Don Cheadle Don Cheadle
We spoke to Don Cheadle over a glass of whisky about working with Kendrick, how to influence people and where Hollywood is going.
: I’ve known Kendrick for a while. I met him through Dr Dre, and I was actually thinking of casting him in Miles Ahead, which ultimately didn’t work out, but that was good for both of us because he got to go and do To Pimp A Butterfly and we got Keith Stanfield. He wasn’t ready, and I was very impressed that he knew where his priorities were and understood that it wasn’t something he just wanted to take on to say he did it; he wanted to bring everything he could to it.
So he said, ‘I’m kind of doing this album right now and I gotta focus on it,’ and I said that’s fine. But Kendrick and I just stayed in touch over the years and we’d hit each other up out of the blue and he’d be touring and I’d be on set. He literally hit me up out of the blue and goes, ‘What are you doing, do you want to shoot this video next week?’ So I said yeah and he said ‘I’ll send you the concept and the song.’
I loved the song and I was like ‘This is great,’ so I said, ‘What do you want me to do?’ He was like, ‘Oh, I need you to spit this lyric, this whole verse,’ and I was like, ‘That’s insane, that’s too much.’And he said, ‘No, just learn as much of it as you can.’ I didn’t really have any concept of what it was going to be and I got to the set and he walked me through it and then we just launched into it.
He’s really creative and very committed and we just talked the other day and I asked, ‘What’s going on with you?’ and he said, ‘You know, I’m just trying to figure out what I’m going to do next with my creativity and what kind of stories I want to tell,’ and I don’t even know if he meant album- wise; you know, he may take up painting, who knows.
He’s very Miles Davis in that he’s just a font of creativity and he’s always looking for some way to express himself.
I think in general, the world’s opened up. Social media obviously has a lot to do with that, and people can speak and communicate with one another directly in a way that wasn’t possible before. We get to see a lot of similarities where people are artistically complementary in ways that we didn’t imagine before. In my industry it used to be a real sort of no-no to do television or a music video if you wanted to have any sort of theatrical career.
You would never be considering series or a commercial, but I think those sorts of imaginary lines have disappeared and people aren’t taking themselves as seriously and they’re also just looking for different modes of expression. You see a lot of ‘A-list’ actors doing Funny or Die and really just trying to flex every kind of muscle and play with all kinds of media. I think that’s raised all of the creative bars.
I’ve always been someone who’s tried to be platform agnostic because it doesn’t matter to me. I gravitate towards the things that are interesting to me. Here, today, what we’re talking about is thanks to Chivas Regal. The commercial I did with them wasn’t strictly a commercial, it was an opportunity for me to do something altruistic that fitted in with my philosophy and philanthropic interests. I try to gravitate towards things I can bring something to, and which bring something to me as well.
Well this is about altruism and working with people who are coming into the space as entrepreneurs and attempting to better the world. They’re not just on some sort of a craven move to make as much money as they can; they’re attempting to better their lot and leave this place better than they found it. That’s the entirety of it for me. When I understood that, it was a no-brainer. It wasn’t simply about getting involved with the product to ingratiate myself, but about working with people who were trying to really change the world in substantive ways.
I’m newer to whisky, especially Chivas, but it’s really good. When you’re young it’s just like ‘Oh it’s booze, right?’ and it’s all the same. Then you taste it – Ultis is a blend of five single malts and it’s really balanced and premium. You can taste the difference, and that’s something. I was a neophyte before and it’s a fun way to learn.
I was tired with jet lag so I was like ‘Let me just hit these people up.’ What was I saying today? You see, it’s already gone, it’s like it’s disposable.
If I see something that sparks a thought, I’ll voice that. It’s often supportive, but clearly with our political climate in the US right now it gives rise to a lot of reaction, and I think it’s important to be a part of that voice.
That’s interesting, especially having come back here where we shot Hotel Rwanda, where a lot of my activism began. It’s where I was introduced to people who were working on issues around genocide around the world and was invited to join a congressional delegation that went to visit Chad, Darfur and Sudan to see first-hand what was happening there.
I think that was one of the questions I was asking myself with my supposed platform: how do I fit in and what am I supposed to do? Where can I influence people and sort of drive this in a positive direction in any way that I possibly can? I think that’s one of those questions that individuals have to ask themselves and take stock of themselves and see where they have influence: is it in school, or church, or your community? I think people more often than not devalue their ability to have a voice and it’s a shame because it’s just not so.
Now more than ever, especially with social media, there’s an ability to find like-minded people who are working on issues you’re interested in. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel; you can become part of a movement that’s already begun and then you can always look to these people if you have some issue that you don’t feel has the kind of trajectory that you want it to, to learn how they did it.
We’re talking about a black man in the 1800s who was a millionaire, and in those days that was very unusual. It’s about looking at the issues we have today and how they reflect and refer to a time hundreds of years ago. It’s also around this character who had maybe three identities and was incredibly litigious – he never backed down from fights and is not really a ‘good guy’ by any means.