![]() While he says he prefers directing to acting, he has absolutely no desire to direct himself. His directorial debut, 1993’s HBO movie “Strapped,” a gritty urban thriller, won him the director’s award for best first feature from the Toronto Film Festival he was then inundated with directing offers from virtually every major studio. But Whitaker’s choices have often seemed calculated to challenge, not coast. “It was a very positive experience, and I was so pleased to see how well it did,” he says. For Whitaker, however, the role of the British soldier had less impact. His affable, bearish presence was a scene stealer from the very beginning, in his film debut in 1982’s “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” and other early roles like “Platoon,” “Good Morning Vietnam” and “The Color of Money.”īut perhaps his most heart-wrenching performance was as the soldier in 1992’s “The Crying Game.” The film catapulted Neil Jordan into the upper echelon of directors and made unknown Jaye Davidson a star. He won scholarships to the University of Southern California in both theater and opera, then switched his interests from singing to acting. “He taught me how to dance on a limb.” Some dancing-he won the best actor award at Cannes for his performance.Ī native of Longview, Tex., Whitaker was raised in Los Angeles and became a star football player at Palisades High School. “I was just trying my best to see if I could do it or not. “At that time, I wasn’t sure about what I was doing,” he insists. Whitaker’s searing portrayal of jazz great Charlie Parker in 1988’s “Bird,” directed by Clint Eastwood, was the turning point. “He speaks in such a spiritual and gentle way, so it’s a real shock when he comes onto the set and we start to shoot a scene and bang! He’s this rude and arrogant, larger-than-life character. “Blown Away” director Stephen Hopkins says Whitaker has clearly reached that level.
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