One on One with Tracey Edmonds: Serving Up a New Dish Called ‘Reality’

I am browsing the numerous awards on display in Tracey Edmonds’ expansive office when she enters through a private door, brightening up the already sun-drenched room with a radiance no cosmetic company could possibly take credit for. To call her beautiful is an understatement—she’s absolutely stunning. A statuesque former model with a dazzling smile, she wears low-rise denim jeans and a casual sweater that stops just at her navel, revealing a trim waist and flat abs that look as if no babies could have ever kicked and tumbled beneath them. It is difficult at first to believe that this vibrant young mother of two (who could easily be mistaken for a college coed) is the owner, president and CEO of Edmonds Entertainment, a multi-million dollar conglomerate whose five subsidiary companies produce award-winning music, film and television programs enjoyed by millions of Americans of every age and ethnicity.

Along with her husband and business partner, Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, Tracey has led Edmonds Entertainment to the forefront of the urban entertainment industry by developing and producing numerous commercially successful projects. One of her most lucrative triumphs was Soul Food, a film which earned five 1997 NAACP Image Awards, grossed over $43 million at the box office, and inspired a Showtime television series that ran for five successful seasons. The Soul Food soundtrack, which she executive produced, achieved multi-platinum status and the Showtime series garnered both NAACP and Emmy nominations. Her film production credits also include, Hav Plenty (released by Miramax in 1997), Light It Up (20th Century Fox, 1999), Josie and the Pussycats (Universal, 2001) and Punks (Urbanworld Films, 2000). Currently, Edmonds is working on feature film projects with Disney, Fox Searchlight, MGM and Universal.

Edmonds managed to accomplish all this and much more in an industry where black producers find barriers to success at every turn. “Hollywood is still dominated by studio heads and network heads that are white,” she says. “As a producer of color, when you present ideas to Hollywood, it’s a challenge getting anything accomplished that is urban or has leads of color. You learn to face a lot of rejection. I look forward to the day when people of color are green-lighting movies and television shows.” Despite the challenges, Edmonds remains confident that she will continue to grow as a producer and she remains committed to providing quality entertainment for a diverse audience. “My goal,” she asserts confidently, “is to keep breaking down those barriers and breaking down those doors.”

One of the few black female producers in Hollywood, Edmonds has heard whispers that her accomplishments are mostly attributable to her famous husband, a charge she calmly rebuffs. With a graceful blend of humility, keen intellect, authority and down-to-earthiness Edmonds acknowledges and appreciates the many blessings she’s received in her life, but she also makes it clear that the foundation of her success is her willingness to work hard. “My philosophy is nothing is too big or too small for me to personally do. I have no problem coming in on the weekends, taking my shoes off [and] sitting with the editors.” Edmonds hires a number of interns every year and provides countless opportunities for people of color to get a leg up in the industry, but she doesn’t just sit back and watch others work—she’s a hands-on executive. “You can’t take the attitude ‘Oh I’m just going to delegate everything,’ you’ve got to be in the trenches in order to deliver something you can be proud of,” she contends.

Anyone who has worked with Edmonds knows she’s brilliant and driven, but what many don’t know about her is that her journey to the top of her game began when she was a sixteen-year-old freshman at Stanford University, where she earned her psychology/neurobiology degree before her 21st birthday.

At a costly private university like Stanford, where few students were black and most were financially well-off, Edmonds was an oddity. “I was definitely a minority at Stanford,” she recalls. “In addition to being one of a small number of black women on campus, I was one of the more economically disadvantaged students who had to work two jobs to pay bills and buy textbooks.”

Edmond’s college experiences led her to wonder what campus life might be like at a Historically Black College or University (HBCU), and in 2004, she turned that question into America’s first black reality television series, College Hill, a voyeuristic look into the daily lives of HBCU students. Filmed at Louisiana’s Southern University, College Hill’s first season featured a cast of characters that included a computer nerd, a sexy vixen, a football star and a pregnant sophomore. “I so enjoyed producing and being involved with College Hill,” she explains, “because it gave me a chance to see what HBCUs are like. To be at universities where people of color are dominant is really refreshing in itself.”

While interviewing potential cast members, Edmonds was impressed that so many of the students had struggled against seemingly impossible odds to make their way to college. “Many of these kids have lived through crime, have fought themselves in and out of gangs, and have pulled through a lot of struggles to get a college degree.”

When College Hill debuted on January 28, 2004 the show was an instant hit, and it stands as BET’s highest rated series premiere in their 24-year history of programming. Edmonds says she’s received mostly positive responses to the series, though there has been some criticism. “It’s a controversial show…it’s a reality show, so we let students be themselves,” explains Edmonds. “There may be older viewers who may cringe at the edginess. But with younger BET viewers, we’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback.”

Edmonds is most proud of the response from urban teens who watched the show and were inspired to want to go to college. “A lot of times kids coming from disadvantaged neighborhoods think the only way out is to play ball, or rap, or act, or commit a crime. It’s important for them to see students they can relate to [who say], ‘I’m going to go to school to better myself and prepare for the future. I still have flavor and personality and I’m coming from the streets, but I’m here now in college and I’m going to make my way through.” Recognizing the need for young people to first see themselves as “college material” before they can begin to strive for higher education, Edmonds adds, “It is good for kids that are struggling through life to see kids they can relate to actually in college.”

