In matters of career and creativity, longtime actor and filmmaker Bill Duke forges his own path. And this week, that route will lead him to San Diego Comic-Con, where he will be honored as a pioneer of black actors in science fiction at the annual Black Panel, Saturday.
Duke, who played Sgt. "Mac" Eliot in the 1987 hit film "Predator," will participate in a Q&A with the audience and join a panel of industry creators of color, including writer-director Reginald Hudlin and novelist Nnedi Okorafor.
Earlier this week, the entertainment industry veteran graciously answered some questions about his career, his latest projects and how the ever-evolving digital media are changing the game.
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MODERN MYTHOLOGY: Everyone has seen 'Predator" and it's spawned so many sequels. What was the difference in your acting career before you played Mac and then after it became this massive hit? Was there any difference?
DUKE: Well, a little bit. I think that as actors, usually, we are exposed to the general public and the business by the films that we're in. So being in "Predator" definitely gave me a different credential. And being in the company of those guys gave me a different credential, but it didn't mean a lot more work for me.
You know, it's hard, Because I'm a big black guy with a bald head, you know what I'm saying?
MODERN MYTHOLOGY: So am I! (Laughs)
DUKE: Just being honest, you know? Those days there weren't a lot of leading roles for a guy like me, you know what I mean? So no matter what your acting talent was that wasn't the image they were looking for in terms of leading men.
But it did get me work and also helped leverage me into what I wanted to do directing-wise and all the rest of that. It helped my career in different ways just in terms of relationships.
MODERN MYTHOLOGY: Considering all the science fiction roles, and I
know you've had quite a few including your voice work, which ones were
the most challenging?
DUKE: You have X-Men ("X-Men 3"). I'm an actor and you're used to dealing with other actors face to face, right? In X-Men, you're looking at a screen and the actors that you're going to act with are not in front of you. There's a screen and the director is telling you "well, this rocket is going to come through this part and I want your eyes to follow this way and there's an explosion that occurs."
Now, they're going to put all this stuff in digitally later. You're not dealing with a real person or a real explosion or a tank or anything. You're dealing with what your idea is of what it's going to be when it occurs, It sounds strange.
It's a whole different phenomenon, man. Say you're on a spaceship. You're not really on a spaceship, you're sitting in this chair that looks like a spaceship chair. And when it goes off you act like it's moving into space, but truth of that matter is, a lot of it you have to configure in your mind and go by what the director says and the director has to fill all those holes in for you.
MODERN MYTHOLOGY: Is it a little more of an actor to actor experience with animation?
DUKE: Yeah, well, with animation many times you can see the figure or the character and it depends upon whether its post or during or pre (pre-production) or whatever, sometimes you know, you're identifying with a specific character that you've seen drawn or actually in action. Does that make any sense?
MODERN MYTHOLOGY: Yeah.
DUKE: And futuristic films many times they are creating the spaceship or they are creating the antagonist as you speak. In other words, you don't see them necessarily. You're responding to something you've never seen. As an actor you have to act as if you're actually seeing the things you're responding to. It's really a very different way. it's phenomenal, because you may not see the final product until it's in the theater.
MODERN MYTHOLOGY: Do you ever see conceptual art? You have to come in and just configure it all in your mind?
DUKE: Yeah, but a good director, like Brett (Ratner) and you know, people like that, really are great at describing specifically and fully to you what's happening. And it's very detailed and very "this is going to be to your right by one foot and they're coming to you quickly.'" And you and your other actors are responding to something that's described.
It's really fascinating, it really is.
MODERN MYTHOLOGY: And you mentioned your career as a director and I just want to talk to you a little about that. I know it's a challenge, and I hear about it being tough to get any film made, but you've done all this work over all these years. You always seemed to tackle difficult subject matter and primarily feature black protagonists in your films. Do you actively seek those kinds of projects?
DUKE: Well, my career has been based upon -- according to my agencies that I've had and lost -- I kind of go by what I feel. In other words, I get a script and if I connect with a script I start seeing images of the film. If that makes any sense. If I'm reading a script and I'm connecting, I can see the scenes and where they're going to be when I'm reading. If I read something and there is no connection, I usually don't take the job because I know I'm going to be a flop at it.
There are some jobs which I have been encouraged to take which probably would have made a lot of money, etc. but I've had no connection to. There's nothing happening for me and I have nothing to say because I'm not relating to the script.
It's a good aesthetic decision but according to my agency, a bad business decision (laughs). And it is called show business, so...
So I think a lot of my career is based upon things I've chosen to make, but I'm pretty happy with, so far, the choices I've made in terms of the quality of work I've done. And I still enjoy my work which is so important. I enjoy it. It's not like working on something I don't want to work on or something I hate. I really enjoy my work and that's a blessing to me.
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Duke said he's busy working on two documentaries: The first, "The Black Diamond" tracks the history of blacks in baseball from the Civil War to the present and "Dark Girls," examines the personal and societal issues dark-skinned black women encounter.
"I think by the end of next year they'll both be released," Duke said.
Duke also expects to launch his next venture -- an online network -- in coming months that will feature horror projects.
