The rise and fall of the stars in the entertainment industry is always fickle. Often this or that actor goes unrecognized for decades sometimes, though their work is of the highest quality. And all too often other factors restrict an actor as well.
Harry Belafonte made huge strides until his politics interfered, Rob Lowe was untouchable for a decade, alcohol and/or drugs has stopped careers of Mickey Rourke, Forest Whitaker, David Hasselhoff and many others for years if not forever; and for some drugs and/or alcohol ended their lives – Anna Nicole Smith, Marilyn Monroe, John Belushi, Heath Ledger, and on and on.
But perhaps the worst reason an actor may be overlooked is because Hollywood decides that the actor just isn’t “leading” material. In some cases that is true, but I think that for one performer it is way off. Don Cheadle.
Don Cheadle is a great actor. His performances have won huge acclaim, and even the smaller more artistic films he has been in have done modestly well. Hotel Rwanda was a performance that would have rocketed any other performer to the top of the A-list in both pay and movie roles. But perhaps the vocal and humanitarian efforts of Don Cheadle, to help end the 5 years and continuing genocide in Darfur, Sudan [efforts that I strongly support] scared too many execs. Or perhaps the fact he is Black has kept leading roles from him, as they once were for Denzel Washington and Sidney Poitier.
But he may get his chance to start getting the leads I think he deserves after his latest film Traitor comes out this month. This is the first film where Cheadle will have the leading role to himself in a big budget film. Up til now Hollywood execs have been fearful and only allowed him to co-star with other actors, which I feel he often out shone. His only other leading roles were in far smaller, limited release films – Talk To Me and Hotel Rwanda (which he was nominated for an Academy Award Best Actor).
This film is a topical one, dealing with the all too real difficulties of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, American influences in the Middle East, fanatical Islam and world politics. Prior films by Hollywood trying to depict these issues in the last 3 years have all failed both due to slipshod acting, and heavy handed scripts that were more self-aggrandizing political commercials than entertainment. But Cheadle has been very good at picking his films, and performing well in them.
The trailer gives us a hint that we may find a more Jason Bourne style look at these issues. Not just action for its own sake but a plot driven drama that uses the violence and confusion of war as a vehicle for the character to become greater than his surroundings. And the biggest question is if Cheadle’s character really is on our side or not. I expect that the film may well end without ever clearly defining an answer, just as the actual reality is equally undefined or clear in its outcome.
If my expectations are correct this will be a defining film for Cheadle. Like what Jason Bourne did for Matt Damon, and In the Heat of Night did for Sidney Poitier, this movie may well establish his rising star as not only the A-list actor he is, but a leading man with the ability to entertain all of us.
The movie trailer makes a bold statement that this will be a movie to capture you for at least its time on the silver screen. Don Cheadle makes that trailer promise far more tangible. I’ll see it and let you know more.
No comments:
Post a Comment