Don Cheadle to direct and star in Miles Davis biopic

CHEADLE. Labor of love. photo by Ruben V. Nepales

LOS ANGELES—“We’re all at some point going to be, ‘Who the hell is Don Cheadle?’” the actor asked aloud in our recent interview, when the talk veered toward how he keeps it all together in his own life, in contrast to that of his “House of Lies” character, Marty Kaan, whose personal life is a mess. “My priorities are in the right place for the most part. I know that this is all great, but it’s transitory. It could go away in a second.

“So, it’s about staying interested and continuing to put myself in situations to be scared and learn from, as opposed to getting comfortable and thinking, I’ve got it cracked,” declared the man who’s been brilliantly playing Marty, a deceitful management consultant who stops at nothing to get business deals done. “Once you start feeling that way, it starts to get away from you!”

“I have a good family that keeps me grounded,” said Don, who won a 2013 Golden Globe for his performance in the Showtime series, created by Matthew Carnahan. “My family couldn’t care less about all this. That is a very balancing thing to have in your life. We can see when people don’t have those things. They don’t have friends around them that they’ve had for more than a year. When you look up and there’s no one you’ve known for more than a year or two—that’s pretty bad.”

When Don gets his summer break from “House of Lies,” he will finally shoot his dream project, “Miles Ahead,” a Miles Davis biopic. He will star as the legendary jazz trumpeter and make his feature directing debut.

Big fan

“I’m a big fan of Miles,” professed Don, who is also shooting Joss Whedon’s “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” where he plays Colonel James Rhodes, aka War Machine. He said that he was hooked on jazz even as a kid. “My parents had Miles Davis records in the house. One of the ones that they had, which I gravitated toward, was Miles Davis and Gil Evans’ ‘Porgy and Bess.’ I was that kid who came home and listened to jazz music instead of going out and playing.”

Asked to assess his trumpet- playing skills, Don answered, “My playing would be like second chair in a good high school band. I wouldn’t be first chair.”

The Oscar-nominated actor for “Hotel Rwanda” plays every day to get ready to portray Miles, hailed as a jazz genius who defined cool (he died at 65 in 1991). “I play jazz, fusion and classical stuff, as well,” said Don, whose many acclaimed performances include those in “Devil in a Blue Dress,” “Crash” and “The Rat Pack.”

“Miles Ahead” will be a labor of love, according to its star and director. “No one’s getting rich. I’m spending my own money on it.  But, it’s something I want to do.”

He shared, “We’re able to attract people just from the strength of the script. Our DP (Robert Schaefer) is going to shoot this movie, then he’s going to work on a $100-million film right after, which allows him to work on our movie.”

Co-conspirator

Back to “House of Lies,” he talked about Marty and his protégé and co-conspirator, Jeannie van der Hooven, portrayed by Kristen Bell. What’s in store for the relationship between Jeannie and her manipulative one-time boss?

“There’s a lot of damage that they each have in their own personal lives,” Don replied. “That’s definitely the pull from the first episode—something might happen between these two. If and when it does, it’s definitely going to be fraught with a lot of potential dangers, because I don’t think either one of them has a concept of what a good relationship is. There’s so much fear and mistrust they have for everything that I don’t know how those two would actually work if they tried to make a go of it.”

In Season One, Marty led a pod at Galweather Stearn, the management consultancy where he is a successful partner. Don said that in Season Three, “We’re spread out all over the world. There are three new pods. It was fun to get to hire these actors and actresses to come in to populate these three new worlds that we’re living in, Clyde (played by Ben Schwartz) with Monica (Dawn Olivieri). I’m starting my own shop now, Kaan & Associates.”

Discussion

On whether the “dramedy” will skew toward more comedy, Don’s face lit up as he said, “That’s funny. I just had a discussion with the creator, Matthew Carnahan. I lobbied. I said, ‘I want 25 percent more comedy across the board.’ He said, ‘I’ll do 23.4 percent.’ So, we’re getting there.”

Does he bring Marty home? (Don lives with his partner, Bridgid Coulter, who portrayed his wife in John Singleton’s “Rosewood,” and with whom he has two daughters, Imani and Ayana Tai.) “No, Marty doesn’t have a place in my crib,” he said with a chuckle. “If I bring that home, I get checked quickly. So, I decompress on the drive home. By the time I get there, I’m much more calm and quiet.”

What has he learned from Marty, especially in handling his business deals in real life? “More of what not to do than what to do,” he answered. “I try not to do that in  real life. For one, I’m not really good at it.”

Enthused the father with a smile, “I’m very fortunate to have a close family and two kids whom I truly like, even though they’re teenagers now and sometimes you want to wring their necks. But we’re close. And I’ve been in a relationship for 22 years—that’s rare and exciting.”

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