Between blockbusters and acclaimed indie dramas, proudly political Don Cheadle has managed to find time to star in a proudly politically incorrect Irish comedy. So what brought the Hotel RwandaOscar nominee to Connemara, asks TARA BRADY
A LOWLY PRIVATE IN Hamburger Hill; the leader of the Crips in Dennis Hopper's Colours; a hoodlum's sidekick in Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead;back in the 1980s, when actor Don Cheadle was starting out, Hollywood wasn't exactly thinking outside the box when it came to casting. Black men were first-class privates and gangsters; black women stood on chairs in Tom and Jerrycartoons.
Two decades on and the Oscar-nominated star is Robert Downey's BFF in Iron Man 2while fellow thespians Will Smith and Denzel Washington enjoy "colour-blind casting" as the biggest box-office players in the market. Sure, it looks like progress, says the Kansas-born Cheadle, but let's not get carried away.
"The fact that my character in Iron Man 2is black – as indeed he is in the comic books – doesn't mean anything," says Cheadle. "It could do. But it's not explored. I'm not crazy about this whole colour-blind casting thing. I think that when you hire a woman or someone of colour to play a part that was written for a white man it's important to use that casting for more than saying 'Look, we can all do the same jobs.'
“I was in a conversation the other day and someone says, ‘You can’t say that America is a racist country any more because there’s a black man in the White House and the majority voted him in.’ That’s a ridiculous argument. Racism hasn’t gone away. Racism exists. Sexism exists. Ageism exists. These things are worth talking about. These things need to be explored in art. That’s what art is for.”
In this spirit, Cheadle was more than happy to sign up for The Guard, a profane, proudly politically incorrect comedy from writer- director John Michael McDonagh. In common with brother Martin, who directed In Bruges and composed the demotic beats of the Leenane trilogy, McDonagh's screenplay will not be remembered for its social niceties.
"What was so great about The Guardis that there's no dancing around anything," says Cheadle. "It talks directly. Political correctness is boring, man. It's a lie. Let's have the argument; let's not pretend everything is peachy. Just because you use a different word just means you're hiding better. I want to know what you're thinking, not what you think is palatable for me to hear."
The film, which sees Cheadle’s straight-laced FBI agent join forces with a renegade Connemara cop (Brendan Gleeson) to take down an international drug-smuggling gang, was, he says, a no-brainer.
“The size of the picture is never really a consideration for me. I responded to the script, which I thought was great. I met John and took a liking to him. I remembered seeing Martin’s stuff on Broadway and thinking, ‘What the hell. Who is this guy?’ And I’d seen In Bruges and loved it. And I like that there’s a really sophisticated, smart kind of humour here. It may be very specifically Irish in terms of the references and colloquialisms, but it has a poetic universality. It gets people. And once I knew the other person I’d be playing with was Brendan, I figured it would only benefit me. Brendan is just one of the most generous people I’ve ever met. Great human being.”
Born in Missouri and raised in Colorado, Cheadle, 46, suspects his youthful interest in acting may have something to do with his dad’s work as a clinical psychologist.
“I never made the connection when I was younger,” he says. “But when I think about it now it seems so obvious. I do think about acting in very psychological terms – why are they doing that or why they behave one way around one person and differently around somebody else? They’re all little questions but they’re part and parcel of breaking down a character.”
A gifted jazz prodigy, Cheadle was offered any number of musical scholarships but plumped instead for an acting bursary in California, a decision that, he says, was “mostly about the weather”.
Early award-winning turns in Devil in a Blue Dressand Boogie Nightsproved he was a heavyweight contender, but the relationships he forged at Steven Soderbergh's Section 8 production company were about more than networking. Cheadle and chums George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon – all erstwhile stars of the Ocean's series – represent a new, globally minded kind of Hollywood player.
“I think it’s something we discovered in each other’s company,” says Cheadle. “We have similar concerns. And we’ve been able to put together organisations to try to address those things. And the beat goes on. It’s not a one-off thing. Because the kind of issues we’re talking about too often get some attention and then none. That, and we’re all in it for the money, you know.”
His work on Terry George's 2004 Rwandan civil war drama Hotel Rwandawas a particular turning point. Cheadle, a tireless campaigner for the end of genocide in Darfur, was named as an Environment Program Goodwill Ambassador by the UN last year.
“It’s a full-time concern. It’s not some celebrity thing. It occupies a lot of my brain. Every year we’re doing something with fundraising or something to move the needle. But it’s difficult. Things are very fractious at the minute. It’s always wait and see. The stability is just not there yet. There are so many variables. But the big general picture is about justice and charity and power-sharing. That requires effort and participation from world leaders. And that, unfortunately, has been slow in coming. The money is important, but it’s not as important as facilitating political negotiations.“
Despite his glamorous chums, Cheadle has raised his teenage daughters in ordinary south California suburbs and swears that playdates with Matt Damon’s family aren’t as Hollywood as they sound.
“We do hang out with the Damons a little bit, but they’re even more low-key than we are,” laughs Cheadle. “If we lived in that world I could see how it could be a problem raising teenagers. But we don’t party. We’re not jet-set. And even if we were, my teenagers would not be impressed. They’re not looking to take advantage. They want to do their own thing. They don’t want to latch on to actors or dad. They’re not impressed by my job or Hollywood or any of that stuff.”
And that’s probably just as well, he admits. Times are tough out there for the socially conscious artist or the actor looking to avoid tent-pole bit parts. Cheadle, who is currently between meetings for a long-cherished Miles Davis project, says getting movies made is getting harder all the time.
"Miles is my main man for the last few years because I've been studying his music solidly. The first record I ever wore out the grooves on was his Porgy and Bess. So I've always been a fan. But now I've invested a lot of time for something you have no guarantees with. It's not easy getting any movie made," he says. "It's a grind. There's no rulebook. If you have James Cameron onboard and you're aiming for a $150 million budget you can probably get that movie made, regardless of what it is. If you've got Will Smith and $100 million and an action script, you can probably get that made. Otherwise, good luck.
"There are a lot of movies like The Guardout there, and all they have going for them is that they're very good. But what's the poster? Will it sell foreign? It's all that stuff that gets in the way."
He's hopeful that The Guardwill buck the system, though he will require some acclimatisation should the demand for a sequel arise.
“I think probably the biggest cultural difference between you guys and us is that it’s not mandatory to drink Guinness every day in the United States. I do hope that for an American and a neophyte I acquitted myself all right. Because I love, love, love Guinness. I started looking forward to wrapping every night so I could start getting them in. And sometimes, on this particular shoot, we didn’t wait until quitting time. It’s a slippery slope, your country.”
The Guardopens next Friday