College Hill fans will be happy to know that Edmonds is promising an even better show in 2005, and she has made some significant production changes to achieve that goal. One huge transformation will be purely cosmetic. Edmonds knows most viewers are comparing College Hill to other reality television shows with budgets ten times bigger than hers, and it is definitely a concern. “As a producer you want to try getting the best look possible and being as creative as possible,” Tracey says. In the first season, she was challenged with what she describes as “a tiny budget,” which meant smaller crews, limited technology and restricted post-production time—all of which had a huge impact on the overall look of the show. “BET increased the budget this year, so we got better quality cameras and the film stock is better,” says Edmonds. Helicopter aerial shots, production design of the house’s interior, and trips with the cast into the city are all new this year as well.

Another major change in the show is a move from Southern University to Langston University, an HBCU in rural Oklahoma, where the cast will not be living on campus. “This season we’re taking the students off campus and we’re housing them in a big ranch setting, [so] we don’t have to adhere to all the university restrictions and curfews we had to deal with before,” Edmonds explains. When the show was filmed in Southern’s dorms, the school’s administration retained the right to censor episode content and there was a lot of footage she was not able to use. She laments, “We had some amazing stuff going on and we’d get feedback from the university, ‘you have to take this out; you have to take that out. This has gotta go; that’s gotta go.’” There’s no such restriction this year. Edmonds says of the change, “The great thing is that we’re able to deliver the content we want. Things are going to jump off this season.”

The second season of College Hill debuted at the end of January, log onto www.BET.com for broadcast time.

One on One with Michael Clark Duncan: He’s Ready for Romance

Anyone who doubts the power of Hollywood to create bigger than life images that have little basis in reality should take note of actor Michael Clarke Duncan’s film career. On the big screen Duncan has been portrayed as an 8-foot giant—in real life he’s just under 6-foot-5. Onscreen, Duncan often portrays that guy most likely to rip your head off with his bare hands—in real life he’s a gentleman with a heart of gold.

Though Duncan himself recognizes that his physical stature is what helped him get his foot in the door in Hollywood, he is ready to be appreciated for all that he has to offer as an actor—not just his physical presence, but his emotional and intellectual gifts as well.

“So much emphasis in this industry is put on the visual,” Duncan laments. “Who gets to be a leading lady or leading man is based on how people view you. I’m looking forward to finding a role that maybe plays off of my size, but not so much. Maybe a dramatic lead or a romantic comedy where I’m not portraying a 7-foot tall, 350-pound giant.”

Fans who remember Duncan from his breakout performance as death row inmate John Coffey in The Green Mile are always stunned when they meet the actor in person and realize he’s no Goliath. “I was standing on an apple crate during the filming of The Green Mile,” reveals Duncan, who recently shed 80 pounds from his taller-than-average frame through a regimen of healthy eating and daily exercise. “I’ll tell you this; if I was over 7-feet tall, I’d be an NBA player. If I really was that size, I’d be battling Shaq tonight at 7:30,” he jokes.

All jokes aside, Duncan is more than just a big muscular guy. He’s a multifaceted man whose interests range from learning to speak a foreign language (he’s currently taking Spanish classes) to swimming with dolphins. “I recently traveled to the British Virgin Islands to swim with the dolphins,” Duncan shares. “I can’t swim, so it was a huge deal for me.” Though folks who know him find it hard to fathom that Duncan is afraid of anything, he admits he had to overcome a fear of water to achieve his dream of joining his aquatic friends in their home environment. “I’m terrified of water, and this wasn’t in any swimming pool—I was in the actual ocean,” he explains. The experience left him both fulfilled and inspired. “This year, I’m signing up to take swimming classes,” says Duncan.

Ironically, Duncan’s latest film project is a big-budget Dreamworks movie titled The Island, but his swimming lessons won’t be needed for his role in the film. In the futuristic action adventure, starring Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johansson and Djimon Hounsou, Duncan plays an inhabitant of a bland future world where lucky lottery winners get a chance to leave the sterile utopia they call home to live out the rest of their days on an island paradise—but, of course, there’s a deadly catch.

Duncan’s role in the film is one he found both emotionally and physically challenging. “I cry in the movie,” he reveals. “It’s always challenging to have to go to that emotional place.” Also challenging to Duncan were the physical stunts required of his character. “Working with [director] Michael Bay (Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, Bad Boys II), you never know what to expect. Throw the script out the window, ‘cause you never know what’s really going to happen when you get to the set.”

Without giving away too many details about the shocking turn of events that lead to his character enduring a horrifying surgery while fully conscious, Duncan reveals, “I can tell you I lost some skin being dragged down hallways in this film.”

Now that Duncan has nearly three dozen films to his credit, he is looking to the future and setting his sights on an offscreen role he has yet to play—that of film producer. As his career continues to flourish onscreen (and he waits patiently for that elusive script that offers him the chance to play a romantic lead), he is planning to play an active part in the decision-making process that determines which scripts make it to production.

“Producing my own films is an avenue I intend to head down. I want to be behind the scenes where I can make things happen for actors like myself who’ve struggled to find roles with integrity,” reveals Duncan, who says he appreciates every opportunity he’s been afforded to work in an industry where roles for black men are relatively scarce. “I have some projects I intend to produce that feature all-black casts,” he adds. “I intend to help put more black actors to work.”

