7 Things We Learned from Forest Whitaker on The Breakfast Club

Source: Power 105 / Power 105

For decades Forest Whitaker has been one of Hollywood’s most underrated actors and though his work has gotten him all kinds of awards throughout his illustrious career, his soft-spoken demeanor and nonchalant attitude often causes fans to overlook his excellent body of work.

Now with his latest project Godfather of Harlem having debuted on Epix, the OG actor took to The Breakfast Club to talk about the series and the road he took to get there. Revealing interesting facts such as the length of time the series had been in development to his original role in the project, Forest Whitaker’s latest passion project might prove to be his favorite. That’s saying something.

Here are the 7 things we learned from Forest Whitaker on The Breakfast Club.

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To prepare for the role of Bumpy Johnson in the Godfather of Harlem series, Forest says that aside from reading up on the street legend, he also got in touch with mobsters who worked with Bumpy back in the day.

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When he was first approached to get involved in a series about Bumpy Johnson, Mr. Whitaker says that he originally only planned on producing it and said “I may not act in it.” But once he began reading the scripts he began warming up to the idea of being in it before eventually locking down the title role and according to him it was 18 years in the making.

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While filming his Oscar winning role as Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland, Forest was so in character that he’d use his idi Amin voice whenever he’d call his children. Of course they’d have to remind him he was not Ugandan and would tell him to cut it out. That’s pretty damn funny.

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Though Forest is one of the very few African-American actors with an Oscar on his resume, he admits that awards “are not drivers for me” when making decisions on films he wants to act in. “That’s a bonus of some sort. If you strive for it a lot of times you miss the story on the way.” Interesting take.

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Though he loves directing films (Waiting to Exhale and Strapped), Forest says it takes too much time and that’s why he hasn’t done it in a while. He does say he might get back in the directors chair in a few years though.

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Unbeknownst to many, Forest Whitaker dabbled in the Opera game and studied Classical Voice. He even got his first agent off his Opera experience.

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Growing up in South Central, LA, a young Forest Whitaker found himself beefing with some gang members and because of that drama he was sent to the west side of town. There he started to get into music and that eventually led him to acting. He was basically the Fresh Prince before Will Smith.