Don Cheadle

Hotel Rwanda

Interviewed by Anwar Brett

鈥I tried to just keep myself as ignorant as I could about certain situations so that I could react and respond truthfully 鈥

The purveyor of the screen's worst Cockney accent since Dick Van Dyke, Don Cheadle is also one of Hollywood's best kept secrets. Now his performance in Hotel Rwanda has garnered a well deserved Oscar nomination he will doubtless see his profile rise even higher. Eye-catching roles in Devil In A Blue Dress and Out Of Sight established his reputation in the 90s, since when he has proved to be a masterful, compelling actor - a fact confirmed by his performance as Rwandan hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina. Screen wife Sophie Okonedo and writer/director Terry George have also been rewarded with Oscar nominations.

There's a lot of responsibility playing any real-life character, especially when their story is as poignant as Paul's. How do you set about doing it justice?

By really trusting the script and trusting Terry [George]. I knew there was a certain amount of preparation that I had to do in order to understand the historical context and to really educate myself about the history. But a lot of what happened in the film, my character didn't know and couldn't prepare for, so I tried to just keep myself as ignorant as I could about certain situations so that I could react and respond truthfully as a human being would in those moments.

Did you work closely with Paul himself?

I never really asked him specifically about the 100 days he spent with all those people, besieged in his hotel. It was more a case of trying to understand who he was as a person. When I first got the role I began e-mailing him right away, asking him a thousand questions some of which probably seemed ridiculous to him. But it was just a case of trying to get an idea of his interior life and what kind of a person he was in his spirit.

Did you draw on physical aspects of the man for your performance?

Of course I watched him. After I was cast Terry sent me some footage that he had taken of Paul on their trip to Rwanda and there was hours of that and I would just watch over and over again. And then when we both were in South Africa together during the rehearsal period, we'd go out to dinner, or we'd just be walking around the set, and I would keep an eye on him to surreptitiously try and get a handle on him, with his gestures and body language and all of that.

How did you hear about your Oscar nomination?

I was on a UN plane in Africa, going back to the hotel with Paul. Once I'd figured out the time difference I telephoned my wife. I knew it was early in the morning but she was awake, so I figured that someone had called and woken her up so it was presumably good news. She said, "did you know you got nominated?" and I said, "Oh wow, that's great." And then she started screaming and said, "And Sophie was nominated!" That was really the icing on the cake. And then she added, "Oh yeah, and Terry was nominated too."

What is it about this story the interests you? Is it because it's so different from the manufactured heroism of so many mainstream movies?

The fun for me is to mix it all up. I would actually like to do something as far away from what I've just done, just for my own personal joy and growth, for what I want to do. And also I wouldn't want to attempt to compare this to anything else. This is a singular sort of moment in my career, I think. It has allowed me to speak to a different audience. Paul and I just got back from Sudan, where we'd been with a congressional delegation, with two-star generals and high-ranking representatives from NGOs and we got to show some of the things going on in the Sudan that has really frightening parallels to the situation in Rwanda. I've been on CNN and doing all these other shows about something that's very relevant today. I've never been a part of a film before that offers such a platform into real issues, that raises social awareness and has the potential to change things. I say potential because I don't really hold out a lot of hope that any film can do that. I hold out hope, but don't really have high expectations.

But do you feel more frivolous films have their part as entertainment too?

Absolutely. I understand what's it like to work all week and on Friday night just want to go and leave your brain at the door, buy some popcorn and be thrilled by something. That absolutely has a place as well.