-for RollingOut.com

One on One with Don Cheadle: ‘We’re Getting Played’

Whatever we do, we should know that one day we will all face that man called ‘history’ and that day we should have a word to tell him. “–Paul Rusesabagina

Imagine you lived in Kigali, Rwanda in April 1994 and you managed to survive the genocidal rampage that brutally ended the lives of 800,000 men, women and children.

For those who need a more recent graphic reference—that is four times the number who perished in the 2004 tsunami in South Asia.

Profoundly traumatized by the atrocities you’ve witnessed, and stunned by the rest of the world’s indifference to the tragedy, you spend the next decade trying to get people around the globe to understand what happened in your country, with the hope that it would never happen anywhere on Earth ever again.

By some amazing stroke of fortune, a Western filmmaker is so moved by your story he writes a screenplay about it, stubbornly ignores the Hollywood studio executives who insist the project isn’t film-worthy, and then manages to convince American A-list actor Don Cheadle to star in the independently produced film for very little money.

The movie goes on to earn critical acclaim, reaping three NAACP Image Award nominations, two Golden Globe nods and three Oscar nominations. Now, imagine your disbelief when you learn that after all the blood, sweat and tears shed by so many to bring the film to life, there are hundreds of millions of people who did not bother to go to the theater to see it.

Since its release on December 22, 2004 Hotel Rwanda has earned an estimated $25 million at the box office—which means roughly 3 million American theatergoers chose to see it. If you are one of the 290 million who did not bother, make a mental note to self: Rent Hotel Rwanda today.

Arguably the most important film of 2004, Hotel Rwanda stars Don Cheadle as Paul Rusesabagina, the real-life former manager of the four-star Hotel Milles Collines in Kigali, who risked his life to save 1,268 of his countrymen from certain death. It is based on the true story of a black man’s love for his family, his refusal to become inhuman in the midst of unimaginable inhumanity, and his unshakable courage in the face of death.

Though most of us know that Cheadle earned an Academy Award nomination for his stunning work in the film, what many do not know is that he turned down several blockbuster scripts (along with their blockbuster salaries) to ensure Rusesabagina’s story was brought to light.

“Out of the twenty or thirty scripts I read in 2003 there were two that I really wanted to do,” says Cheadle. “Neither of them had financing; neither of them had a home. I told the directors I would do anything to get them made, from being in them, to being behind the scenes, to helping to hustle money.”

Hotel Rwanda was one of the films Cheadle chose to help bring to the big screen; the other was Crash, an explosively candid independent film written and directed by Million Dollar Baby screenwriter, Paul Haggis.

In theaters May 6, and destined to be one of the most talked about films of 2005, Crash features a star-studded cast that includes Don Cheadle, Sandra Bullock, Matt Dillon, Jennifer Esposito, Brendan Fraser, Terrence Howard, Ludacris, Thandie Newton and Larenz Tate.

Set in post-9/11 Los Angeles, Crash is a compelling urban drama that offers a raw, unapologetic glimpse into the lives of Los Angelenos of various ethnic persuasions whose lives uncontrollably intersect and collide. At times funny, heartbreaking, powerful, and always unpredictable, Crash ventures bravely and bluntly into rarely explored racial and cultural territory exposing both our tendency towards ethnic separatism, as well as the hopeful truth of our shared humanity.

Invited by Paul Haggis to be a part of  Crash early in the film’s preproduction, Cheadle took on the role of co-producer to help attract quality actors and potential funders to the project.

“I was asked by Paul to come on board and help produce—given my relationship with actors and money people in the business,” Cheadle explains. “When you have a first-time director, even though you have great material in front of you, you don’t know how they’re going to pull it off. It’s a leap of faith for a lot of actors when you have a first-time director and no distributor. I talked to a lot of the cast members…to convey to everyone that I knew Paul could do it.”

According to Cheadle, it didn’t take much convincing once the actors read the script. “This really was a labor of love. Nobody came for the dough; there wasn’t any,” he says. “Everybody really believed in the story and wanted to see it come off.”

Though the film’s core theme revolves around ethnic and cultural differences, Cheadle says the movie is not really about racism. “It’s a movie about people making a choice when their back is up against the wall and the power is slipping through their fingers,” he explains. “Once you feel your back is up against it, you go to the easiest thing—the knee jerk response—‘oh you look like that and I can talk about what I believe about you.’ I love that [Haggis] takes the stereotypes and turns them,” says Cheadle, praising the artistry of the film’s writer/director. “He sets it up so you’re thinking, ‘yeah, that’s the bigot,’ and the stereotype is the easiest thing to go to…and then you realize this bigot is really a person who’s in pain.”

Crash skillfully exposes some of society’s more blatant and overt racism through its most unlikable characters, one of whom is a racist LAPD cop with a chip on his shoulder. But even the film’s so-called good cop, Graham (Cheadle’s character) wears his own subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) preconceptions about other ethnicities on his sleeve.

