The skanner., January 18, 2012, Page 11, Image 11

arts & entertainment
Cuba Gooding, Jr., The ‘Red Tails’ interview
Oscar-Winner opines on playing Tuskegee airman
C eLeBriTY
i nTerview
by Kam
Williams
C
uba Gooding, Jr. was born in the
Bronx, New York on January 2,
1968, to Shirley and Cuba, Sr., the
lead singer of the R&B group The Main
Ingredient But after his deadbeat dad aban-
doned the family in 1974, Jr. and his sib-
lings were raised in L.A. by his struggling
single-mom. He ended up attending four
different high schools, but was still popular
enough to be voted class president at three
of them.
Cuba’s showbiz career began in 1984 as a
breakdancer during the closing ceremonies
of the Summer Olympics. He subsequently
landed several bit roles on TV and in
movies before enjoying a meteoric rise after
his spellbinding performance as Tre in Boyz
n the Hood.
In 1997, he won an Academy Award for
his memorable outing as Rod “Show me the
money!” Tidwell in Jerry Maguire, and was
named one of the 50 Most Beautiful People
in the World by People Magazine the same
year. He has also earned two NAACP Image
Awards (for Radio and Gifted Hands), a
Screen Actors Guild Award (for Jerry
Maguire), and he even has his own star on
the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
A born-again Christian since the age of
13, Cuba married his childhood sweetheart,
Sara Kapfer, whom he started dating in high
school. They have three kids, Spencer,
Mason and Piper. Here, he talks about his
latest outing as Major Emanuelle Stance in
for their country. George even called and
asked me to narrate his new documentary
for the History Channel called “Double
Victory” which chronicles both the
Tuskegee Airmen’s triumphs in the skies
over Europe and the racism they had to deal
with back in the States. So, it’s been a fun
ride, and I’ve been blessed to be involved in
something that not only I’m passionate
about but so is the man financing it.
kw: Larry Greenberg points out that
you’ve played pilots and military men
before, both real-life heroes like Carl
Brashear in Men of Honor and Dorie Miller
in Pearl Harbor, and also fictional charac-
ters in A Few Good Men, Judgement,
Outbreak and other movies. He asks: Is this
something you have a passion for?
Cg: I guess so. I used to say, “No, no, I
just got lucky being cast.” But the older I
get, the more I ask myself, “Cube, what’s
your deal here?” Truthfully, I think it’s play-
ing real-life people that I’m attracted to.
And the majority of them have been mili-
tary men. But there’s also James Robert
“Radio” Kennedy and some other guys I’ve
played who are real-life people. I think
there’s something about the heightened
responsibility to tell the truth that attracts
me to these roles, especially when you can
have them on the set to help you do your
job. And now that I have two sons who are
15 and 17 who love watching movies, you
can count me in whenever I have an oppor-
tunity to do a movie that gives a history les-
son about our contributions, especially to
the military. I’m in! I’m involved!
magician named Black Herman who was a
contemporary of Houdini back in the early
20th Century. Also, I’m an avid hockey fan
and I’ve been playing for about 17 years,
and somebody recently told me that the first
organized hockey teams in Canada were all
black. Telling those stories would be cool.
kw: Harriet Pakula Teweles asks: How
do you expect the picture to contribute to
the public’s rethinking of the historic role of
the Tuskegee airmen?
Cg: I hope the picture makes an impact,
and I know George Lucas is doing every-
thing he can to make sure that happens. And
then there’s the documentary Double
Victory I mentioned which is serving as a
tangent to the movie. That will be more of a
history lesson than Red Tails which is an
action adventure tale on the scale of Avatar,
with 16,000 special effects. It’s something
that I think people are going to be really
impressed with, visually.
kw: Harriet also asks: What did you
learn about yourself doing your role in Red
Tails?
Cg: I learned that not only am I a descen-
dant of slaves, but that I am also a descen-
dant of royalty, that there are politicians
from the 1800s as well as Tuskegee Airmen
in my lineage.
kw: Rudy Lewis asks: How inspira-
tional can Red Tails be to those who who
are not being educated in the skills neces-
sary to compete nationally and globally
with young men of their generation? Will
see CuBA on page 4
kw: Editor/legist Patricia Turnier asks:
How would you describe your character,
Major Emanuelle Stance?
Cg: Major Emanuelle Stance is the patri-
arch on the base. He’s like the football
coach. He’s the person that gives the men
‘When I heard that George Lucas was going to
make a blockbuster about the Tuskegee Airmen,
I was all over it’
Red Tails, a World War II epoch about the
legendary Tuskegee Airmen.
kam williams: What made you so pas-
sionate about Red Tails?
Cg: Well, I had first heard this story of
the Tuskegee Airmen back in 1992 when I
did that HBO movie. At the time, I was a
young man just finishing his education, and
it frustrated me that I hadn’t learned any-
thing about these African-American pilots
who had escorted bombers during World
War II. It was one of those things where I
was going, “What the hell?! Why didn’t I
already know this?” So, to tackle that sub-
ject-matter for HBO was monumental in my
life. Of course, I moved on in my career and
did other things, but when I heard that
George Lucas was going to make a block-
buster about the Tuskegee Airmen, I was all
over it. How often do we in Hollywood get
an opportunity to tell a black tale on a scale
like this, an action adventure? I knew it was
going to be visually stunning, so, I told him,
“Hey, I have to be involved even just to
coach the actors or if l have to do Kraft
Services.” When I met with [director]
Anthony Hemingway, we just connected. It
was the longest dinner, with tears and
everything. He recognized that the passion I
had to be a part of the movie was the same
passion that these men had to do their part
their encouragement before they go back
out onto the field.
kw: Teresa Emerson asks: What was it
like to meet the surviving Tuskegee
Airmen? Did they help you prepare for your
role as Major Stance?
Cg: Every day, literally! They helped me
to prepare to be a man. And not only were
they on the set every day, but one or two
have attended each of the screenings on the
junket from Dallas to Miami. And they’re in
their 90s! It’s been a magical and emotional
experience for me every, single time. So,
it’s been great! [Chuckles]
kw: Attorney Bernadette Beekman says:
You’ve played a lot of heroes. Who is your
own personal hero?
Cg: My mom, to do what she’s done to
hold the family together. She raised me, my
brother, Omar, and my sister, with all of us
being homeless and having to live in the
back of a car for a period of time. So, yeah,
my mom’s my hero. If I had to pick one
from the screen, it might be U.S. Navy
Master Chief Carl Brashear.
kw: Film student Jamaal Green asks:
Cuba, is there any material or genre out
there that you have not yet covered in your
career that you would like to try?
Cg: Absolutely! I just heard about this
January 18, 2012 The Seattle Skanner Page 3