"The first thing that's going up is my series called 'accessible horror,'" he said, laughing. "And that's going up in the next two months."
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MODERN MYTHOLOGY: What does that mean "accessible horror?"
DUKE: Well, I love horror. I'm not a "Chainsaw Massacre" person. But Alfred Hitchcock and those type of guys, you know? The horror that is everyday-people horror that you don't expect. That you are accessible to this horror.
I saw a film years ago, and if you haven't seen it I beg you to go see it. I'm a grown man and it scared the hell out of me. It's called "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer."
Have you ever seen it?
MODERN MYTHOLOGY: I've heard of it but I have not seen it.
DUKE: Oh my God, you should check that out, my brother. The reason it is so scary... you know, in "Silence of the Lambs" there's this growling, fava-bean eating, you know, cannibalistic guy, right? Anthony Hopkins. But this guy in "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer," this guy could be sitting next to you in a restaurant and you wouldn't (know). He's invisible! He'd just kill you, cut in pieces and put you in a box.
MODERN MYTHOLOGY: Wow, he looks like any old guy?
DUKE: I swear. And he's nice! He's a guy that says, "hey can I help you fix your car?" Yeah, sure, I'm stalled here man and waiting for the tow truck to come, right?
No one will ever see you again. That's Accessible Horror, OK?
(We both laugh)
MODERN MYTHOLOGY: I don't want to take you too far into this, but what do you think about digital distribution and how it's affecting everything. Do you see an opportunity in that for minority creators... all creators? What do you think about that?
DUKE: Well I think it's the future. I think it's the wild, wild west and I think that if you're going to stake a claim you should get out there now and stake that claim deep. Because I don't know how much longer it's going to last. And for minorities, we should be all over (this). I go to to these conferences all the time with two or three thousand people and if I'm lucky I see maybe... ten black people. If I'm lucky.
More and more Hispanics are coming and Asians. But black people who are in our industry, I hardly see any black folks in number at these conventions.
At these conventions there's Google, AT&T, you know, all the unions are there. Funders are there talking about the future of the industry and the shift in paradigm from a film industry to a media industry.
MODERN MYTHOLOGY: And these are like Showbiz Expo -- shows like that?
DUKE: ...Digital Hollywood, you know what I'm saying. All those things. I believe they're having Digital Day at the DGA (Directors Guild of America) next weekend. Listen man, there are these guys who made a feature film with five cell phones. Now, we don't have no excuses no more. What we're doing is that we aren't giving ourselves access to the new technology. And we're not leveraging this new technology for our own benefit. We're still waiting to be discovered instead of discovering ourselves and using the Internet, cell phones and other online services as distribution portals for our own content.
We're still waiting for Mr. Disney, Mr. Paramount and Mr... whoever else to discover us and these other folks they're not waiting. People are putting webisodes (Web series) up on the Internet, right? And they're getting television shows based on those webisodes but they're owning the content, a lot of it, because they put their dollars in and invested in it. Make any sense?
MODERN MYTHOLOGY: Yeah.
DUKE: Go online, there's a brand new camera called the Flip camera? And that Flip camera, man, it costs $239 bucks or something like that. The big one. $239 and it's four hours of HD content. High definition. FOUR HOURS.
MODERN MYTHOLOGY: Wow, I remember my VHS cam.
DUKE: That's what I'm saying! You can make a movie!
I think psychologically it's something we're not prepared to accept in terms of the paradigm shift. That's what's stopping us, our heads. But the capacity to do it, the technology and everything is there.
MODERN MYTHOLOGY: You're going to be doing a Q&A at The Black Panel this weekend, and it's usually pretty packed. I may be asking you to repeat yourself, but if you were going to give any advice to aspiring filmmakers, actors, writers, what would it be?
DUKE: Stop waiting. Just stop waiting. Shift into the new paradigm of self-discovery. I mean go and get a Flip camera and a sound pack and start shooting movies. And start shooting cell phone content. And start shooting virtual world content. Start shooting avatar content and animation. The technology is there.
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Actor, director and producer Bill Duke will be honored at The Black Panel at the San Diego Comic-Con Saturday July 24 at 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. the San Diego Convention Center Room 5AB
Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
DUKE: You have X-Men ("X-Men 3"). I'm an actor and you're used to dealing with other actors face to face, right? In X-Men, you're looking at a screen and the actors that you're going to act with are not in front of you. There's a screen and the director is telling you "well, this rocket is going to come through this part and I want your eyes to follow this way and there's an explosion that occurs."
Now, they're going to put all this stuff in digitally later. You're not dealing with a real person or a real explosion or a tank or anything. You're dealing with what your idea is of what it's going to be when it occurs, It sounds strange.
It's a whole different phenomenon, man. Say you're on a spaceship. You're not really on a spaceship, you're sitting in this chair that looks like a spaceship chair. And when it goes off you act like it's moving into space, but truth of that matter is, a lot of it you have to configure in your mind and go by what the director says and the director has to fill all those holes in for you.
MODERN MYTHOLOGY: Is it a little more of an actor to actor experience with animation?
