Actors Kerry Washington and Forest Whitaker once collaborated on the feature The Last King Of Scotland. But Washington admitted that she didn’t have the easiest time working alongside Whitaker after he immersed himself in his role.
Forest Whitaker was consumed by his character in ‘The Last King of Scotland’
The Last King of Scotland was a 2006 movie adapted from the 1998 novel of the same name. It featured James McAvoy playing Nicholas Garrigan, a young doctor who finds himself taking care of Ugandan President Idi Amin.
Idi was played by Whitaker, with the character having a profound impact on the actor. The Godfather of Harlem star first immersed himself in Idi by learning and inheriting the way the dictator spoke.
“Well, I started by studying Kiswahili to learn the dialect. Then, I studied tapes, documentaries, footage, and audio cassettes of Idi Amin’s speeches. And I met with his brothers, his sisters, his ministers, his generals’ all kinds of people, in order to try to understand him,” Whitaker said in an old interview with Kam Williams.
Whitaker would also physically transform himself to match Idi’s presence.
“Yeah, Kevin wanted him to be bigger, so definitely, I did gain some more weight for the character. And since Idi Amin was from the Sudanese section in the north of Uganda, he was darker skinned. He had more of a blue undertone. So, we did change the coloring of my skin to be closer to his. But otherwise, there were no transformations besides acting,” he said.
Whitaker believed the combination of the character and shooting the movie in Africa monumentally changed him from the inside out. While filming, only speaking to his family allowed him to break away from his role.
“Well, you have to commit yourself and know that, for that time frame, you have to commit to this character. But I did call home and speak to my family. Otherwise, I was pretty much consumed by this character,” he said.
Forest Whitaker terrified Kerry Washington with his performance as Idi Amin
Washington co-starred alongside Whitaker as one of Idi’s wives. But while filming, the Scandal actor saw personally how much the role of Idi consumed her co-star. So much so that Washington barely recognized Whitaker in the role.
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“I didn’t see my friend Forest Whitaker there once because he was always Idi,” Washington once said according to Contact Music. “There was always one foot in Forest and one foot in Idi, but he never let himself completely detach from the spirit of Idi Amin.”
As inspiring as Whitaker was when he tapped into Idi, Washington shared that he was as equally terrifying.
“I was scared for myself and for him because I understood where he was going as an actor, but I didn’t know how he was going to come back from this,” Washington added. “You had to be careful about the things you said around him. He was really intense.”
David Oyelowo felt Forest Whitaker was a nightmare in ‘The Last King of Scotland’
Washington wasn’t the only actor who had difficulty being around Whitaker during the actor’s performance. Selma star Oyelowo also found himself working with the Oscar-winner in the acclaimed drama.
“It was a nightmare,” Oyelowo said about the experience in a fairly recent interview on Entertainment Weekly. “Sorry Forest.”
Similarly to Washington, Oyelowo had his own stories about dealing with Whitaker’s method-acting at the time.
“I remember being in the hotel in Uganda, seeing him, and he was walking towards me. And I said, ‘Oh, hi, Forest,’” Oyelowo recalled.
Whitaker responded by groaning and snubbing Oyelowo’s greeting.
“I went, ‘That is the last time I’m speaking to you for the entire…there’s no way,’” Oyelowo joked. “But you watch the performance and you go, ‘That was worth it.’”
