Whitaker embraces new gangster series role
In person, Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker is not quite as big as you might think, based on the many characters he’s played on screen, but he’s still several heads taller than the short journalist nervously watching the famous actor walk towards him at the Palazzo Hotel at Montecasino in Sandton.
Humble, and as softly spoken and gravelly voiced as in the movies, Whitaker sits down to talk about his role as 1960s Harlem gangster Bumpy Johnson in the Epix series Godfather of Harlem.
Johnson is a complicated character whom Whitaker describes as “someone who was giving to his community in some ways, but there was a big dichotomy in the fact that he was doing certain things that were harming the community and other things that were helping the community”.
The first season, written by Narcos creator Chris Brancato, is set in 1963 and begins with Johnson, released from prison, returning to Harlem to stamp his authority on the drug business and stave off the Italian mob.
He is confronted with the growing rise of the Civil Rights movement, led by his former hustler friend turned Muslim Brotherhood leader, Malcolm X (Nigél Thatch).
Whitaker’s career is peppered with historical roles, from his breakout role at 27 in Clint Eastwood’s 1988 Charlie Parker biopic, Bird, to his Oscar-winning role as Idi Amin in Kevin McDonald’s 2009 The Last King of Scotland.
In this show, the placing of the story of gangster protagonist against the backdrop of a pivotal year in the history of the Civil Rights movement was a strong incentive for Whitaker to both produce the show and star in it.
The show also uses modern music created by producer Swiss Beats and a host of new musicians to bring home to audiences how Johnson’s historical story and circumstances have relevance for the current era in the US.
Whitaker hopes “it makes you have to look at the issues that were going on at the time, and current issues, and realise we’ve not been able to surpass some of these issues.
“We’re still struggling with them as a country and this extends to other places in the world.”
Whitaker is also a producer who runs his own production company, Significant Productions, which has created several successful, independent, socially conscious films by young directors, including Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station and Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You.
He runs the Whitaker Peace and Development Initiative, which promotes non-violence and leadership among young people in communities ravaged by violence.
Whitaker is witnessing a moment in film production in which storytelling by people of colour, and of different genders and new voices, has dramatically increased in both films and series.
It’s a moment that’s been given a big boost thanks to the success of Coogler’s Black Panther in which Whitaker acted, and while he says he always believed the film “was going to make a billion dollars” he “didn’t know how that would reflect culturally”.
“I think the film gave a sense of self and belonging to communities that had never seen themselves on screen before, and that was something I hadn’t counted on — the ripple effect of what that means and the sense of identity it gave people.”
Whitaker has often said until he won the Oscar in 2010 for Last King of Scotland he didn’t quite feel he deserved to think of himself as a full-time actor.
At 58 he admits he’s been enjoying the freedom of being able to choose his own roles in recent years.
“I feel so good about the last few projects I’ve been involved in.
“I didn’t always feel that way,” he said.
Whitaker has more seasons of Godfather of Harlem in the pipeline, a miniseries created by his company in production and a role in Respect, the upcoming biopic of the late soul legend Aretha Franklin.
● Godfather of Harlem is available on Showmax.