Don Cheadle
Don Cheadle
Donald Frank "Don" Cheadle Jr. is an American actor, writer, producer, and director. He had an early role in Hamburger Hill, before building his career in the 1990s with performances in Devil in a Blue Dress, Rosewoodand Boogie Nights. He started a collaboration with director Steven Soderbergh that resulted in the films Out of Sight, Trafficand Ocean's Eleven. Other films include The Rat Pack, Things Behind the Sun, Swordfish, Crash, Ocean's Twelve, Ocean's Thirteen, Reign Over Me, Talk to Me,...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth29 November 1964
CityKansas City, MO
CountryUnited States of America
I think having good family and friends really helps to ground you.
It's important to keep the people who know you well around you. It helps center you.
It's shocking to see the kind of devastation that occurred there and to know it's still going on. I am working with Timberland -- a company I respect and whose pursuit of social justice I admire -- to inspire others to help bring a halt to these atrocities.
We cannot stand here in a free society, proclaiming that we care about human life, and do nothing in the face of this, in my opinion,
We knew if we could get Don, he'd attract a cast because he's the kind of actor all the directors want to work with. We asked him to produce the film as well, because we're not dumb. ... He's the reason we have this cast, he and the fabulous casting directors.
What we are seeing are tsunamis of violence, ... and we will continue to see these unless people step up, unless people step forward and demand from their leadership, demand from the international community that this not stand.
No, it's not comfortable; I hate watching myself. You don't like when you hear your voice on your voicemail; imagine having to see yourself 30 feet wide and 30 feet big.
If people in this country think of Africa as a place with kids and flies swarming around their heads, then they won't understand that these people are you and you are them.
For me, it's always just been about finding material that I think is creative and interesting and fun and something that can expand me and that I can hopefully do something with.
The process changes slightly from role to role. Obviously, there are different things you're called on to do. You're not digging deep for Basher Tarr like I was for Paul Rusesabagina, but at the end of the day it's still all make-believe and you still are trying as realistically as you can to depict these characters.
But I think it's intoxicating when somebody is so unapologetically who they are.
I don't believe that the U.S. needs to take a police role. I think it needs to support African nations that have said they want to become a part of the solution.
Please keep it up, don't drop it. This was the scene ... that really made me want to do the movie.
Just from him doing the things that he knew how to do, moment to moment -- it's not some mythic figure. It's just a common, everyday man. And I think that's what people are connecting to.