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At
85, Ossie Davis - actor, director, author, playwright, and political
activist - has earned a place of honor in show business history
- and the right to put his feet up and enjoy retirement. Yet Davis
has never been the retiring type. So it's no surprise that in the
past months he has spoken out against the US invasion of Iraq while
working on a new film, polishing a play or two, and contemplating
his next television role.
Younger
audiences know Davis from his work in Spike Lee's films and guest
appearances on TV shows such as "Touched by an Angel" and "Cosby."
Older fans know he wrote the groundbreaking play "Purlie Victorious"
(1961) and directed the movie "Cotton Comes to Harlem" (1970), Hollywood's
first "blaxploitation" film. In 1948, Davis married actress Ruby
Dee, with whom he has raised three children. In 1995, the White
House recognized their long and productive partnership, awarding
Davis and Dee the National Medal of Arts. Five years later, the
couple published a memoir that dealt candidly with race, politics,
family values, and sexual liberation.
Yet
Davis may be best remembered as the barricade- storming actor who
wrote and delivered powerful, impassioned eulogies for close friends
Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Davis came to Boston last
week for a benefit dinner for Shelter Inc., an organization serving
the homeless. For a lively hour beforehand, he held forth on acting
and activism.
Q.
A number of celebrities have been criticized, if not penalized,
for publicly opposing the war in Iraq. What's your reaction to the
backlash?
A.
I was somewhat taken aback by the speed and efficiency of the opposition.
I thought the [peace] demonstrations in New York and elsewhere would
be of consequence, but the opposition was stronger than expected.
They caught us off balance.
Q.
You say "we" because you were involved in the protests, right?
A.
I'm always involved. My citizenship requires me to be. I'm not an
innocent bystander, by any means. But we on the left haven't figured
the whole thing out yet. We know what happened, and in a sense why.
But we don't know how to counter what happened at all.
They
were very clever. A celebrity who makes a statement gives a kind
of permission to the ideas the public will accept. But [opponents]
quickly make an issue of supporting the troops. "If you don't support
the troops, you're a traitor," they said. And powerful people in
the communications industry got that message across. Celebrities
on our side were thrown on the defensive rather than representing
what we thought was America's moral position.
Q.
Some also argue that celebrities have no business meddling in politics,
that what Tim Robbins thinks about US foreign policy is irrelevant.
What's your response?
A.
My response is, I'm first of all a citizen. And it's my right to
assume I'm a part of "we the people." Government doesn't belong
to the president or Congress or the Supreme Court, it belongs to
us. Yet the media has managed to quietly substitute popularity ratings
for the people's voice. Everybody is fixated on the president's
[polling] numbers. It's those numbers that determines our response
as a society, and yet I have no ideas where they come from. Nobody
has ever called me to find out what my opinions might be.
Q.
Did you suffer professionally for your own activism?
A.
I'm sure my wife and I suffered, but we never knew whether we were
being punished for being black or being red. [He laughs.] Also,
we never let the enemy define who we were. We were not prepared
to go to jail, but we were prepared to defend our rights to the
bitter end.
Q.
How much time do you spend on causes and how much on creative projects?
A.
Ruby and I remain politically, economically, and artistically active.
I presented a play last year, written for my wife, that I've been
working on for 30 years. One thing we learned early on - Ruby and
I did "Raisin in the Sun" on Broadway [in 1950] and thought we had
it made. We thought the phone would always ring, but it didn't happen.
And when the phone did ring, it was the phone company saying, "Pay
up or we'll disconnect you." So we had to come up with a way by
which we could survive as actors that didn't depend on that phone
ringing.
There
was a tremendous audience that we knew of - black people - that
Broadway and Hollywood weren't doing a thing for. We knew if we
performed for that audience, we would find acceptance. If performing
for black people didn't make you rich, they wouldn't let you starve,
either. So when the McCarthyites came along, we never felt truly
threatened. We didn't need a yacht or Rolls Royce, things that other
celebrities thought they ought to have. We could always land on
our feet. Being in control allowed us to be spokespeople for whatever
cause we believed in.
Q.
Do you see younger artists now, particularly black artists, struggling
to maintain the same sort of control? Or has the big money and star-making
machinery thrown it out of whack?
A.
It's a much different world they're confronting than the one we
confronted. When I speak to young people today I often issue a disclaimer,
saying that we're not sure we can advise them at this stage in their
careers because they're in a whole different game now.
Q.
What has changed the most?
A.
When Ruby and I made our first film ["No Way Out"], with Sidney
Poitier in 1949, it was a pioneering effort. Today you see blacks
represented at all levels in the industry. Very few of us can greenlight
a picture, beyond a Denzel Washington or Halle Berry. Yet the fact
that they've both won Oscars is significant. There is now an openness
to the black presence, both in Hollywood and Broadway, that a lot
of young people are taking advantage of. I'm proud of that, too,
but I'd also like to see a better understanding of how the process
works.
Q.
You're clearly not "retired," but can you look back and choose what
is your signature work, the stuff you're proudest of?
A.
I can. I wrote "Purlie Victorious," of which I'm very proud. I wrote
the eulogy for Malcolm X's burial, which some people think is worth
remembering. We have three excellent children.
Q.
And your work with Spike Lee?
A.
[He laughs.] I've worked five times with Spike Lee, and no other
director-producer has given me that much work. So Spike is my hero,
my role model. Someone I can go to and say, "Hey Spike, I need a
job." And he'll take my phone call.
Q.
The memoir you and Ruby Dee wrote was pretty candid. Did you have
any qualms about writing it or encounter any surprises after it
appeared?
A.
The only surprise was, I hoped it would spark more discussion. I
wanted to talk about the sexual revolution. About the whole process
by which a young black person might be made a "nigger" by the society
and how the "nigger" was unmade. But nobody asked us, even though
the book was successful. I don't know whether people love us or
fear us too much to go that deep with us, but we wanted that dialogue
to open up. I hope it still does.
Joseph
P. Kahn can be reached at jkahn@globe.com.
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/146/living/Prepared_to_act+.shtml
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