Q&A with Soul Food's Rockmond Dunbar

Rockmond Dunbar has been seen in such television shows as "The Practice," Steven Spielberg's "Earth 2" and Ed Weinberger's "Good News." He has also guest starred on such shows as "Felicity," "The Pretender," "Two Guys And A Girl" and "G vs. E." Most recently, Dunbar has been seen as a series regular on "Radio Silence" (Zalman King Productions) and "Bloomington, Indiana" (Warner Brothers Television). Dunbar has also secured leading roles in four independent films including "Punks," which is executive produced by Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds and by Tracey Edmonds. The film was showcased at the Sundance Festival this year. Additionally, Dunbar authored a book of poetry and abstract drawings expected to debut in Spring 2001. (Courtesy Paramount Pictures) Courtesy of Showtime Networks

RD: I’ve been an actor for a number of years. We have our pilot season every year and this is one of the pilots that came up for production. So I just went through the whole audition process which was a very grueling process. I auditioned for this role about 10 or 11 times and when I finally received the role, I had to move within a week!

RD: The whole process from the beginning, I started to audition for Lem. I didn’t have a goatee. I had to grow a goatee in the middle of the audition process and so it switched over rather quickly like, ‘Hey, well maybe this guy should play Kenny.’ So I started auditioning for Kenny. I went to network for both characters. They weren’t sure I could play old enough opposite of Vanessa Williams because we have a ten-year spread on us and if I carried off being a father of three. So they kept bringing me in with a number of well-known actors back and forth. I know Felecia, Tracey and the whole crew finally said, ‘Hey, look, this is the guy we really want, so we’re going to keep bringing him in until you say "yes’’. And that’s basically what happened.

RD: No. But it was really funny because Vanessa Williams and I played opposite each other again. We played boyfriend and girlfriend but the relationship didn’t quite work out. Now we’re playing husband and wife and the relationship is going very well.

RD: Kenny. Father of three. Very dedicated man. Entrepreneur. You know he’s one of those brothers that barely gets to be seen on television. I’m playing my brother-in-law. I’m playing my father and not the stereotypical black male. Not to say that I am anywhere near Bill Cosby but there’s a role on TV now where you get that image again that there are strong black men who take care of their families, who love their wives, who stay around and hang around their families and take care of families and its not put in a comedic way. It’s in a very tasteful, very real situation.

CA: And how do you compare to Kenny?

RD: You know Kenny is the type of guy that I aspire to be. I’m not married. I don’t have kids. But I would love to have a family and take care of them and be supportive of them and take risks love my wife. Hopefully one of these days, I’ll mature into the man that he is.

RD: It’s the hardest job for me. I don’t believe I said it’s the hardest job on television. I was proposed with this question, ‘Why do all black men leave their children?’...’Why do black couples never stay together?’ And it’s like, ‘We do’. We do take care of our children. So now middle America gets to see that in a dramatic setting

But it’s a very difficult position for me because I didn’t think I could pull it off. I’m not a father. How could I step into a role and portray a father and have people believe it. So to me it’s a very difficult and very challenging.

And yes, I am redefining the black man again. When you see the entire show, when you see a poster of Soul Food, when you see an advertisement -- that basically means that the image of the black family is under construction. We’re getting back to our roots again. We’re letting people know who watch TV and the media that, ‘Hey, we do have a family. We’re not just hanging out there and doing our own thing.’ Some people think that the black man can’t communicate with the black woman. Well, we’re showing that we can.

RD: I thought you were going to bring up the situation where I said about they would have to fire me if they wanted me to cheat on my wife.

RD: You can turn around in a blink of an eye and they’ll say, ‘Oh, ok we’ve run out of story lines, we want Kenny and Maxine to have some type of beef and we’ll have Kenny cheat on his wife.’ Oh, no no no. Trust me, it has surfaced and I’m not doing it. I’m just not doing it. I have the opportunity to portray black men who haven’t been portrayed before who have been waiting in line for their image to show up on national television and I’m giving it to them by all means necessary. The quality and the standard have to be there.

