03-02-2004, 12:53 PM
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#197 (permalink)
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Junkie
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Oh yeah, that's Charlize up top and Djimon below (portrayed as Cinque in Amistad). Both from Africa--do I really need to remind you that South Africa, as every place in the world I am aware of, has a history steeped in racism?
Quote:
Despite trying to deliver the usual anodyne actor's account of making Amistad, he doesn't sound or look Hollywood. The watch on his wrist isn't a Rolex and his black suit isn't as crisp as you'd expect, though his shoes shine like polished jet.
Now 33, he was born into a middle-class family in Benin, but went to live with his brother in Lyons at the age of 13 to get a better education. At 21, he dropped out of medical school and went to Paris, where he slept on friends' floors.
To the anger of his family, he fell into modelling, but, being African, he couldn't make a decent living at it, being always "too this, or too that". He tried to get into films, but the casting agencies shrugged him off.
So it was that when Hounsou resolved to move to LA, he had next to nothing, not even English. It was a brave, perhaps reckless decision, but on the face of it, it paid off.
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