POTENTIAL FULFILLED
Black Panther director had it from Day 1, actor Whitaker says
Director Ryan Coogler was still a student at the USC School of Cinematic Arts when he came to the attention of Forest Whitaker.
The young filmmaker arrived at Whitaker’s office to pitch ideas to the Oscar-winning actor and his producing partner, Nina Yang Bongiovi.
One of them was based on the true story of a 22-year-old African-American man shot by a white police officer on a subway platform.
Whitaker and Bongiovi signed on as producers, helping Coogler develop it into his harrowing 2013 debut, Fruitvale Station.
“We decided to do it then, right on the spot,” says Whitaker in an interview promoting Coogler’s latest film, Black Panther.
“I think it’s a real important film. It has a real strong social message in dealing with profiling, in dealing with young black males being killed by the police. There were so many different stories inside of it.”
Five years later, Whitaker accepted a supporting role in Black Panther, the latest mega-budgeted entry into the Marvel Universe that’s already being called a “history-making masterpiece” by Rolling Stone.
It was Coogler’s involvement that convinced Whitaker to play Zuri, spiritual leader of the fictional African nation of Wakanda overseen by King T’Challa, a.k.a. the Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman).
Coogler’s relatively quick ascension from indie auteur to blockbuster mastermind doesn’t surprise Whitaker, who was intrigued by what he might be able to achieve given the broad canvas of a Hollywood superhero movie.
“I knew he was going to be a major filmmaker,” Whitaker says about Coogler, 31. “I knew it because of odd reasons. No. 1, I thought he had a really strong moral compass and had a clarity in what he wanted to say.
“That made him know what he was trying to accomplish in the films he would be making. I felt he was a visionary even at that time with just the stories he had told me. Yeah, I knew something was going to happen.”
For a young filmmaker, getting enthusiastic support from Whitaker is no small thing. After all, the 56-year-old actor has worked with some of the best directors from multiple generations.
Everyone from old-school masters like Martin Scorsese, Robert Altman, Oliver Stone and Clint Eastwood; to more recent A-listers such as David Fincher, Lee Daniels and Denis Villeneuve; to indie auteurs Jim Jarmusch and Spike Jonze have hired him.
As with most of his performances, Whitaker brings gravitas to Black Panther role.
The actor is no stranger to modern blockbusters, having shown up most recently in the Star Wars franchise as resistance fighter Saw Gerrera in 2016’s Rogue One.
But Whitaker’s probably best known for two searing performances as real-life figures.
In Clint Eastwood’s 1988 biopic Bird, he played troubled jazz genius Charlie Parker, while his terrifying turn as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in 2006’s The Last King of Scotland earned him an Oscar for best actor.
Whitaker continues to choose films that showcase his versatility, including playing Desmond Tutu in Roland Joffe’s The Forgiven and a journalist investigating the murders of rappers Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. in LAbyrinth.
“My natural attraction is going to be toward films that actually comment on society and try to better society, to build up our desire to address issues and at the same time offer some form of solutions,” he says.
“Either the solution of being able to have a dialogue or the solution of actually getting a point of view to figure out what to do to change it. I’m always going to do films that have that around them. They’ll be other films as well, but the large portion of them will probably have that comment.”
That includes Black Panther. While the film contains no shortage of dizzying action sequences, intriguing gadgets, explosions and exhilarating production, Coogler also gives it a contemplative centre by examining issues of race, representation and isolationism.
“It takes you on an amazing ride, there’s so many things to experience,” Whitaker says. “It’s with humour but also with real emotional truth throughout the movie that really stops you and makes you think about the message that Ryan is saying. It’s unusual to find a movie that does all those things.”
Black Panther opens Friday.