Sunday, January 27, 2013

"Bad Ass Mofo": Forest Whitaker


I’m not sure why I never wrote about this guy. This guy has played everything from sympathetic guys, guys you felt bad for, and even hardasses that made you nervous as hell. Forest Whitaker is this weeks Bad Ass Mofo! Born in Longview, Texas he and his family said “Fuck this place!” and moved to Los Angeles when he was 4 years old. He is an accomplished actor, producer and director. Did you know that he directed Waiting To Exhale? Well, he did.


His first movie (that counts) was Fast Times At Ridgemont High as a beast of a football player. He was almost not cast because he looked too nice and the director didn’t think he could pull off angry. He went on to be in films like Platoon, The Crying Game, Jason’s Lyric, Phone Booth, and Ghost Dog: The Way Of The Samurai. Now, with this film I was offered a free screening and turned it down because seeing Whitaker with a samurai sword in New York didn’t appeal to me. Fast forward to it being the first film I ever bought on DVD.


Then there was The Last King Of Scotland. I mean…come on! I remember when I first saw this film and it blew my mind. Its hard for actors to do charming and very psychopathic at the same time, but he managed to do it. He also managed to show off his martial arts training in the movie Repo Men. This dude is very well rounded. He was recently in The Last Stand where he flipped the script and played an asshole.


In recent years he hosted the remake of The Twilight Zone and starred on The Shield and Criminal Minds being one of those actors that are able to float between TV and film flawlessly. This guy is 51 years old and hopefully has years more BAM in him.

Click here for previous Bad Ass Mofos.

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