RD: I was so afraid again of playing this character and being successful that I said I can’t lose by just playing my dad. I know how my dad is, I know his mannerisms. I know his voice tone when he talks to me in a certain way when I get into certain situations or when he’s giving me advice. I play my dad. It’s easy. I’m really happy with the way Kenny is being portrayed..

RD: The movie was excellent but I didn’t watch it to get an idea of how to play my character. It’s easy to play and live in the land of TV with Vanessa, Nicole, Malinda, Darrin, Boris and Aaron because we’ve all lived with black families before. It’s not foreign. It’s not like we’re flying off to the moon as astronauts and we have to have training. I’ve had 27 years of training in the black family. So it’s easy and we are SO family. From Day one everyone linked together and we get along absolutely well. They’re all my sisters. Aaron is like a good friend. Darrin and I ...we’re so similar.. I mean we’re brothers. Boris and I, we’re brothers. If a couple of days go by when none of us have called each other or seen each other, we sort of panic and go, ‘Hey what’s going on? What are you doing?’ We make it a point to have dinner or lunch together. On our days off, we’ll go and see a movie together. We’re out here in Canada by ourselves so we have to make the best of it.

And Edmonds is great. There’s not too much you can say about them because they’re just on the ball.

RD: Not even. I mean you look at it and you go, ‘Gosh I would have loved to do that movie.’ It was so incredible! To do the series, you’re like, ‘Whoa!’ It’s weird. I never would have thought about it in a million years. But when it surfaced and I read the first script and then the second episode, I’m like, ‘Oh my god I have to do this.’ It’s definitely an honor and a privilege to be in this position. It’s a beautiful thing.

RD: I did my first play in third grade. I played God.

RD: Yeah. I can’t remember the play’s name to save my life but I know it was really funny and I played the son.

RD: I had two roles. I totally believed that the spirit, the God, the universe would tell you are what you should be doing in order to make you happy as a career. So that was my introduction but I didn’t touch back on it until high school. I started to do a lot of theater even though I wanted to be a lawyer.

I went to Morehouse after I graduated and I found myself always in the theater department at Spelman.

The turning point on my wanting to be an actor not a lawyer was when my friend called me from Oakland and he’s like, "Look man, I know you’re doing this acting thing and I know you’re getting ready to study law but is it the lawyering that you like or is acting like a lawyer?" And I said, "Well, really it’s acting like a lawyer." And he’s like, "Well man, you’re not a lawyer, you’re an actor." I took off from there and went to the college of New Mexico Santa Fe, which is one of the top ten theater schools when I attended. I was the ONLY black male in the theater program and I got worked. So I had a very great experience there and I had really good time and learned a lot. That’s how I got into it.

RD: I found out in my freshman year of Morehouse that I’m classic dyslexic and so I went to Vermont to compensate for my learning disability but at the time Morehouse didn’t have a learning disabled facility. I decided I wanted to go to a stronger theater program. The next couple of people that I talked to said, ‘Look, go to the college of Santa Fe if you want to go a great theater school and they have a learning disabled facility. So I checked it out, got accepted and I left after that summer of studying and learning to compensate for my disability.

CA: When did you become aware of your disability?

RD: It was in an audition, and a teacher said to me, "You know what Rockmond, do you have dyslexia?" And I’m like, ‘Not even.’ And she’s like, "Well you know what...you read like my son." (laugh) I’m standing on stage. There’s 30 people in the audience who are auditioning. And she’s like, ‘You have dyslexia.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is embarrassing.’ So right after that I started to notice my scores and my reading comprehension scores were really low so you know I took the test and lo and behold that was after graduating high school with a 3.8.

RD: I was just in a read-through recently and Felecia is there. All the cast members are there and they asked me to read another character. I have a huge problem if I haven’t read through the material. I have a huge problem with seeing the words and reading them. So we’re in the read-through and I’m reading another one of the characters and I haven’t looked at the dialogue and if I’m not standing up and reading, I’m toast. Forget about it. I can’t do it. But I’m sitting down at the time and I’m reading and I’m doing the character and everything is going well but then there’s the fatigue factor with dyslexia. And I’ve been studying and reading out loud and retraining my brain to be able to read and comprehend without seeing the text beforehand. So by the middle or towards the end of the script as I am reading this character, I start to fumble with words and I’m like, gol-ly....this is like...it’s embarrassing but at the same time I feel so good that that was the best I’ve read sitting down in years. Absolutely in years.

