The Camera Has Two Sides
From The New York Times, August 16, 1998
If a movie maker were casting the part of a film director, Forest Whitaker wouldn't seem the obvious choice. He is not loud. He is not manic. During the filming of Terry McMillan's novel Waiting to Exhale, which he is in fact directing, the cast and crew were enamored of him almost to the point of obnoxiousness; you couldn't help thinking that if one more person called Mr. Whitaker a gentle giant...
Forest Whitaker directing
Terry McMillan's 'Waiting to Exhale'
And perhaps it was because of Mr. Whitaker's linebacker size that he made such an effort to keep a calm atmosphere on the set. Unlike some directors who change their minds on whims and experiment while the crew's time ticks away, Mr. Whitaker, 35, carefully plotted every aspect well in advance. "Months ago, my director of photography and I figured out how we wanted to shoot each scene," Mr. Whitaker said. "Then in rehearsals we went over it all again. By the time we get on set, I feel pretty confident that the performances will work and I know what the shots will look like."
Waiting to Exhale, which finished shooting in May and is to be released in the fall by 2Oth Century Fox, is Mr. Whitaker's second turn as a director (his first was an HBO special Strapped, in 1993). He is usually on the other side of the camera.
Most famous for his performance as Jody, the British soldier who becomes a prisoner of the I.R.A. in the 1992 hit The Crying Game, Mr. Whitaker made his acting debut at 22 as a football player in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, the 80's answer to American Graffiti. It was a talented group with whom to begin in films: his Ridgemont High classmates included Jennifer Jason Leigh, Sean Penn and Phoebe Cates.
Since then, he has worked with Clint Eastwood in the starring role of the Charlie Parker biographical movie, Bird with Martin Scorsese in The Color of Money Spike Lee in Do the Right Thing, Oliver Stone in Platoon, and Barry Levinson in Good Morning, Vietnam. Even as he is in late-summer post-production on Waiting to Exhale, he can be seen in two movies, Smoke and the action adventure Species.
He laughed at the suggestion that becoming a director may make him a more opinionated actor. "I get into my work when I'm acting," he said. "I focus on what I'm doing and I don't get into whether or not they shoot it this way or that way. As a director, you've got to let go of the scene and keep your eye on the overall story. Film making, for me, is really about storytelling."
It was the vivid storytelling of Waiting to Exhale that appealed to the director in Mr. Whitaker. The tale of four black women in Arizona who find friendship with one another while searching for love, respect and peace of mind was on bestseller lists for months, partly because of its straight, candid talk about women, men and relationships.
But well before the cameras began rolling, there was controversy. Black women of many ages and backgrounds identified passionately with the novel's heroines, and when Mr. Whitaker was chosen by the producers (Deborah Schindler and Ezra Swerdlow) and Ms. McMillan to convert the novel to film, there was much rumbling about the decision to choose a black man to tell what so many saw as essentially a black women's story.
"I never felt like the difficulty of my directing this story is that I'm not a woman," Mr. Whitaker said. "I can only tell the story as I see it and perceive it."
And earlier this year, as Mr. Whitaker was making this film about relationships, he himself became engaged. He refuses to discuss his relationship, but did say, "Making a film about learning to feel good about a yourself, your friendships and your relationships was very appealing to me."
Unlike many in the film industry who are transplants to Southern California, Mr. Whitaker grew up in Los Angeles. His father sold insurance and his mother was a school teacher. Mr. Whitaker attended the University of Southern California as a voice major. He switched to theater, and after two years at the U.S.C., he won a scholarship to the Drama Studio in Berkeley, Calif.
He found success relatively quickly. "When I think of the characters I've played, I don't see them as defying stereotypes." he said. "I try to go to the motivation of each one of them as a human being. As a human being, you don't wake up every morning thinking about your race and your gender. If you're Charlie Parker, you're thinking about your music. In 'Species', I play a psychic. That character was trying to communicate with this being. The fact that he was black was secondary."
After directing a string of music videos between acting roles, Mr. Whitaker directed his first feature film, Strapped, for HBO. It was a high-energy portrait of teen-age gun runners in the inner city, and Strapped made him a director to watch.
On the set, Ms. McMillan said she had been very conscious of criticism of her approval of Mr. Whitaker. She said: "I've been approached by people who want to know, 'Why did you get a man to direct Waiting to Exhale?' But it's not about gender, it's about his understanding of the work."
The film stars well-known and lesser-known unknown actresses: Angela Bassett, who was nominated for an Academy Award for her role as Tina Turner in What's Love Got to Do With It?; the singer Whitney Houston; Loretta Devine (one of the stars of Dream Girls on Broadway), and Lela Rochon (who had small parts in Harlem Nights and Boomerang).
Design touches illustrate each character's personality. Mr. Whitaker said: "Angela's character is surrounded by water colors--the upper ranges of the oceans, indigo and darker blues. Earlier in the film, when she throws out her husband's stuff, she hangs up a big ocean painting. There's a big aquarium in her bedroom. It was like that for every actress."
In one scene, Bernadine, Ms. Bassett's character, goes to the office of her very wealthy husband and confronts him about his affair with his white secretary and the financial mess he has left her in. In the book, it is almost comical, as Bernadine charges into the office, slaps the secretary and yells curses at her husband. Ms. Bassett and Mr. Whitaker decided to give it drama: this is more than an angry woman putting her soon-to-be ex-husband in check--this is the disintegration of a marriage.
In Mr. Whitaker's movie, even the low-down dirty men have filled-out personalities--in some cases, more so than in the book. "All the characters had to be three dimensional," he insisted. "It's easy to say that the man is a dog. But they've been in a relationship for 11 years. There was a reason that Bernadine stays. All of that has to come across in the film."
Before the take begins, Ms. Bassett entered the room in silence. She talked only to Mr. Whitaker and no one approached her unless necessary. "Angela gives 100 percent every time," Mr. Whitaker said. "She never settles. My job is to help her."
The first assistant director addressed the cast and crew. Mr. Whitaker never spoke to the crowd. He rarely spoke to more than one person at a time, and even then his voice was almost a whisper. When he had directions for an actor, he did not bellow across the room from his director's chair: he got up, walked over and whispered into the actor's ear. The only word Mr. Whitaker screamed was "Action!"
As Ms. Bassett began the scene, there were tinges of the toughness that underlies her performance as Tina Turner. She slapped the secretary so hard she knocked her over. Then she confronted her husband who tried to play the heavy with her. But she was not having it. He told her he would come by on the weekend to see the children and bring her some money to tide her over: $3,000. But Ms. Bassett looked as though she were the one who had been slapped. "Three whole thousand?" she said incredulous, as Ms. McMillan mouthed the words along with her. "That must be the cost of her Clairol bill!" Ms. McMillan smiled.
After the take, Mr. Whitaker whispered, "That looked good" to no
on in particular. Sitting in the corner waiting for the next setup, Ms. Bassett seemed to be
on the verge of tears, caught in the scene's emotional power. Mr. Whitaker went to her, took
her hand and consoled her. For him, the gesture was not out of place: it was just part of his job.
