In 'Crash,' Race Isn't About Cars
The last six months have been very busy for Don Cheadle. He has starred in four films, including "Hotel Rwanda," a movie that featured his Oscar-nominated performance as a hotel manager struggling to help refugees.
That movie is now No. 1 on the list of most-popular DVDs, followed by "Ocean's Twelve," in which Cheadle reprises his "Ocean's Eleven" role of Basher Tarr. He also starred in "After the Sunset" with Pierce Brosnan and Salma Hayak.
Now, he's back in theaters in "Crash," a film that's very different from "Hotel Rwanda," yet, he says, just as powerful.
Cheadle visited The Early Show to talk about the new urban drama. Based on writer/director Paul Haggis' personal experience, "Crash" takes a look at the complexities of racial tolerance in contemporary America.
"The script felt like real people saying real things in real situations," says Cheadle, who also co-produced the film. "That was the attraction for me. This isn't a polemic, and this isn't some sort of investigation of race. It's not. We're not trying to wrap anything up in a bow or give any lessons."
His character, police detective Graham Waters, is the only one who touches most of the others in the story. However, unlike most traditionally structured films, the story does not unfold from his character's point of view.
"Which I thought was brilliant," Cheadle says. "When I read the script, it's really rare you read a script, and I was talking back to the script. I was telling my wife, 'Come here. Read this scene with me because it's just' ... it was unbelievable. (I) thought, 'This is fantastic. It'll never get made.' "
No one is safe in this film about the way human beings "crash" into one another. Everyone, even liberals, get their share of scorn and derision, and there is not a moment of political correctness that is not unmasked.
"It's hilarious," Cheadle says. "It's those kinds of laughs where you laugh and cover your mouth and look around, like, 'Can we laugh about that?' That's what, to me, is the most fun. That's how I responded to the script. And that's the reaction I'm seeing from audiences in the film. That's what you want in a film. That's what I want in a film. Take me high, low; it's like a roller coaster in the dark.
The Golden Globe-winning actor notes his character's relentless pursuit of truth on the job has meant an overload of pain and suffering.
"He's seen too much on the job, he's seen too much in his family," Cheadle explains. "He's sort of divorced himself, either by circumstances in his life or by his own doing, from those real, emotional human beats that drive us."
Also featured in "Crash" are Sandra Bullock, Matt Dillon, Jennifer Esposito, William Fichtner, Brendan Fraser, Terrence Howard, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Thandie Newton, Ryan Phillippe and Larenz Tate.
Cheadle says he also was surprised about audience reaction to "Hotel Rwanda."
"You know, this is a movie that, for five years, Terry George couldn't get it made," Cheadle says. "And now, to see this kind of response to the film and this kind of reaction is just...unbelievable and (I'm) really glad to see it."
Cheadle also had praise for his co-star in that movie, British actress Sophie Okonedo, who also was nominated for an Oscar for that film. "She was amazing," he says.