Ethnic slurs and sweeping generalizations aside, Cheadle believes there is a critical lesson in both Hotel Rwanda and Crash that humanity had better not ignore. “There is a technique at work at the core of this called ‘divide and conquer’ that has been working successfully for far too long,” he warns. “The amount of time humans have been on Earth in relation to the amount of time the Earth has been in existence is minute,” says Cheadle. “Humanity is young and you can pull the wool over the eyes of the young. So you pit people against one another and make them fight over crumbs, and [violence] is the result. When are we going to realize we’re getting played against each other by those in power?”

As with his commitment to the making of Hotel Rwanda, Cheadle’s willingness to sacrifice his salary, and his hard work behind the scenes to get Crash to the big screen, are indicative of his beliefs about who is ultimately responsible for making positive change in a society on the verge of upheaval, violence or collapse.

“[Paul Rusesabegina] always thought that one day history would look back at the events of those hundred days in Rwanda,” says Cheadle. “And Paul wanted to be standing on the right side of it.” Cheadle learned from his experience filming Hotel Rwanda that it is better to try to be a part of the solution now, than to look back later with regret for not having acted. “There is no greater social injustice anywhere in the world than in Africa,” he asserts. “It was a perfect place for [Hotel director Terry George] to point to, and it was important to him to rub the West’s nose in their own hypocrisy, and I think he did that.”

Cheadle doesn’t let himself off the hook in that regard, however. “To that degree,” he adds, “…we are all Westerners and we’re all culpable.”

Cheadle hopes more Americans, especially black Americans whose ancestry is so closely tied to Africa, will educate themselves about what is happening on the African continent, especially in Darfur, southern Sudan where hundreds of thousands have died in what the U.S. State Department officially referred to in 2004 as genocide. “I urge you to make noise,” Cheadle implores. “As long as this issue remains out of the public haunt, it will thrive unchecked. Save Darfur.”

To get involved, visit www.doncheadle.com or www.genocideinterventionfund.org .

-for RollingOut.com

Exclusive Interview with Queen Latifah: Living Life to the Fullest

When Queen Latifah’s debut album All Hail the Queen hit record stores in 1989, the mostly male-dominated rap world knew right away she was a force to be reckoned with.

Surrounded by testosterone-only crews like Boogie Down Productions, Public Enemy and Run D.M.C., Queen Latifah emerged solo—standing tall, beautiful, bold, and female to serve up a much-needed dose of positive rap from a feminist perspective.

With hits like Ladies First, Evil That Men Do, and Mama Gave Birth to the Soul Children, the 16-year-old Latifah had more than a few of her fellow emcees bowing down to her lyrical sovereignty.

Fast forward and Latifah is still doing her queenly thing. Only this time, she’s headed to the top of another male-dominated industry—Hollywood movie producing—where she is determined to prove that being talented, female, black and ambitious is anything but a disadvantage.

In 2002, Latifah produced her first motion picture comedy Bringing Down the House, starring herself and Steve Martin, which sent number-crunching studio execs into a state of shock and awe when it grossed over $150 million worldwide.

In theaters this week is Latifah’s latest offering, Beauty Shop (produced by and starring herself), a hilarious comedy featuring an all-star cast that includes Alicia Silverstone, Kevin Bacon, Mena Suvari, Djimon Hounsou, Alfre Woodard, Keisha Knight Pulliam and Andie MacDowell. A spin-off of Ice Cube’s Barbershop 2: Back in Business, in which Latifah played Gina (the beautician next door), Beauty Shop follows Gina to Atlanta where she opens her own shop and strikes up a romance with a tall, dark and sexy handyman (Joe) played by Djimon Hounsou. In the movie, Latifah gifts Hounsou with the first kissing scene of his career, which he says he was happy to reshoot over a dozen times. “Latifah’s a great kisser, Hounsou reveals. “I wasn’t complaining.”

We recently caught up with Queen Latifah to talk with her about her new movie, her successful career and her plans for the future, and the Queen offered up a generous dose of wisdom and love to share with our readers.

KC: Thank you, Latifah, for taking the time to talk to us.

QL: Rolling Out has always supported everything I’ve done in a big way and I really appreciate that, so, thank you.

KC: Your Beauty Shop cast raved about working for and with you. Alicia, Keisha, Alfre, Mena…all of them said coming to work was like coming to a family reunion every day.

QL: That’s definitely a tone that I try to set. I want people to feel comfortable coming to work. I want them to feel good about what they’re doing every day. It contributes to a great process for everyone.

KC: As a black actress, you have often been the only person of color on set. How important is it to make sure your set is diverse?

QL: When I’m in control you’ll never see an all-white set. You’re not going to see an all-black set. You’re always going to see a mixture of people. I have been to sets when it was all white; where no one there looked like me. I didn’t feel alienated necessarily, but it’s nice to be able to see someone who looks like you—someone you can identify with. It’s important that the people at the top are sensitive to what’s going on with everyone. People are just people. I judge you based upon how you treat me, not what you look like.

KC: It’s been reported that you are the first black woman in history to produce a film that grossed over $100 million. What does that mean to you?

QL: It’s never really been about the money. Money isn’t the payoff; it’s one of the perks that come with accomplishing the goal. It was the same thing with ‘Living Single.’ It was the same thing with my first record deal. It’s the same thing now with producing films.

KC:Where does your drive to excel come from? Who inspires you?

