Q: Have you heard from any of Idi Amin’s children?

Forest: Umm, actually I went back to Uganda after….

Q: After the movie came out?

Forest: Yeah, to show the film and yeah, I have heard from…I’ve gotten messages from one of his daughters and they really seem to like the film.

Q: What was the reaction to the movie in Uganda?

Forest: It was really extremely positive.  They loved the movie. I first had to show it to the President of Uganda and the President of Tanzania and the cabinets and stuff, so they saw the film and that was probably the toughest audience so far for me.

Q: Were you scared?

Forest: I was nervous because Musebini was fighting against Idi Amin and he was with rebel forces and so his whole family had been exiled by him, and so I was sitting next to his general—I was sitting next to Idi Amin’s general who is now like a…you know there were other people sitting down below but they put me in the middle and so when it’s over nobody can really respond because they have to wait for the President to respond, you know, so you’re like did he like it? His wife was real upset but he did like the film and he talked about the film.  He went up in a very diplomatic way and talked about it and stuff.

Q: So you’ve got no fear of critics now after that.

Forest: I’ll tell you I was like tense to be honest with you, but it worked out.  And when I showed it to the crew, the cast and crew, the next night.

Q: Which do you find harder to do as an actor—to play someone like Amin who’s got a lot of power, or to play someone with more power than you’ll ever have or someone with less power, like Vantage Point, which is a bigger stretch. Which is harder emotionally?

Forest: Like I say, sometimes when you’re playing a characters like where you speak a certain way and move a certain way at least you know what you can hold onto to.  You at least know what you’re looking to find and do. Sometimes a character that feels more morphist you’re really trying to be specific enough with them and that can be tough. And sometimes those kinds of characters are hard to get out of your system because you don’t really know or realize that you’re that you’re…that the little things they do are normal.  So it’s not as easy or recognizable that you’re like behaving and looking down a lot or doing…you know what I mean because they’re acceptable traits, you know? But every character has different challenges.  For me that’s the whole point of why I go for different types of roles.  It’s for a new challenge.

Q: So are you filming anything right now or do you have anything coming up?

Forest: I’m going to do this movie called Patriots in April, which is a true story about a coach in New Orleans during and right after Katrina, about the displacement of all of his players and them trying to find their lives and stuff and ultimately this coach who brings them all back together and wins the championship.

Q: Who’s in it with you?

Forest: They haven’t cast the rest of the movie.  We start April 15^th.

Q: What type of team?

Forest: Basketball. Yeah, it’s a true story.

Q: It is a true story?  Did you say it’s a true story?

Forest: Yeah.

Q: Oh, so you’re playing somebody again who…have you talked to the person or have you….

Forest: I haven’t started my work yet.

Q: But you will be doing that I take it.

Forest: Oh yeah. Yeah, I’m hoping that he will help me out a lot.

Q: Forest, you keep coming back to this theme of challenges in your work, made me curious if there’s anything as an actor or director that you’ve wanted to tackle and just haven’t gotten an opportunity to so far?

Forest: I don’t really have anything like the specific thing.  I think directing wise, I mean I do want to play around with more visceral kind of film, like a really emotionally aggressive visceral film that has to say something about human condition. I think the one I’m hopefully going to do next is called “Better Angels” I don’t know if the script will turn out.  It deals with that.  It deals with a journalist who goes into a place to interview a man who’s like a mysiac character who’s fighting the country with a team of children soldiers and it’s about this journalist deciding when he needs to step in and stuff.

Q: Would you act in it as well or do you think you’ll just direct it and not…?

Forest: Um, it depends on how the script turns. But I mean, I’ve always in the past not wanted to…I’ve never acted in anything I have done but I think I’ll feel more comfortable directing now I mean inside the film as well.

Q: Being a director, when you read the script did you think this is a nightmare to direct?  And were you ever worried about Peter directing because he’d only done one other film?

Forest: No, he was like the main reason…one of the main reasons I wanted to do it.  I really liked his movie “Omagh” which is such a great movie about this bombing in this little Irish town, you know and I really like the way he dealt with the performances and stuff, and so I was really excited to get to meet him. It is a very complicated structure, you know, and that’s his challenge.

Q: None of us got to talk to you when you were in the Great Debaters, and I wanted to know what it was like to work with Denzel?

Forest: Oh, I loved working with him.  I think he’s got really clear vision and he works really good with his crew. You know, you go in early and you start rehearsing and a lot of times he’d even put us in the space to rehearse in the house.  Like the scene between me and my son, we had rehearsed that inside the living room area and stuff way before we ever shot it and gives you material and things like that.  He was genuinely enjoying himself like as he was watching the movie so it was a great…I was really glad to get to know him.

Q: Did you ever think like all of us watching that this Denzel Whitaker kid—he’s got to be related to me?

Forest: Yeah.

Q: I mean not only the incredible resemblance but you know, that kid can act.

Forest: He did a great job. He’s amazing.  All the young kids in the movie are amazing and he carries the movie.

Q: Have you and his father checked like your genealogical trees just to see if somewhere way back…?

Forest: No, I didn’t.

Q: Are you disappointed it didn’t connect more with people?  A lot of us were expecting it to show up on Best Picture list but it just didn’t connect the way it should have.

Forest: I think it’s a beautiful movie. I think it’s got so much heart and it’s like so much hope and it’s beautifully shot and I think the actors have great performances in it.

Q: It’s a marketing snafu do you think?

Forest: I wish more people had gotten to see the movie.  I really do.

Q: Do you ever get confused, you know in all the re-takes of the same scenes like where am I at now and what am I doing now?  Was that ever mind-boggling?

Forest: Not so much.  It was more a logistical thing for Peter and for like the producers and stuff because just trying to keep those crowds together and putting the right people behind the people and stuff for months on end.

Q: Was there a plus for constantly playing the same scene over and over again maybe slightly different or anything?

Forest: That was kind of like, as I say, staying in the same behavior and stuff.  That wasn’t difficult that was actually good.

Q: What about with the little camera looking at the video stuff.  Was that all added later or…?

Forest: No, I was hoping that they’d let me use the videos I had. 

Q: They actually filmed it?

Forest: Yeah, but I think they used the…

Q: Did they let you keep the camera?

Forest: Yeah.