Forest Whitaker stars in Street Kings,
a powerful crime drama

By Sandra Varner

Ever evolving with each new challenge, Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker (Last King of Scotland, The Great Debaters) stars as Police Captain Jack Wander in the stringent and provocative crime drama, Street Kings, alongside Keanu Reeves (Constantine), two-time Golden Globe winner Hugh Laurie (TV’s “House”), John Corbett (“Sex and the City”), Jay Mohr (Picture Perfect), Naomie Harris (Miami Vice), Cedric the Entertainer (Barbershop) and Common (American Gangster).
    Street Kings opens April 11.
   Known for his powerful onscreen performances, away from the camera Whitaker is modest, warm and intuitive.
Sandra Varner: Are you as shy as people describe you to be?
Forest Whitaker: “I think I used to be. In life, I’m not a great conversationalist, I’m better at directed conversation, when I have purpose for what I’m talking about. I’m not good at small talk, I don’t gossip and I’m not good at that kind of thing. Maybe people think that is being shy. I’m polite so combining that with not talking a lot — people tend to think so.”
Varner: Who do you think knows you the best, or does anyone know Forest Whitaker?
Whitaker: (Long pause) “Keisha, my wife, knows me better than anybody else.”
Varner: Do the roles that you play somehow hold up a mirror to who you are and challenge who you think you are and what you know about yourself?
Whitaker: “Yes, they make me have to examine different parts of myself, like when I play dark characters, I have to examine the darker side of myself. My ultimate goal is to always look inside of myself to see how I relate to my characters and the little thing that ties us together. When I figure that out and start experiencing it, it changes and expands the perception of myself.
    “Each time I do a different character, if I’m allowed the time to live within the character, it’s like being reincarnated or something. When I come here to talk about the roles I’ve played, I’m carrying certain traits of the character in the way that I think about things or words that I didn’t say or gestures that I normally didn’t have. It’s like each time, with every role, it just keeps making me grow.”
Varner: Is it hard for you to watch yourself on screen?
Whitaker: “Sometimes it’s hard if I don’t think I’ve done a good job or if I question a choice I made about a look or a voice I used for a character. Sometimes I enjoy seeing a performance [I’ve done] and sometimes I question it.”
Varner: When you first started experiencing success in your career as an actor, how did you react when others started reacting to you?
Whitaker: “I just kept trying to keep my center on what I was trying to do. There have been times when I was losing it and getting lost a little bit, struggling trying to figure things out and keep myself intact. By the grace of God I got it straight.
    “What I mean by that, in the classic sense, is there were times when I wasn’t sure I would be happy with the work I was doing and I was second guessing my choices, thinking that maybe I should have been a teacher or wasn’t sure about my destiny. It was during those times when I would think about quitting. I never thought I wouldn’t get a job or anything like that, but ironically, some of my happiest times were when I didn’t have anything to do or was in a play down the street and I was sleeping on my friend’s couch. Those were some of my happiest times ever.”