QL: I’m inspired by my partner Shakim. Initially it was my whole crew. The whole Flavah Unit. We always sat around and brainstormed and had these dreams of how we could get out of the ‘hood and accomplish things and open up our own businesses and buy homes. Now Shakim’s my inspiration, and I’m his. And our families—making sure they’re taken care of. Making sure that there are opportunities for the people we hire also.

KC: What do you feel your life’s purpose is?

QL: I’m here to do what God wants me to do. I’m here to share my gifts, to give Him the glory and to live life to the fullest.

KC: What do you love most about yourself?

QL: I love my sense of humor. My compassion. My love for life. My love for people.

KC: What is the biggest misconception people have about you?

QL: That I’m confident and secure 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. I go through my moments too, like everybody else. But I just make it through those moments.

KC: You seem to have such a sense of joy about you; do you think you’ll always be young at heart?

QL: I do. I’m struggling with that right now because I am 35 and am I supposed to [be] grown up. … I’m definitely a grown woman and lovin’ it, but at 35—you’re right—I do have a whole bunch of kid in me, and I’m always going to be young at heart. I never want to be one of those people who’ve forgotten how to live and forgotten how to laugh and forgotten how not to take things too seriously.

KC: What is the most beautiful thing about being a woman?

QL: We’re soft and we’re wise and we’re strong and we give birth, for crying out loud! We create life. We carry life within our bodies [and] that for one is a miracle and it’s amazing. There’s so much to be proud of. …Being strong and being that role model and being that provider when we sometimes haven’t had a man to be the provider.

KC: What is difficult about being a woman?

QL: Oftentimes a woman is violated at a young age.There are too many women who are insecure about their bodies to the point where they want to hack it all up. Women who don’t love themselves—who don’t really even want to take their clothes off or look in the mirror or won’t let their husbands see them without makeup. There are women who have not had orgasms, and have been married for years. Those to me are the flip sides—the tough sides of being a woman.

KC: You said recently that you plan to take some time off to start a family. Will that be soon?

QL: I’m not really going to take time off; I’m just going to take it down some—maybe go behind the scenes more, or just not work quite as much. When I do start a family, my kids have to understand who I am and know that this is what I was born to do. I don’t want to lose myself so that they don’t know their mama loves doing this. They need to come see how it’s done, too. They need to learn how to be little entrepreneurs. I want them to travel and see the world and realize they can be whoever they want to be. But I think it’s important to take enough time off to raise your children and give them a stable environment. That’s the balance I’m going to be looking for—to make sure they have enough of me.

KC: What did your parents do that you want to make sure you do with your children?

QL: My parents communicated a lot with me. They taught me to take responsibility for myself at a young age. They taught me the value of education. They hugged me and kissed me. They loved me, and that was important. I want to make sure my kids are loved and disciplined enough—loved and shown boundaries at the same time. …I want to make sure my kids have a strong spiritual foundation; that they always know God is there when their mama isn’t.

KC: In the Beauty Shop production notes, your brother Lance, who died in 1992, is mentioned.

QL: Everybody close to me is affected by the loss of my brother. God brings you through it, but you never get over it. Over time, it becomes easier to cope with, but you always remember that person, and you miss them like crazy. I feel like I’m going to see my brother again; it’s just going to take awhile. When death touches you that closely you realize life is too short. That really is not just a cliché. Life is really precious, so you have to live.

In memory of her brother, Queen Latifah established The Lancelot H. Owens Scholarship Foundation which awards financial assistance to students in need.

 

 

One on One with Jamie Foxx: He’s Swinging at All the Right Pitches

I picture Jamie Foxx’s soul thirty-eight years ago floating around in the spirit world preparing for his ordained time here on Earth. An angel is pointing out the lines souls can wait in to get what they need to do good work as human beings.

Foxx is paying extra close attention as the angel explains, “This line is for exceptional musical prowess; that one is the comedic creativity line; to your left 

is the queue for vocal talent, and the lines for courage and humility are right next to each other on the other side of kindness and loyalty. Oh, and don’t forget the one for acting skills—it’s way down there near intelligence and athletic ability. The angel tells Foxx he only has time to stand in four or five of the lengthy queues before leaving for Earth, but he pretends he doesn’t understand the directions and cuts to the front of every one of the lines quite a few times.

Farfetched? Of course. But what other explanation can there be for one man being so d#@ned blessed in so many areas?

For those of us who have been paying attention to Foxx’s career over the years, the fact that the man can play the piano, sing his heart out, and act his behind off is not breaking news. Okay, maybe we didn’t know he had Ray in him, but we watched in awe as he showed what he could do in Redemption, a role that earned him a 2005 Independent Spirit Award nomination for best actor. Then there was Collateral, the blockbuster film co-starring Tom Cruise that earned Foxx the Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. And, last year when he crooned alongside Kanye West on that “Slow Jamz” hit, we all suspected that we might only be scratching the surface of all that this talented brother has to offer.

The lingering question on everyone’s mind, now that the Oscar dust has settled and Foxx has officially joined that exclusive alliance of Academy Award winners, is: What could possibly be next?

