Forest Whitaker Q&A for ‘Godfather of Harlem’ | SAG-AFTRA Foundation Conversations

I'm always like pulling away layers on a character and I'm trying to get to the core and at the core they're all the same. They're all connected to everybody else. I don't really look at it as a bad character really. I look at it trying to discover who the person really is at his core and then when I get to that point on the inside I don't, I have no judgment and he's like just like me and I realize in a way I'm finding how he connects with me. A little piece of DNA that like connects me to him. Welcome Forrest. Thank you so much for being here and congratulations on the show. An amazing finale to an amazing third season. So terrific. Thanks a lot. I'm so proud of it. I work with some great people so great artists, great actors. Yeah it's so terrific. Let's talk about, let's just jump right in and talk about the evolution of Bumpy Johnson. Let's first talk about maybe the keys to him for you and what attracted you to the role. Well I mean they initially came to me to talk about playing Bumpy Johnson which I thought was interesting but I wanted to have more discussion to see whether I would be able to bring some sort of depth to the character and I decided to go ahead and produce the show. But it was later once we were able to develop the storyline you know dealing with the 60s and dealing with the civil rights movement and the cross between criminal underworld and politics that it became really interesting and that's when I grabbed on and said I hope this works. Absolutely. The show is an amazing kind of combination of cultural history and New York history and a sense of watching characters try to find a common ground even when they're antagonists in a lot of ways. Season one opened of course with Bumpy coming out of prison after 11 years. Talk to us about how he's evolved for us and how he's kind of changed from season one through the episode that we just watched. I think in season one Bumpy Johnson is so full of rage and anger. He's been in prison for like 10 years. It's been really difficult for him. So I was trying to hold back the anger and the frustration throughout the show. I tried to reclaim the things that were mine and still like touch my family in some kind of way. So that's what happened in the first season. Second season I think a little bit more about him trying to reach his dreams with the Ten Harlems and trying to bring everybody together so that they could work together so that they could get power back. It's like a recurring theme. It's like him feeling like he's being treated like with disrespect, feeling powerless and then him fighting against that. So he did that, tried to do that in the season two. In the season three he starts to well he starts to try to change his ways and his behaviors. He starts to try to find redemption in some way even though he's committed so many crimes that it's difficult to do. We were just talking just now before he came out on stage about one of the things I love about your portrayal of this character is that there's a sense in him of the intensity even in still moments. You see that intensity. He's either trying to tamp it down in some ways or he's able to utilize it when he has to. Let's kind of talk about from an acting point of view kind of having that intensity for us but not necessarily utilizing it. Letting the audience see its potential in some ways. That's a real power isn't it? Yeah I mean he's trying to hold back you know his frustrations and his angers. Somebody could be harmed. He's trying to figure out you know how do I cope with this these people with these individuals and be able to get what I need. He's learned that you know the violence is not going to necessarily get him all that he needs. So he tries to do it in different ways and he's lucky that he's got like a temper. I mean like because Dilfinesh or Mamie she sort of holds me down you know. Tries to get me to run on the right path. He's trying to find this path from the beginning to the end and he finds it more and more through Malcolm and through all of them. The anger starts to dissipate. So you notice in episode season two he becomes like more open. Season three he starts to like laugh more joke more and it's all about how he's like started to access the world because he's trying to get respect but he's also trying to do the things that are right in the eyes of the other people. Something else I've sort of thought about the character over these three seasons is that it seems as if we're finding him at a moment when he kind of has to but he has to make decisions moment by moment or day by day in a lot of ways. Coming back after 11 years in prison he's found that the drug trade has changed the neighborhood has changed and so whereas he maybe had it mapped out in some ways or kind of thought he had it figured out in the early 50s now in the 60s he kind of has to take it on a day by day or case by case basis in a lot of ways right. Yeah but the one thing that he has is like that he's innovative. He's willing to like make choices new choices in order to succeed. He has to he's forced to he's gone he's going into different arenas with different people and stuff and he's got to be able to to change his ways and he does I mean you see him like switch from from heroin to cocaine which is a big deal he tries to open up himself to the Cuban mafia he tries to like make deals with the mob itself and all of these things uh you watch him try to do which is unique yeah unique I mean trying to bring together the 10 Harlems or the 10 families from other from other cities and stuff is something that I don't think that's been tried before and that's what he does. Yeah you portrayed uh this Bumpy Johnson with such depth and emotional complexity for us I'm wondering how much research you did into the actual Bumpy Johnson in his life into the the the actual uh situations that were going on in Harlem in the early 60s what was your research process like and trying to understand Bumpy? Well first I met with a couple of guys that worked with