RD: It is one of those disabilities where you have to learn how you learn. I have to put a motion, I have to touch, I have to feel I have to stand I have to use flash cards. Case in point, I took a French course, I flunked it studying regularly. Took the class with flashcards and standing up and I got an "A" and I scored high on every exam. So that’s the way that I learn. I have to touch and feel and put a motion to. I can sit up and read a 300-page book in a night and sometimes comprehend. But some days I just can’t read two pages and save my life to comprehend. So it’s a difficult battle, but I think I’m winning.

CA: How do you go over your lines?

RD: I stand up and now I’m into a nice rhythm. Memorization is really easy . I’m standing up. I’m reading my lines. I’m reading them out loud. I’m in my trailer doing that back and forth. Or the night before whenever I get the script, I’m just like constantly reading the lines over if time permits. Felecia Henderson writes the way that I talk, so that’s a blessing. If you get a writer to write the way that you talk, you can look at a line once and have it because it’s your dialogue, it’s your text, it comes from a good center or place in your heart. So she’s absolutely incredible.

CA: Tell us about your goals.

RD: There’s a script called Solitary which is done. It took a little longer than I thought. but I have another writer on it since I have my hands in so many things. I have a few shows on abstract art acrylic on canvas in the States. And since I’ve been here in Canada, I have painted at least 30 paintings. Within the next couple of months I have a show out here with poetry tied to the art. The book of poetry is coming along really nicely.

Another script I have coming out is one that I really can’t talk about it right now because it I just in the beginning stages but I’m working with Darrin Henson. We’re putting together a script that we want to produce. That’s coming together really nicely and another script, The Voices of Claire’s Heart.

I’ve directed a lot of theater a lot of short films before and now I’m going to direct again. Producing -- I’m putting on that hat in the next few months to get money for projects and we’ll see how that turns out.

Any medium, I’m just one of those cats...I have my hand in everything. Along with the abstract art, I have a photography show that will be an exhibit off to the side. I love being creative. I love the arts. It drives me, it moves me, it motivates me and anything that makes me feel any type of emotion, I’m so into it.

CA: The poetry and the art....id you develop those things as a child also?

RD: Oh yeah. I won first place in an original poem contest in the third grade.

RD: You know what I mean. I’ve been writing poetry for years regardless of who thinks it is good or bad. And painting I’ve had a few shows. I really started painting when I was a freshman in college and I did a lot of sculpture and I’ve been in a few galleries. I stopped for about six years and started again when I met this beautiful woman who turned my life around and I dedicated a show to her.

RD: I know some people are going to take this wrong, but she’s my muse, my lover, my Jesus, she’s my angel. And I don't think that I would be in any of the situations that I am in now if it wasn’t for her. She moves me so much. It’s such a blessing to find a beautiful black woman like, ‘Hey, baby, let’s do this and we can do it forever.’ Of course you have your dramas but it’s a beautiful thing.

RD: My dad gave me an incredible grounding. His whole philosophy is look I’ll do what I can do and what I can’t do, I’m not going to worry about it. And it sounds so simple but my God if you apply it to your life, it’s such a beautiful thing and you have no worries.

My mother raised me. My sister raised me. I’ve been raised by two strong very independent black women so nothing but god can come from that. My family has been total inspiration for me.

There’s tons of actors that I like but I’m not trying to model after anyone right now. I’m trying to find my own route. I’m really trying to crack this acting thing open. People think it’s so easy and you just get up there and say some lines. But you notice really good talent when it hits the screen. Like Denzel...he’s got great concentration. Certain actors like that are incredible.

Don't conform. Whatever you want to do, whatever you feel in your heart, your soul, whatever your intuition tells you is the right way to do something, you do it that way. Don't let anyone ever tell you that you can’t do it that way. Put your art out there. Everyone is an artist. They just have to find it and be consistent.

Rockmond’s favorite city: "Oakland. That’s my hometown!"