Forest Whitaker Head of the Street Kings

Published April 9, 2008 in Movie Interviews

By Fred Topel | Image property of Fox Searchlight

Street Kings

Now that Forest Whitaker has one an Oscar, audiences and critics apply much more scrutiny to his roles. Why would an award-winning actor choose this? What does he want to do with this? Whitaker himself just keeps his choices the same. In Street Kings, he plays the leader of a team of corrupt cops.

Forest Whitaker Talks Street Kings
"I thought it was a really interesting character to play," said Whitaker. "I liked his moral code, his conflicting moral code I guess, and the power that he possesses. It was an interesting thing to try to explore. So that was one of the things I was attracted to. The story was interesting, about a family thing I thought to myself too. Keanu, the team, something interesting to explore, what do you do for a family and when you’re right and when you’re wrong, over the lines."

He has some experience portraying police corruption. On The Shield, he played an internal affairs agent going after Vic Mackey. "It’s interesting because the character on The Shield, he has a hard time, and when he finally does cross the line it destroys him. He’s almost like an archangel. He can only work one way, and if he crosses that line it destroys him. When he tries to do that, his character falls and he has to admit he can’t handle it. Whereas this character is clean, clear on the other side. To me they are totally just such different people."

Whitaker had real life experience with cops too, but he kept that out of the movie. "My experience with police officers wasn’t really very good coming up as a kid, so I had to play this character with the love of who he was, and without compromise. Maybe it did feel to me to feel like anything’s possible, that these police officers could do anything, with the good but I’ve also seen the darker side of what the police can do in the real world, from a personal level."

So when it came right down to it, Whitaker just made it up with his actor instincts. "We had a lot of discussions, we worked on the script in rehearsals trying to make sure he was complete and stuff, but I think he had certain Rampart concepts about who we were, like what happened in the Rampart division, the way he viewed cops, so he was like an architect. He was like the epitome of the corruption. That’s what he is and that’s what I was trying to do as well as, to deal with, like I say, the guy who still had a code. I think it’s interesting when you have a code and morally everyone thinks your code is wrong, but that’s what he lives by, and at least you know where he’s going to go, you know exactly what he’s going to do."

Street Kings opens to theaters on April 11th.

For the trailers, stills and more movie info, go to the Street Kings Movie Page.

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Compiled By (Sources)

Fred Topel
Sources: Image property of Fox Searchlight
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