him one was his driver and one was his uh enforcer they were young but they they were able to Chisholm and Tunebug were able to give me a lot of information about how he like reacted to situations how things were happening for him and I did a lot of you know like the book that uh Mamie wrote that was about their uh their relationship and stuff so that really helped me a lot too then I tried to like figure out uh his movements and stuff so I was trying to figure it out through his emotional life you know like he he was suppressing himself and pulling himself downward so I knew that the voice was going to like be in that range so to help me find like the space where I was going to be in that range and then I tried to figure out his rhythms so I tried to figure it out uh through uh his walk you know I try to get this sort of pattern in my head when I'm working on it I'll just spend the time just working on the walk and uh that whatever sound might be and it'll make me walk different so that kind of like keeps me clear and makes me makes me centered in some way there's a lot of different things that his clothes were really important to me because uh I mean we originally had like one designer and uh it wasn't working out because I thought the clothes were so important for Bumpy and we brought in another designer Dominique uh Baca and uh that like made him be more like a businessman because I wanted him to be like a businessman when you see him you think of him in that way you know and then you understand what his business is and these are just tools that he's doing so those are some of the things I was doing you know just just trying to figure it out uh it'll be yeah is there a sense there's obviously the amazing ensemble around you is so phenomenal as well is there a sense that that Bumpy sort of has to adjust in some ways to some of these even new alliances that are going on in season three with uh Jose Battle who's in charge of the of the Cuban mafia portrayed by Yul Vasquez who's terrific Vincent D'Onofrio obviously as Vincent the Chin Gigante is there a sort of a way that that Bumpy is in some of those situations that that requires a little bit of a of a nuanced sort of change in some ways or a kind of a modulation I mean when he's dealing with his wife Mamie he's like he's in a soft place he's let's use this is his conciliaria really you know and uh when he's dealing with Vincent he's like one of the symbols of his of his oppression so you see him do that I mean Vincent was amazing so was so was all the family and uh it's just you just watch you just watch the differences between him trying to navigate the world in this season you get to see him try to navigate the Cuban mob and then you get to see him dealing with the FBI the CIA it's a whole set of people that he has to change his temperament to every time he goes into a different room he has to behave a different way and it's that kind of way that he's like able to like maneuver he's he's quite intelligent as far as understanding like the way people behave and what they want what they need yeah he reads them in an interesting way you kind of almost you can see him trying to figure people out even from moment to moment I think you know yes yes go ahead I was gonna say Anilfinishidera also is phenomenal as Mamie and that and there's even sort of a sense of that he's being figured out by her like you said in some ways she's his conciliary right she guides him because and you know we watch him like try to like get legitimacy and redemption she's like trying to push him in that direction I think it really there's a big fault there's a scene in the season where they paint a painting of me she's commissioned she's feeling as a part of her legitimacy but ultimately he paints me as like a half monster half human being and that just like sends me over the edge you know and she's been trying to help me like figure out how to be in a legitimate business you know so that we can live as a family in a normal way but it doesn't work you know he tries he tries desperately to do so I mean he's in the end of season two you know there's like the riots the Harlem riots and he makes a decision to like protect his friend as opposed to protecting his merchandise so he goes to to Malcolm and I think that it's these kind of choices that he's trying to make throughout that are helping him try to try to find some form of legitimacy yeah yeah you might bring up a great point I want to uh follow up on a little bit which is the the the sense that the show uh the show's creators have really made this uh terrific portrait not a photograph necessarily of of the era and that uh whether it's the Harlem riots or the assassination of Malcolm X or uh in the the immediate aftermath of JFK's assassination this show really sort of has to deal with a lot of that uh what kind of responsibility do you guys feel about kind of getting it right and kind of the the sense of kind of capturing an emotional truth in a lot of ways proper intention to make sure that it's honest in its motion and its feeling and its guidance I mean the first time you say the line that's been fictionalized in a scene you know you're stepping away from what maybe he says you know we try to like hit all the major major points um professor Smalls has been working with us he was like working with us to help us stay online I stayed online all of us stayed online sometimes we disagree with what we're doing and we have to reassess to make sure that we're doing the right thing we had like there was a moment where they were talking about closer intimacy with uh Elise and Malcolm which is a big mistake so we didn't do that and I spoke up and that we speak up on different things we try to guide it towards stuff and use historical events to like guide us what we're doing yeah yeah the show also has a responsibility to Harlem and really you know considers the neighborhood in and its historical tapestry really well there's it must be a sense I'm sure uh amongst everybody on the on the team to make sure that the that Harlem is represented correctly right