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Web Exclusive!
Preparing for Poetry
May 10, 2007
By Simi Horwitz
Harry Lennix doesn't need to look for parallels in his own life to the characters he plays, but the 42-year-old Chicago-born actor says that like Harmond Wilks, the ambitious mayoral candidate he portrays in the current Broadway production of the late August Wilson's Radio Golf, he understands something about the strong feelings aroused by the doctrine of eminent domain.
"Eminent domain and regentrification are complex issues," he says. "Some neighborhoods are so destitute that tearing them down and bringing in new jobs is a great idea. In one blighted Chicago neighborhood, I bought a building — it originally belonged to a man who was in arrears — gutted and renovated it, and made it a very pretty place. We have to learn not to accommodate those who don't make the most of their opportunities. But we have to be cautious because there isn't just one model for every case."
A real estate developer, Harmond faces a moral crisis when an aging acquaintance determined to keep his family home comes up against the forces of eminent domain, a policy that Harmond has supported. Gentrification is his ticket to political success, and a change of heart could cost him his future.
"Finding that moment of transition is textual work," says Lennix, who is making his Broadway debut in the 10th and final play in Wilson's cycle of dramas depicting African-American life in the 20th century, which opened May 8 at the Cort Theatre. "It's in the script. Every actor in every play has to know where the character begins and where he ends and when he arrives at a totally different view. For Harmond, it gets crystallized in what I call the 'center speech.' But the biggest challenge in any August Wilson play is the language. His characters speak poetically and their rhythms are not readily digestible. The challenge is balancing the poetic structure of the language with realism. I have found that if you're able to deliver an entire thought on one breath — whether it's a complex or simple thought — it'll work poetically, make sense, and feed the emotion. Not every actor would agree with that. The famous British voice teacher Cicely Berry suggests that actors move from one part of the stage to another on each new thought they're voicing. That movement becomes an immediate physical manifestation of what's going on internally. The physical action informs the emotion."
Lennix maintains that his best preparation for playing Harmond is Shakespeare — as well as performing in other Wilson plays, which he has done twice: King Hedley II at the Mark Taper Forum and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom at Pegasus Players and the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. For his work in Ma Rainey, Lennix received the first of his two Joseph Jefferson Awards Citations. He picked up the second for his performance in Caught in the Act at Chicago's Lifeline Theatre. But those characters were galaxies away from Harmond, he says: "They were very angry young men. Harmond is the consummate insider."
Lennix has tackled his share of insiders too, most notably Jim Gardner, the White House chief of staff, on the TV series Commander in Chief, and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. in the Showtime movie Keep the Faith, Baby.
He's played roles in a broad spectrum of films — from Julie Taymor's Shakespeare adaptation Titus to the two Matrix sequels, from The Human Stain to Spike Lee's Get on the Bus — as well as recurring parts on 24 and ER.
From the Pulpit
Before starting his acting career, Lennix had planned to be a Dominican priest. He attended Chicago's Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary — one of the few high-school seminaries in the country, he reports — but at Northwestern University he switched gears and majored in acting. "Some people think there's a lot of similarity between theatre and the priesthood," he says.
Lennix managed to get acting work immediately after graduation, though he admits he's had many dry spells in his career. Even after appearing in such hits as the Matrix films and Barbershop 2, "I couldn't get arrested," he says. "But I was lucky because I loved taking classes and teaching them. I was able to support my acting habit by working as a substitute school teacher. And when I was not teaching or going to auditions, I took classes. At Los Angeles City College, I studied French and Spanish and piano. But there were many times I thought about throwing in the towel." The turning point was performing alongside Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange in Titus. "There were still dry periods, but there was a change," he recalls. "Titus was a prestige project and it put me on the radar."
But there continues to be a dearth of good roles for African Americans, he says, especially in Hollywood: "Most of the time when an African American is in a role that gets noticed, the character he is playing is either a thug or a political despot. Playing bad guys has a direct impact on the way we are perceived. The roles may be fun, and a good actor can bring complexity to a nefarious character, but the question still has to be asked: What are the larger consequences? I believe the remarks Don Imus made are the consequences."
In 1989, in an effort to combat stereotypes of African Americans, Lennix and director Chuck Smith founded Legacy Productions, a Chicago theatre whose mission is to produce works about significant figures and events in African-American history. Lennix never viewed the theatre as a career steppingstone, though several of his performances there garnered critical acclaim, including the title role in a production of Julius Caesar set in the civil-rights era and Malcolm X in The Meeting.
"That's one role I wish I had a chance to redo," he says of Malcolm X. "I have a greater understanding of political realities than I did when I played the role in the past. I've seen people in power and, like Malcolm, I've been to Africa. Also, I'm older. I do feel to play Malcolm effectively you need to know something about life."
Nevertheless, he says, his most daunting roles have been, not surprisingly, Shakespearean. In 2001 he appeared in Cymbeline with Theatre for a New Audience and was part of the first American troupe invited to present a production of Shakespeare at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon. "But sometimes the bigger parts are easier," he says. "You have more time on stage to develop the arc. With small roles you have to concentrate your efforts." But make no mistake: Lennix has his eyes set on big roles — in particular Coriolanus and Duke Ellington. He's hoping to get the rights to the Ellington story, assign a writer, hire a director, and cast himself in the lead.
At the moment, however, Lennix's thoughts are on Harmond's emotional journey and the potential dangers of eminent domain that, of course, have special resonance for struggling actors living in areas undergoing renovation. "There is something very wrong when artists who have built up a community are then pushed out when the neighborhood is gentrified and they can no longer afford to be there."
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An Evening With...'Frozen River' in L.A.
November 26, 2008
Back Stage is pleased to present the next event in our "An Evening With..." series: Frozen River, starring Melissa Leo as a single mother who starts border smuggling immigrants.
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