Michael Jai White
Michael Jai White
Michael Jai Whiteis an American actor and martial artist who has appeared in numerous films and television series. He is the first African American to portray a major comic book superhero in a major motion picture, having starred as Al Simmons, the protagonist in the 1997 film Spawn. White appeared as Marcus Williams in the Tyler Perry films Why Did I Get Married? and Why Did I Get Married Too?, and currently stars as the character on the TBS/OWN comedy-drama...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionActor
Date of Birth10 November 1967
CountryUnited States of America
The first movie I ever saw was a blaxploitation movie. It was called 'Monkey Hustle.' Like I said, just listen to the name. That's a blaxploitation movie. It had these incredible, bigger-than-life images of people who looked like I did. Or who looked like I wanted to look like.
Most people say I look mean, and because I play so many tough roles and because of my size and my martial arts background, they think I am, but I'm really not.
When you don't have much money, you get creative. There's so much money that gets wasted on big movie sets. But when you don't have much money, you improvise.
In reality, there are very few villains who view themselves as villains. They just have a certain agenda at a certain time.
I feel like I missed my era, because I remember the time when black people uplifted each other and looked for the positives. I feel sorry for the people who live their lives in the negative default setting because they filter out what's good, and that's no way to live.
I enjoy playing real human beings after playing a lot of larger than life characters. I love playing true to life characters and that is what I intend to do for the majority of my career.
There's all kinds of depictions of black men. You have the Denzel Washingtons and the Will Smiths; that's wonderful, but that doesn't represent everyone. There's a Russell Crowe... well, you know, there's a black Russell Crowe.
Since I do seven different styles of martial arts, I don't foresee myself fighting the same in any two movies. I think every fighting style should fit the character that's doing the fighting.
I am my own worst critic and I am hell to pay so I just have to do everything to my utmost ability.
That's something a lot of folks don't know about me - I'm pretty darn funny.
I want to continue to do some great work. I'm nowhere close to where I want to be. I'm a diverse person who's trying to use his art to make the world better.
There's a way that white people and black people spoke in the '70s that is nothing like how they speak now. They spoke from a soul, actually. There's a singsongy way of walking and talking that's just different now.
There's people saying that 'Jackie Brown' was a blaxploitation movie, when there's nothing at all blaxploitation about it other than Pam Grier being in it.
When I was young, I had a favorite movie star. One day, I saw one of his movies, and it was bad, and he was bad in it. I could tell he didn't care and only did it for the money. I felt betrayed. I never watched another one of his movies again.