we've tried to desperately to do so I mean the first season we had we're in Minton's we used the real club and that was really great we shoot uh exteriors a lot of our exteriors there because of finances we shoot a lot of our interiors in Brooklyn but uh we've had a lot of people devising us and helping us and a lot of people that are hired that are from the area and stuff so yeah so it's a phenomenal tapestry like I say in so many ways that it really captures sort of a spirit of the of the neighborhood it does so respectfully we're gonna take some questions from the audience here we've got some of their uh pre-questions right here Tara asks what has been the most rewarding aspect of shooting this series and the most challenging aspect the most challenging aspect is like trying to keep up with the with the writing you know um it's been like takes us a big task to like sometimes I would write pages and pages of monologues and dialogues and um I go home and like we're trying to master that while I'm trying to get ready for the next day too so that was tough but I guess the greatest thing has been when you actually can get it done and it works I feel like that's a challenging and rewarding part both in one right exactly when you get and get it right Liris asks how do you prep for your roles uh in terms of technique and research wise does it change from role to role or what tools or methods do you like to bring it does change based on what I'm playing you know um but there's certain similarities like I'm playing I was playing with Charlie Parker a long time ago and I was like listening to jazz music but I was also trying to learn how to play the sax I was learning the period and the time he he said something about uh you know that he could only play the alto because that was the sound of his own voice and so that like helped me like understand the way he spoke and then uh I started to look at the notes and stuff that I was playing because it's improvisational and I start to apply like my thoughts to the notes and uh that sort of helped me with that I mean Glass King um we did I did I went there months in advance I started first by learning Kiswahili you know that was a big thing I wanted to change the way I was thinking so that the way I thought was first in Kiswahili and then in English so that was a big task that I was trying to do and uh then I like learned how to play the accordion because that was part of the instrument that he was able to bring people together with and uh I uh started traveling all over this all over the all over Uganda like meeting people and talking to people and getting things and I studied documentary because it was a documentary that uh he done on on Idi Amin so now with uh with Bumpy like I said I like it's different it's only like maybe like four photographs of Bumpy Johnson you know it's hardly any so you know you start like trying to take cues from like you know some of the poetry that he wrote some of the ways to try to figure out how he's thinking you talk to his like I say you talk to his uh associates that were working with him you start to study the mob a little bit more so you can know the uh hierarchy and stuff and dialogue and things of that nature you start to like figure out the emotional core whether it be like some form of an animal or whatever you know that lets you be able to move and generate from that so they're all like it's all similar because they're all like a journey of the search but I guess they're different in some ways as to what I'm trying to learn you know it could be just learning how to be a mechanic and uh that may take me like in a real person's life I learned the way he does it when he takes his breaths when he when he rests what he finds like enjoyable what uh it depends yeah yeah I also I think that there's a an aspect to um once you kind of find that group you kind of add to it right like I would imagine that the once you sort of find the way in anything that you layer on to it uh as an actor as an artist kind of builds into that into that core right it kind of makes that even more you kind of you kind of all these things just start to add up and add up and at some point you have to surrender you have to give in you have to say this exists not not like parts not in different things but just you give up give over yourself times to play the character yeah yeah it was also I think I thought about this around certainly around the time of ghost dog but but but in terms of both your physicality and the and the intellectual aspect of all your characters I feel like they both have such a wonderful interplay that we can see your characters thinking and we can see them thinking about what their next action is going to be and within the action we see all of the thought within that that's a crucial thing for all your performances I would imagine it was uh it was unique because Jim didn't have me speak hardly at all and there'll be times where I'll just be sitting in a seat for like five minutes driving a car and I think meditation was the thing that helped me the most I meditate like maybe two three hours before I would leave my trailer and then I would like so I'll be walking but I was vibrating a little different so I think it helps you understand the character there's other things for the character but that was probably the key key into that character yeah yeah I would I have to say watching Forrest Whitaker uh sit for five minutes quietly is the same as watching uh another actor do 30 minutes of monologue I think that there's there's so much there and we have another we have another question here somebody asked how do you find the humanity in a character that some might call evil they're not specifying the character could be anyone but but maybe in a character that some might call evil how do you find that humanity well I'm always like pulling away layers on a character and I'm trying to get to the core and at the core they're all the same they're all connected to everybody else I don't really look at it as a bad character really I look at it trying to discover who