to feel that energy. When you're in that kind of a state, you move through space differently. You breathe the air a little differently.
BSW: I overheard you a few minute ago saying to another journalist that this film has a lot to say about fear-fear of death, especially. Fear is also so much a part of acting. It can fuel a performance but it can also hinder it. Do you have any fears as an actor, and have you conquered them?
Whitaker: A lot of them I've conquered, but sometimes that's my fear. As I feel more, not confident, but more secure, I wonder if I'm losing the edge that the fear caused-the need to immerse myself to the degree I have in the past. I still immerse myself in my characters, but I used to be chased by a demon in my mind. There was this "mediocre monster" that would chase me, and I didn't want him to catch me. I would work so hard to stay away from him. I was running a race, and I don't see that monster too much anymore.
That doesn't mean that I feel like there aren't hard parts that can challenge me, because there are, but my whole way of looking at the world has changed, and what used to be so important to me has shifted. It's now important for me to operate everything in my life with some degree of grace-where my creativity is a part of the way I exist. As a result, it's not about a part. It's about the way I walk through the world. The way I speak. The way I enter a conversation. That has changed my relationship to fear, but it's still there.
In the conversation you overheard, I was talking about the Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai [an early 18th-century Japanese warrior text studied by Ghost Dog in the film]. One of the quotes that really struck me was the one about the samurai's head getting cut off and him being able to complete one last task. That's a true acting quote to me, because it's like saying if your attention is strong enough then you will affect change. I remember when I was in school, this acting teacher I had would always say, "What are you thinking? What do you want your character to do?" And I'd say, "Well, to do this, to do that." And he'd say, "Yeah, but how do they need to look to show you they do it? Do they need to get on their knees? Do they need to move their hand? Do they need to cry? What's going to be your sign?" There was something about playing objectives to that degree that's a samurai point of view.
BSW: What matters most to you these days when it comes to acting?
Whitaker: I just want to play a part that I can really submerge inside of. I care about doing things that have some hope in them and that have some degree of spirituality in them. I'm not really good at vacuous things.
You know, I stopped acting for about five years. I was just directing. I just started back, and some of it's been up and some of it's been down. Some of it's been fun. I've learned a lesson. I remember when I was in school, I'd be doing this scene and it would be so dramatic and so emotional and I'd be crying, and my teacher would say, "What you did was so real and so good, but we can't watch it." I'd ask, "Why?" He'd say, "Because you don't enjoy any part of doing it." I didn't enjoy acting.
That's a part of the grace I try to live my life with now. I find a little more enjoyment when I work. I used to think I had to be more tortured. As an actor, when I was young, that was a part of it-that tortured spirit fueled my work. I was running away from fear. Now I'm looking for a deeper connection, and it makes it a different process for me. Every role has to let me grow. That's what I'm really looking for.
BSW: In my research to prepare for this interview, I was surprised to learn that before you pursued acting, you were training as a classical singer. I had no idea and I find that really interesting for some reason. Did you almost become an opera singer?
Whitaker: I guess I considered it for moment.
BSW: You got a scholarship at the University of Southern California because of your voice?
Whitaker: In the USC Music Conservatory, yes. And even when I left the Music Conservatory, the staff brought me in and said, "You must promise that you will always continue to sing." But I don't.
That's how I got my first agent. While I was at USC, I did The Beggar's Opera. An agent saw me and that's how I got my agent as an actor-singing in an opera.
BSW: When you decided to leave music for acting, what did you do? Did you take it seriously once you got an agent?
Whitaker: In the beginning of my career I was obsessed with acting. It's all I did. It's all I thought about mostly. And I had an agent, but I didn't feel very comfortable working because I didn't feel like I was good enough to be working. So I left and went to school outside of Hollywood, to the Drama Studio of London at Berkeley. I wanted to get better at my craft.
BSW: This was after you did Fast Times at Ridgemont High?
