EXCLUSIVE: Don Cheadle on ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ and why he’s praising the Waffle House hero
Don Cheadle wants all of us to channel our inner superheroes.
Avengers: Infinity War hits theaters tomorrow and theGrio caught up with one if its stars, Don Cheadle, to find out what we can learn from the superheroes in the film.
And because we sat down with the award-winning actor who plays War Machine in Marvel’s latest superhero blockbuster mere hours after news broke that a gunman had killed four people at the Waffle House in Nashville, Cheadle was ready to praise real-life hero, James Shaw, Jr., who wrestled the AR-15 away from Travis Reinking ending the deadly assault.
“He didn’t need a gun to do it, which is interesting. That keeps falling apart, that the answer is more guns. I know some teachers that would be shot and some kids that would be shot if we started arming our teachers in schools,” he said.
And according to Don Cheadle, more people should be stepping up to affect change during this turbulent time.
“There’s a lot of people who could be filling that seat right now that aren’t filling that seat. I guess it’s gonna come down to us right? I think we are going to have to be each other’s heroes. Everyone needs to step up, make their voices heard and take responsibility and the best way is to live by example. What you say to the kids is one thing but what they see you do is another thing and that’s what they’re paying attention to. We don’t need a bunch of platitudes and empty promises that aren’t kept and things like that. We need to step up and take this into our hands and be about the change we want to see.”
Don Cheadle is known for speaking out about social issues and he says that didn’t start when he became famous.
“Most human beings don’t have a clear understanding of where we are at any given time or any given moment as far as their influence, their importance, or their responsibility. When you’re a parent, it’s a little more clear that you have to protect your kids, clothe them, educate them,” he explained. “When it goes outside of that as an actor who has a platform and a voice and a position, it’s like, ‘What am I supposed to stand in front of? If I do it in the wrong way, is that going to have a negative affect because I just look like a celebrity who doesn’t know anything standing in front of a cause? I have often felt the same way I felt as a seven-year-old when something was wrong. I was raised to speak out about things that weren’t fair or didn’t make sense. Even with my parents, I had to do what they said but I was allowed to ask about it and wonder why and get an answer. My mother is an educator, my father is a psychologist and talking was big in my house. It’s not that I’m just talking now because I’m a celebrity. I have been talking my whole life. I was fired off my first movie because they weren’t treating us right and I was like, ‘This is bullshit.’”
Cheadle encourages all of us to raise our voices against injustice.
“Who do you have to be to have integrity? You don’t have to be anybody. You just have to have a strong sense of your identity and say, ‘I’m not doing that.’ It’s challenging and it can be more uncertain with different ways of communicating like social media. You say one thing and it gets turned into something else or someone manipulates it and it’s constantly moving. You just do the best you can and stay faithful to yourself.”
Although Cheadle’s character of War Machine is a fan favorite, he’s not expecting to star in a solo spin-off movie anytime soon.
“I think there’s a whole ten-year slate of movies that they’re doing after this that are already figured out. Now we have T’Challah and Wakanda and The Guardians and Doctor Strange going strong, and Captain Marvel is starting next year. There is gonna be origin movies for some of these characters. There’s a lot of stuff coming,” he revealed.
“It’s pretty dope that War Machine is a human but can still hang with these heroes with superpowers who can fly or see through people’s clothes. He is very human and he has a lot of regular things he has to deal with.”
The veteran actor who has been in the game over 36 years was just as inspired by Black Panther as the rest of us.
“I worked with Chadwick [Boseman] and Danai [Gurira] and Letitia [Wright] before the movie came out. I didn’t really know about Black Panther or what it was going to be. When I saw it, it was more than we could even imagine. It was bananas,” he said.
“It is it’s own thing but still absolutely a Marvel movie. That’s a testament to their ability to pull together these disparate story lines and keep them under the umbrella of heroes, sacrifice, good guys who have shortcomings, bad guys who have good qualities, people being afraid of stepping forward… it’s great because these aren’t cardboard cutout characters. They can still surprise you and at the end of the day, they’re always standing on the right side. That’s what the hero journey is and what Marvel has done so well at crafting.”