the person really is at his core and then when I get to that point the inside I don't I have no judgment and he's like just like me and I realize in a way I'm finding how he connects with me a little piece of DNA that like connects me to him or her or whatever you know it depends yeah yeah next question here uh asks what advice do you have for actors in the challenge of holding on uh to the breakthrough what's your testimony so uh perhaps she's asking about how you're kind of hanging on to that breakthrough moment what's the what advice would you have it's tough I think for me the way it worked out luckily was that I was more concerned and I would go to auditions and things like that with whether I was doing a good job for myself whether I was getting better so I would look go and audition for something and it didn't really matter in some ways but they thought I was kind of crazy that way it was more like about about uh how I was growing and how I was getting better a prime example like I'd done this tv show called he's the mayor and uh I went in and I'd done all this improvisation and stuff and they auditioned and then I left and I didn't think I'd get it and they you know but I was pleased kind of they told me I got the job but while I was working on getting the job while I was working on the part I realized that all the things I had chosen were wrong and so so I went in with a totally changed behavior and everybody's like what are you doing I was like I'm like I'm just playing the part and it's like this is like but you have these lines I said I said yeah but it's not those that they were wrong they're false he says but they're yours you know I love the idea that that the that the complete wrong direction was actually the right way to go right it's like sometimes you have to it's like the path lightly's traveled right yeah uh let's also talk about because obviously in addition to acting of course you're a passionate philanthropist from evil to good uh and you founded the forest Whitaker peace and development initiative tell us a bit about the foundation and what that what's involved we just had our 10-year anniversary um for conflict resolution and development organization in eight countries we train youths and uh women mainly be leaders in their community and then they like in turn start to build businesses in their community we finance those businesses we've financed about 500 businesses we have like worked with about a million and a half people and I would imagine that that is something that feeds your art as well as being able to kind of have that initiative and have that help going on that you're that you're uh instigating in the world that that kind of thing has got to help your art right and I think especially like when you go conflict resolution is there's a part of it that's creative that's trying to figure out like how you get to the source or something when you're mediating conflict in the jungle or something you you have to like be aware and have to be ready to move do what's necessary so it's taught me a lot about trusting certain things and um it's been we've been in we're like in South Sudan we've been there for 10 years and I've watched uh grow and it gives me a great sense of pride that that these youths are taking control of their lives and taking control of their communities I'm lucky to be able to be involved I mean something that I found that after I've been working with the UN but I decided I want to wrap up with two questions one is uh how do you think about acting now differently than you did uh 20 years ago 30 years ago is there a way do you still think of it the same or is there a way that you kind of have built on even just your your approach to acting thinking about performance and art I'm not sure it's gotten richer I'm sure kind of more I'm sure that there's kind of a more complex sort of sense to it and probably even the the sense of of the you approached performances when you're young that's still there and it's just sort of now it's gotten gotten more seasoned in a lot of ways right and kind of similar you know I mean um I keep trying to figure out the next thing to be able to grow you know try to be a little afraid know that I'm walking into some new territory to understand things a little better I mean it was a goal in the beginning was like to use use my acting in my art to like be able to understand more about people and humanity and to do that sometimes I feel like I've lost that clarity and sometimes I keep working on it the things I'm about to do now next um I'm a little afraid so we'll see if the fear is gonna like also make me falter yeah but hopefully it'll guide me to what I need to do to keep growing and understanding humanity a little better I'm sure it's going to lead you to actually even more phenomenal performances I'm sure just want to wrap up and ask what do you hope people take away from Godfather of Harlem for us what do you think people what do you what would you like people to take away from the show well the show is always the thing that was really attractive to me was that it was going to be like a prism to like today that when you watch the show you'd be able to see a lot of the issues that are going on right now which are you know a divided police brutality all these different things were in the show and I was hoping that it would be an opportunity for people to talk about those things in a safe way and then like decide whether they could do something more in their lives to help the situation in the problem so that's my hope that's the hope I have for the show and I still have that hope yeah it's a complex and fascinating and phenomenal mirror that holds up absolutely the entire season is available on MGM plus season three right now streaming so you can go there and see the entire season including the amazing finale that we just saw if I could just ask everybody to stay in their seats for just a couple of minutes for us there's another event to get to but let's have a huge round of applause please for Godfather of Harlem and Forrest Whitaker thank you all so much