Don’t take Don Cheadle too seriously

Enough with the biopics
One of the things Cheadle liked most his new film that even though an actual event had been woven into the plot, it wasn’t a biopic. Although, Cheadle who has played real-life characters in “Rwanda,” “The Rat Pack,” “Rebound: The Legend of Earl ‘The Goat’ Manigault”; and is slated to appear in three more biographies including “Talk to Me,” “Toussaint” and the recently announced feature on jazz legend Miles Davis (in which he’ll make his directing debut), he doesn’t really care for the genre.

“I think it’s kind of staid and done to death,” Cheadle said with a slight sigh. “The thing that drew me to them was not the person necessarily as it was the story. With ‘Hotel Rwanda,’ that goes without saying. That story was really the star of that movie and something that relatively few people had heard about. And with Petey Green [the real-life radio personality from ‘Talk to Me’], it’s just the time and what we were dealing with as a country at that time.  He’s a guy who was just really irreverent, talks s—t and says whatever he thinks.”

Cheadle appreciates a straight shooter.

“We need that so much right now,” he said. “We need people who aren’t going to be P.C. and just say what they think for better or for worse. People were jumping all over that Anne Coulter thing and I was like let her say that. I’m glad she said that. I want to know how people think and feel. I don’t want people walking around not saying what they feel and think. Call me a n—r so I know who you are.”

Cheadle knows where he is when it comes to the pecking order of actors in Hollywood. Like everyone else in town — black, white or otherwise — he stands behind the husband of his “Reign” co-star, Jada Pinkett Smith.

According to Cheadle with studios making fewer and fewer films, times are tough for everyone not named Will Smith.

“I’m not saying anything bad about Will Smith; I’m saying that corporations are now running [the business] and there’s a different bottom line,” Cheadle explained. “The thing the studios are saying is how do we best hedge our bets? And if you’re going to hedge your bets — black, white or whatever — getting Will Smith in the movie seems to be the best way to go.”

Even if that weren’t the case there would be no debate about that statement because at that moment there was a knock on the door indicating that our time was up. Cheadle, however, had one more thing he needed to say.

“By the way, you should write that no one should roll up on me and call me a n—r because we will be fighting,” he said with a slight smile.

There you have it. Don’t be deceived by his lithe 5-foot-8 frame. If you’re hedging your bets, go with  Cheadle over Smith when it comes to playing the fool.

Don’s bits On the possibility of there being an ‘Ocean’s Fourteen’: “We gotta be done. I’m pretty sure. We didn’t think we were going to do this one and wouldn’t have if Steven [Soderbergh] hadn’t said he found a way to do it.” On Darfur: “That’s a fluid scenario and it’s always changing. There’s always new wrinkles in it. They think there may be oil now in northern Darfur and that may be the reason that all of this conflict is happening. And if that’s true, it’s going to be a whole other situation between who’s going to try and get that oil.” Cheadle on Cheadle: “Any movie that I’ve seen that I’m in it takes years for me to be anywhere near objective about it. It’s like opening a vein for me.”

Miki Turner is a freelance writer/producer in Los Angeles and can be reached at .

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