I recently asked Foxx that question, and he answered in his characteristically humble way, referring to himself and his soaring career in the third person and refusing to use the word “I” to boast about future goals:

“When you do something and it changes the culture—that’s what we have to do as black folks. When ‘In Living Color’ came along it changed the culture. Denzel and Sidney Poitier, they changed the culture. So, this is one of those opportunities where we see the culture changing.”

Foxx is a little teary-eyed when he adds, “Sidney Poitier said to me, ‘What I’m going to give you is responsibility,’ and to have things like that told to you—it means more than awards. It means more than all of this. It means you have been given a torch to carry.”

The torch of artistic responsibility is one Foxx can definitely handle. In recent years he has been patiently biding his time—rejecting offers that didn’t feel right. “There are a lot of things we could’ve swung at and it would’ve come out bad,” Foxx explains, referring to the decisions he and his management team made to wait for projects that would further his career goals. “Luckily we were able to do like a great baseball player and wait on our pitch; and the pitch was Collateral. The pitch was Ray Charles. The pitch was a record with Kanye West. So when you get a chance to get the right things thrown at you, you stay ready. You know you’re not only here to do the right things, but now people are going to accept it.”

Foxx used another sports metaphor to compare his artistic responsibility to his experience as a high school sophomore playing football on a varsity championship team. “We lost the big game. I saw the seniors crying, and I was like, ‘What are they crying about?’ ‘cause I had more games to play. But my junior and my senior year we never got that far. I call that ‘younging it away.’ We can’t young this away. If we young it away and do not respect those people who laid the path for us, maybe something goes awry and it doesn’t happen the way we want it to happen. That’s why it’s so important to be respectful and let [the elders] know that you’re going to do the right thing.”

Asked what the right thing is, Foxx replied, “You can do whatever you want as long as it’s real, it’s respectful and it’s good. You can never be mediocre. Whatever you do, it has to be great.”

-for RollingOut.com

One on One with Regina King: Being Her Beautiful, Talented, Brilliant Self

Regina King was 13 years old when she earned a small part in a stage play called 227 at Marla Gibb’s Crossroads Theatre in Los Angeles. After the play’s successful run, it was adapted for television and King won the co-starring role of Brenda Jenkins (the daughter of Gibb’s character Mary Jenkins), a studious, well-behaved teenager who—along with a cast of lovable misfits—entertained TV audiences from the stoop of apartment building 227 for five successful seasons.

When the popular sitcom’s run ended in 1990, the 19-year-old King didn’t sit still for a moment—she immediately made the switch from television to film, appearing in John Singleton’s Boyz N the Hood, a movie that drew critical acclaim and set the stage for her to work with Singleton on his next two films, Poetic Justice starring Janet Jackson and Tupac Shakur, and Higher Learning, which featured Omar Epps, Ice Cube and Tyra Banks.

In an industry where black actresses find it difficult to attract quality roles, nearly every year since she began her film career, King has appeared in at least one major motion picture and has co-starred alongside such box office luminaries as Cuba Gooding Jr., Tom Cruise, Angela Bassett, Charlize Theron, Will Smith and Jamie Foxx.

“It’s interesting because people think I’m constantly working,” says King. “But I think it’s just that I‘ve been really blessed in the fact that I’ve been able to do movies that leave a lasting impression. So if the movie lives long—like Jerry Maguire—people are going to be talking about it years later, and it seems to people like I’m always working.”

King’s list of film credits is long and impressive, but she remains both humble and pragmatic about her success. “I have been lucky enough that I’ve never had to do a part because I needed the money. A lot of people are in situations where, for whatever personal reasons, they felt they had to do a certain role. I don’t knock anybody’s choices, I’m just grateful that I have been able to say ‘There’s no way I’m doing that. I’m going to pass on that role.’ I’ve been lucky enough to not live hand to mouth. I don’t ever want to look back and say ‘Ooh, I wish I hadn’t done that movie’ because I’m one of those who say, ‘You do the crime, you got to do the time.’ Don’t get mad at it. You know you did it for whatever reason, and it’s gonna roll with you.”

Of the roles King has taken on, one she found especially challenging was her recent portrayal of Margie Hendricks in Taylor Hackford’s biopic about the life of legendary singer/songwriter, Ray Charles. “For Ray, they wanted me to read for the wife, but I wanted to read for Margie. It was the role that spoke to me. I’ve already done the wife. I felt Margie was going to be the role that was the most challenging. This was going to be the role where I was going to have to dig inside. That was a conscious move.” It was a move that definitely paid off for King. Critics called her portrayal of Charles’ jilted mistress “stirring,” “impressive,” and “superb,” and her moments onscreen with Foxx were among the most intense in the movie.

“To be able to work with Jamie like that—it was fun and it was emotional,” she reveals. “You know, it was like a dance, and when you finally see the dance, it turns out to be this beautiful piece. Everybody knew we were doing something special.” King says she never doubted for a moment that Foxx would win the Academy Award. “He deserved that Oscar,” she declared emphatically. “If not him, then who?”

Up next at the box office for King is Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous, a colorful comedy in which she co-stars opposite Sandra Bullock as a grim FBI agent with a penchant for fistfighting. “Got to change it up,” says King of her comedic portrayal of the mean and mannish agent Sam Fuller. “Got to add another character to the repertoire.”

