Don Cheadle

The star of Quibi’s Don’t Look Deeper and Showtime’s Black Monday discusses a blues icon, Jim Harrison’s poetic Zen, and his other recent obsessions.

DINING I’m a vegetarian, and I just started eating at this vegan place in Venice, California, called Plant Food + Wine. It’s really clean, simply prepared food. The gem Caesar and the raw lasagna are really good, but the kelp noodle cacio e pepe (above) is my favorite dish.

FILM Dr. Strangelove is amazing, but I’m also a big fan of Fail Safe, which came out the same year, 1964, and is less remembered. Both movies address Cold War paranoia.

But whereas Dr. Strangelove was a parody, Fail Safe was serious, and very good in its own right.

MUSIC My musical interests tend to shift with whatever project I’m working on. I’m about to do a film set in Detroit in the 1950s, so I’ve been listening to a lot of John Lee Hooker, working through his entire library. The song “Boogie Chillen’” is a good place to start.

BOOKS I’ve been thumbing through After Ikkyu and Other Poems by Jim Harrison. The pieces are beautiful and short, and rooted in Zen studies. I haven’t read Harrison’s novels yet, but I like his vibe.