Forest Whitaker

Made films the shows talk about.

Wikidata Q182763: matched by corpus:resolve, told apart by the only person by that name on Wikidata.

Counted as director, the making department they hold the most credits in. The films the hosts said they directed, which the two lists below run through too: First Daughter (2004); Hope Floats. Count them as actor (18 films) instead.

Draws on

What the speakers say they, or a film of theirs, drew on. Each is a speaker's account: “the maker said so” when they report the maker's own words, “the host's read” when the read is theirs.

No line says they, or a film of theirs, drew on anything.

Drawn on by

What the speakers say drew on them or a film of theirs, marked the same way.

No line says anything drew on them or a film of theirs.

What the speakers said they did

Directing (2) everyone in directing

Acting (38) everyone in acting

Other (2) everyone in other

What was said about them, by kind

career (4)

  1. career (career arc): Forest Whitaker → Bird. Whitaker's Color of Money scene leads to Good Morning Vietnam and then Bird, and his run of Ghost Dog, Last King of Scotland and The Butler as movie-star vehicles.
    “And then the year after that is bird, which is just, I mean, it's one of my favorite Clint Eastwood movies, it's probably my favorite forest, what a performance”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 2:23:51 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
  2. career (career): Forest Whitaker → Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai. Whitaker spent years playing weird, off-kilter characters, as in Ghost Dog.
    “Like fucking Ghost Dog this, or Asian Harlem, which is a great fucking movie.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Species’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 0:44:40 · Van Lathan (0.40 sure it was them)
  3. career (career): Forest Whitaker → The Color of Money. Whitaker went toe to toe with Newman in The Color of Money in the mid-80s.
    “going toe to toe with Newman.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Panic Room’ (Plus a Mini Will Smith–Oscars Recap) With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 1:03:03 · Sean Fennessey (0.40 sure it was them)
  4. career (career): Forest Whitaker → First Daughter. Whitaker passed on directing Panic Room because he needed to prep First Daughter, though he wanted to act in it.
    “And he passed on panic room.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Panic Room’ (Plus a Mini Will Smith–Oscars Recap) With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 1:03:20 · Bill Simmons (0.45 sure it was them)

contrast (1)

  1. contrast (contrast): Forest Whitaker → Preacher. The Fast Times Whitaker character is the 10/10 benchmark; Preacher is a solid 9.
    “The Forest Whitaker character, just demolishing everybody.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Friday Night Lights’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 1:38:28 · Bill Simmons (0.55 sure it was them)

people (2)

  1. people (typecasting / trope): Forest Whitaker → Species. He is called a tired cop or hostage in any movie, with Species as the odd example where he is a psychic cop.
    “He's a very effective psychic cop in a species.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 2:24:55 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
  2. people (people): Forest Whitaker → Jeff Green. Bill compares Whitaker's career to Jeff Green's: always popping up.
    “like the Jeff Green of actors.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Panic Room’ (Plus a Mini Will Smith–Oscars Recap) With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 1:01:28 · Bill Simmons (0.55 sure it was them)

unmapped (2)

  1. unmapped (re-emergence year): Forest Whitaker → Platoon. 1986 was Whitaker's re-emergence, working with Scorsese and Oliver Stone after pulling out of auditions to study acting.
    “He gets a couple parts early on and he's like, I don't know enough about acting and basically pulls himself out of auditioning and is like, I need to study more seriously.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Color of Money with Chris Ryan · 2:23:14 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
  2. unmapped (offered to direct): Forest Whitaker → Panic Room. Whitaker was offered the Panic Room script to direct before Fincher came on.
    “Do you know, at one point, he was offered this script to direct earlier before Fentrick came on?”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Panic Room with Eva Anderson (Ad-Free) · 1:10:30 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)

Fun items about them

  1. fun, about Forest Whitaker: Whitaker's empath walks into the train car and says something bad happened to you; the panel loves the logic.
    “The Dan walking into the train car, seeing a dead woman in the husk of an alien uterus and saying something bad happened to you.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Species’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 0:40:45 · Chris Ryan (0.40 sure it was them)
  2. fun, about Forest Whitaker: The empath's powers are inconsistent: he can read feelings but needs somebody to knock at the door.
    “His powers are completely inconsistent in the movie.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Species’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 0:41:40 · Chris Ryan (0.40 sure it was them)
  3. fun, about Forest Whitaker: Bill calls him 'the Jeff Green of actors' because of his baffling career: Oscar winner who is also in Taken 3, ER, and a Fast Times linebacker.
    “like the Jeff Green of actors.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Panic Room’ (Plus a Mini Will Smith–Oscars Recap) With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 1:01:28 · Bill Simmons (0.55 sure it was them)
  4. fun, about Forest Whitaker: He passed on directing Panic Room, wanting to act in it; he was prepping First Daughter, starring Katie Holmes, which he directed.
    “He also directed 1st daughter starring Katie Holmes.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Panic Room’ (Plus a Mini Will Smith–Oscars Recap) With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 1:03:15 · Bill Simmons (0.40 sure it was them)
  5. fun, about Forest Whitaker: Winner of 'Best That Guy' / scene stealer: Whitaker as Amos takes over the movie for three minutes; Scorsese hands it to him.
    “I need this guy to take over my movie for 3 minutes.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Color of Money’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey · 0:33:05 · Chris Ryan (0.50 sure it was them)
  6. fun, about Forest Whitaker: Test audiences felt too sympathetic toward Whitaker, so they cut in alternate takes of him looking less bummed out.
    “What I, maybe my interpretation of this was wrong, that they used alternate takes for the rest of the film to make him less sympathetic up until that point.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Panic Room with Eva Anderson (Ad-Free) · 1:05:30 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  7. fun, about Forest Whitaker: Eva was Whitaker's driver for two weeks on a pre-movie turn-off-your-phone commercial in 2006, and the sponsor killed its political speech overnight.
    “But, um, so, but I was his driver and his, like, kind of chaperoned for 2 weeks.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · Panic Room with Eva Anderson (Ad-Free) · 1:07:37 · Eva Anderson (0.90 sure it was them)