Regarding the physical preparation required for a role in which her character beats down a number of grown men, she explains, “I work out a lot so I was already physically in the right place for it, but I did have to learn some stunt choreography. Stunt choreography is like dancing. You have to duck when you’re supposed to duck. I was practicing with Sandy’s double, and I was supposed to duck, [but] I didn’t, and she was doing a kick and I caught it right in the head.” The beautiful and down-to-earth star shows her natural inclination not to take herself too seriously by placing a hand to the side of her head and joking, “Luckily that’s a hard thing.”

Punching and kickboxing is not the only stunt work required in Miss Congeniality 2. There is also an underwater scene that required King and Bullock to spend a substantial amount of time holding their breath. “The stunt coordinator said we would not be down there for more than 20 seconds at a time,” explains King. “When I first got in the pool I couldn’t hold my breath for 10 seconds, but during filming we were under and we came up and the director was like ‘You guys were down there for 45 seconds!’ It’s amazing what you can do when you’re challenged.” There is another challenging scene in the movie that required King to don fishnet stockings and a shimmering gold mini-dress, but curious fans are just going to have to wait until the March 24th movie release for that mystery to be revealed.

With Miss Congeniality 2 completed and on its way to theaters, Regina is currently working on another comedy project, only this time she won’t need to prepare physically for the role. “I’m doing Boondocks,” she explains, referring to an animated series based on the popular and controversial comic strip created by cartoonist Aaron McGruder. “It’s going to be on Cartoon Network. It’s a lot of fun. We’re five episodes in, and they are all hilarious.” King warns, “Some people will be offended. When you want to make people listen, you’ve got to offend some people sometimes.” She laughs and adds, “It won’t be the first time Aaron has offended someone through his style and his satire. I think he’s brilliant.”

Since the Boondocks project requires only voiceover work, King gets to spend a lot more time at home with her husband Ian and their 9-year-old son, Ian Jr. “It’s been great because I don’t have to do makeup and hair, and the recording studio is only 15 minutes from my house,” she says.

Throughout her career, home has always remained King’s number one priority. She admits it hasn’t been easy, but when it comes to managing a successful film career and a happy household, she has always worked to put family first. “I can’t say there’s a certain formula, but everything has fallen into place and works the way it should. I’m blessed to be in a situation where I don’t have to have a nanny. I don’t want to miss any of my son’s firsts.”

King takes her role as parent and role model for her son very seriously, but she isn’t just committed to her own child’s development—she’s trying to make a difference in the lives of as many young people as she can personally reach by visiting schools and talking to kids about developing healthy self-esteem. “I am addressing my young sistas [saying] ‘embrace your beauty and your individuality.’ I go to the high schools and elementary schools and I see them trying to emulate what they see in the music videos; it makes me want to cry—it really does. Unfortunately we are not represented well on television and in the movies and I want these young people to know that that isn’t all that we are—shaking our behinds in videos.”

In her career, King works hard to project an image that says black women can be beautiful, strong and confident—without taking their clothes off. “I try to encourage people in the industry to do it differently,” says King. “We all have a responsibility to try to create a better image. No disrespect to the rappers, but couldn’t we do a different video? I think it’s having a huge effect on young women. It’s creating confusion within them as far as their self-worth. When they see rappers looking at the girls like ‘Ooh you hot, ma’ they think that’s what they need to do to be hot. I want them to know you don’t have to be half naked to be beautiful. I tell them it’s hotter to have an incredible brain. It’s much hotter to be able to hold a conversation with anybody, any age, any color.” Just being her beautiful, intelligent and talented self, Regina King is a shining example of that truth.

One on One with Tyler Perry: Finally Reaping Write-ousness

If success really is the sweetest revenge, anyone who ever did anything wrong to Tyler Perry better recognize that the score has officially been settled—and he has upwards of $65 million in earnings on his side of the scoreboard.

Sweet revenge indeed.

But perhaps what is sweetest is that Perry himself is not at all about vengeance or payback; he’s about giving back, giving thanks and forgiving those who’ve done him wrong. Think that sounds a little too good to be true? Think again. This thirty-six-year-old actor, playwright, producer, director and CEO of his own multimillion-dollar company is a walking testimonial to the redemptive and regenerative power of two mighty little “f” words: “faith” and “forgive.”

Raised in poverty in New Orleans and subjected to a childhood of constant abuse at the hands of his physically present but emotionally distant father, Perry grew into an unhappy young man whose life was shrouded by anger and resentment.

“My experiences as a kid were horrendous,” he says. “And I carried all that pain into my adult life.” It wasn’t until he was nearly thirty years old that Perry finally began to heal. “I was watching Oprah one day and she suggested writing in a journal as a way to let go of the past,” he recalls. He took Oprah’s advice and began a series of journal entries detailing his painful childhood experiences. What he wrote eventually became his first play, I Know I’ve Been Changed, a hilarious and inspiring musical about adult survivors of child abuse who confront their abusers and ultimately find healing.

The experience was cathartic for Perry, who was finally able to let go of the anger and bitterness that had held his spirit captive. “I learned real forgiveness,” he explains. “That deep-down forgiveness where you don’t hold grudges anymore.”