Whitaker: This is what happened: I did Fast Times and then I left L.A. and went up to Northern California to go to school. I was called back to L.A. to do reshoots-and I remember, I had to go to the faculty, because I had a full scholarship and they didn't know that I had been working professionally, and I had to try to explain this to them. They let me go. I flew to L.A. and did the reshoots. Sean Penn asked me if I wanted to do Bad Boys with him, and I said, "No, man. I'm not ready to go act yet. I've got to go back up. I've got to go study." I went back to school.
BSW: What do you think of all the young actors out there working today in film who don't get any formal training or experience onstage?
Whitaker: They're basically using the workplace as a way of perfecting their craft, and as years go by they'll be able to do more things, but in the beginning, they'll only be able to do particular things. Most of the people that are just walking into roles are generally playing themselves, and maybe they'll decide to do that forever, but they'll continually, as time goes along, get better at it and they'll be able to stretch. They're basically in one long school. It's a way to go about it, I guess, if they have the ability and they don't want to lose the window of opportunity.
At the time I was in school, I didn't really care about doing movies. It wasn't a big deal to me. I was always thinking, I'm going to get ready and go to New York and be onstage. Or the demon was chasing me and I'd be thinking, If I can't get good enough to do this, then I'm going to go do something else. All my concentration was on getting better; it wasn't about getting jobs.
BSW: What happened to you after school?
Whitaker: I went back to L.A. and started working at the Mark Taper Forum, and then I just started working in film and I've been working pretty much since then.
BSW: Have you returned to the stage since your time with the Taper?
Whitaker: I recently did a staged reading at the Coronet-hardly anything. Maybe next year. If I can organize my life well enough, I would like to, at the end of next year, do a play.
BSW: What do you love about acting, Forest?
Whitaker: Make-believe. Magic. It's very magical. Possession. Growth. Those are probably the four things.
BSW: What about directing? What do you get out of that job that you don't necessarily get from acting?
Whitaker: I'm allowed to paint a picture. I'm allowed to tell a story completely. I'm allowed to let people reach their full potential. It's not comparable to acting. I mean, acting is beautiful and it's fun, but it's one part of a whole story. Being an actor, you're part of the ritual, but you're not necessarily the thing that calls forth the gods. In some ways, directing does that.
BSW: What's next on your horizon?
Whitaker: I've got Battlefield Earth with John Travolta and Barry Pepper coming out. My company is producing a film with the Bui brothers [the filmmakers of Three Seasons] called The Green Dragon. I play a small role in it, but it's mostly about Vietnamese refugees. I'm looking forward to directing in the fall. And I'm working on a lot of projects-my company has so many television projects. We have a series and a lot of movies of the week.
BSW: You seem so self-assured-so at peace with yourself. Are you at your happiest in your life right now?
Whitaker: Yeah, I feel good. This doesn't mean that everything is great, but my attitude about things is quite different than it used to be. I recognize that I manifest my own world. I don't have to look at it in the torturous way I did before or by seeing the negative. I feel like a lot of the things that I'm trying to do are being accomplished, and I feel like I have really good people around me-people I like to be around. My relationship to the world is stronger. My relationship to God is stronger. My art is getting stronger. I'm expressing myself in all kinds of ways. I don't know if there's much more you could ask for.
BSW: Any parting advice to actors out there who may be struggling?
Whitaker: Only go by what you feel and what your heart says to do, and by doing that, you'll always be intact. Then you'll be able to build a career that has some integrity-something you feel good about and also that will maybe allow you to continue to do more. That's what I did. It worked for me. I was offered many opportunities that I chose not to do, at times when I was sleeping on someone's couch and looking for pennies under the pillow. I would say no to things because they didn't feel right for me, and as a result I was able to build a career that now allows people to ask me to do films that have something to them. They may not always be great or lofty, but they have something to say.
I always have myself. I didn't lose myself in the process of getting to where I am now. The end is hopefully about building some [personal] character and leading a happy and healthy life. It doesn't mean I don't have a bunch of problems, but I feel good. BSW