Believing that God was calling him to share what he had written with others in need of healing, Perry saved twelve thousand dollars, relocated to Atlanta, and rented a theater where he produced, directed and starred in the first theatrical offering of I Know I’ve Been Changed. Thirty people showed up during the entire weekend run of the play. Perry was beyond devastated. He had quit his job and spent his life savings to do what he was sure God wanted—only to find himself penniless and living on the street. “I asked God if quitting my job was the right thing, and I heard him telling me yes. I clearly heard his voice telling me ‘go out and do this play and it’ll be okay.’”

After the dismal failure of the play, what followed for Perry was a period of homelessness during which his main priority became easing his hunger and finding a safe place to sleep each night. “I didn’t hear from God during that time, and that was the darkest for me,” he recalls. “I was so angry; I was so mad at God for leading me out there and then leaving me.”

Refusing to yield to anger and doubt, Perry ignored the pleas of friends and family to give up on his play and “get a real job.” For the next six years he continued to pursue what he still believed was God’s will, working a number of odd jobs to finance his play and drifting in and out of homelessness when he couldn’t raise enough money to pay rent. Finally in 1998, Perry staged a production of his musical at the House of Blues in Atlanta and the venue sold out eight times over. Two weeks later he presented the play at the 4,500-seat Fox Theater and sold out that venue twice. Changed went on to gross several million dollars, and to this day Perry receives mail from fans around the country who say they’ve experienced healing through his words—something he always knew his play had the power to do.

“Of course, I understand now what that was,” he says of the time he spent suffering and struggling to bring his work to life. “God was preparing me for all that was to come.” All that was to come is Perry’s characteristically humble way of referring to the enormous success he has achieved since that bleak period in his life. Over the last seven years he has written, produced, directed and owns all rights to the seven hit plays that have broken box office records across the country and grossed more than $50 million. On his Web site, www.tylerperry.com, fans can purchase videos and DVDs of the plays—another lucrative arm of Perry’s business that brings in several million dollars per year. With titles like I Can Do Bad All By Myself, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Madea’s Family Reunion, Madea’s Class Reunion, and his latest play, Madea Goes to Jail, Perry has attracted a following of staunch supporters who stand in line again and again and place their names on DVD waiting lists to experience his unique and controversial brand of urban theater.

Especially popular with Perry’s fans is his stage portrayal of Madea Simmons, a 68-year-old grandmother who packs a pistol in her purse, smokes marijuana, and says she’ll consider going to church “when they get a smoking section.” Donning a housedress, fake breasts, and a healthy coating of Maybelline, the six-foot-five Perry delights audiences with Madea’s crude and raucous sense of humor. In between cussing, fussing and embarrassing her loved ones, Madea offers lessons on self-esteem, parenting, forgiveness and faith in God.

Madea’s fans will be happy to know that she is making her February 25 feature film debut in the screen adaptation of Perry’s wildly popular play Diary of a Mad Black Woman. The film stars Kimberly Elise, Shemar Moore, Steve Harris, Cicely Tyson and, of course, Tyler Perry, who plays three characters. The movie, directed by Darren Grant, weaves together a brilliant mix of drama and comedy to tell the story of Helen McCarter (Kimberly Elise), who is dumped by her husband after 18 years of marriage and must fight the urge to exact revenge. It is a hilarious and ultimately, heartwarming story of marital betrayal, forgiveness, self-love, and the importance of family.

Bypassing the Hollywood studios, who were put off by the title and too eager to modify the storyline, Perry teamed up with producer Reuben Canon (who brought audiences the film version of T.D. Jake’s Woman Thou Art Loosed) to ensure that Diary stayed true to its themes of forgiveness and redemption. “I own my brand,” says Perry of his experience meeting with studio execs, “They want to put me in a room with a bunch of people who don’t look like me and write for me? There’s no amount of money that’s going to make me walk away from the thing that I know works. This is my calling—to speak to an entire generation. That’s a huge responsibility and I’ve got to protect it and keep it.”

Perry knows the power to say “no” to Hollywood money is rare for urban filmmakers, and he gives full credit for that power to that 68-year-old grandmother named Madea. “Madea’s fan base…put pressure on me to stay real,” he explains. Though Madea is fictional, there is no doubt that she represents a real influence on the man who created her. “Madea is my mother, my aunt and all the women in my life who loved me enough to speak their minds,” says Tyler. “She teaches us how to forgive; how to let things go and how to move on.”

When it comes to forgiving and moving on Tyler Perry has definitely taken Madea’s advice to heart. He now lives in a lavishly decorated, $5 million mansion surrounded by perfectly manicured grounds complete with two secluded prayer gardens. And when it comes to prayer, Perry says he has learned a powerful lesson about how to approach God with his needs. “I don’t ask God for anything. I stopped asking for things a long time ago. Even when people come to me and ask me to pray for them, my prayer for them is, ‘God, let your will be done.’”

Of his extravagant home, Perry says he believes his house should make a statement to those who doubt the power of faith and forgiveness. “I want people to know what God can do when you believe.” Despite the luxury surrounding him, Perry says he has never lost his commitment to love, touch and heal others. “Cicely Tyson said something to me I will never forget,” he offers humbly, ‘When the thing you do starts to serve you more than it serves the people—you are no longer a servant.’” Asked if he is proud of himself, Tyler responds calmly, “I’m proud of the body of work I’ve produced. I’m still working on me.”

for RollingOut.com