DUKE: Yeah, well, with animation many times you can see the figure or the character and it depends upon whether its post or during or pre (pre-production) or whatever, sometimes you know, you're identifying with a specific character that you've seen drawn or actually in action. Does that make any sense?
MODERN MYTHOLOGY: Yeah.
DUKE: And futuristic films many times they are creating the spaceship or they are creating the antagonist as you speak. In other words, you don't see them necessarily. You're responding to something you've never seen. As an actor you have to act as if you're actually seeing the things you're responding to. It's really a very different way. it's phenomenal, because you may not see the final product until it's in the theater.
MODERN MYTHOLOGY: Do you ever see conceptual art? You have to come in and just configure it all in your mind?
DUKE: Yeah, but a good director, like Brett (Ratner) and you know, people like that, really are great at describing specifically and fully to you what's happening. And it's very detailed and very "this is going to be to your right by one foot and they're coming to you quickly.'" And you and your other actors are responding to something that's described.
It's really fascinating, it really is.
MODERN MYTHOLOGY: And you mentioned your career as a director and I just want to talk to you a little about that. I know it's a challenge, and I hear about it being tough to get any film made, but you've done all this work over all these years. You always seemed to tackle difficult subject matter and primarily feature black protagonists in your films. Do you actively seek those kinds of projects?
DUKE: Well, my career has been based upon -- according to my agencies that I've had and lost -- I kind of go by what I feel. In other words, I get a script and if I connect with a script I start seeing images of the film. If that makes any sense. If I'm reading a script and I'm connecting, I can see the scenes and where they're going to be when I'm reading. If I read something and there is no connection, I usually don't take the job because I know I'm going to be a flop at it.
There are some jobs which I have been encouraged to take which probably would have made a lot of money, etc. but I've had no connection to. There's nothing happening for me and I have nothing to say because I'm not relating to the script.
It's a good aesthetic decision but according to my agency, a bad business decision (laughs). And it is called show business, so...
So I think a lot of my career is based upon things I've chosen to make, but I'm pretty happy with, so far, the choices I've made in terms of the quality of work I've done. And I still enjoy my work which is so important. I enjoy it. It's not like working on something I don't want to work on or something I hate. I really enjoy my work and that's a blessing to me.
--------------------------------------------------------
Duke said he's busy working on two documentaries: The first, "The Black Diamond" tracks the history of blacks in baseball from the Civil War to the present and "Dark Girls," examines the personal and societal issues dark-skinned black women encounter.
"I think by the end of next year they'll both be released," Duke said.
Duke also expects to launch his next venture -- an online network -- in coming months that will feature horror projects.
"The first thing that's going up is my series called 'accessible horror,'" he said, laughing. "And that's going up in the next two months."
--------------------------------------------------------
MODERN MYTHOLOGY: What does that mean "accessible horror?"
DUKE: Well, I love horror. I'm not a "Chainsaw Massacre" person. But Alfred Hitchcock and those type of guys, you know? The horror that is everyday-people horror that you don't expect. That you are accessible to this horror.
I saw a film years ago, and if you haven't seen it I beg you to go see it. I'm a grown man and it scared the hell out of me. It's called "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer."
Have you ever seen it?
MODERN MYTHOLOGY: I've heard of it but I have not seen it.
DUKE: Oh my God, you should check that out, my brother. The reason it is so scary... you know, in "Silence of the Lambs" there's this growling, fava-bean eating, you know, cannibalistic guy, right? Anthony Hopkins. But this guy in "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer," this guy could be sitting next to you in a restaurant and you wouldn't (know). He's invisible! He'd just kill you, cut in pieces and put you in a box.
MODERN MYTHOLOGY: Wow, he looks like any old guy?
DUKE: I swear. And he's nice! He's a guy that says, "hey can I help you fix your car?" Yeah, sure, I'm stalled here man and waiting for the tow truck to come, right?
No one will ever see you again. That's Accessible Horror, OK?
(We both laugh)
MODERN MYTHOLOGY: I don't want to take you too far into this, but what do you think about digital distribution and how it's affecting everything. Do you see an opportunity in that for minority creators... all creators? What do you think about that?
DUKE: Well I think it's the future. I think it's the wild, wild west and I think that if you're going to stake a claim you should get out there now and stake that claim deep. Because I don't know how much longer it's going to last. And for minorities, we should be all over (this). I go to to these conferences all the time with two or three thousand people and if I'm lucky I see maybe... ten black people. If I'm lucky.
More and more Hispanics are coming and Asians. But black people who are in our industry, I hardly see any black folks in number at these conventions.
At these conventions there's Google, AT&T, you know, all the unions are there. Funders are there talking about the future of the industry and the shift in paradigm from a film industry to a media industry.
MODERN MYTHOLOGY: And these are like Showbiz Expo -- shows like that?
DUKE: ...Digital Hollywood, you know what I'm saying. All those things. I believe they're having Digital Day at the DGA (Directors Guild of America) next weekend. Listen man, there are these guys who made a feature film with five cell phones. Now, we don't have no excuses no more. What we're doing is that we aren't giving ourselves access to the new technology. And we're not leveraging this new technology for our own benefit. We're still waiting to be discovered instead of discovering ourselves and using the Internet, cell phones and other online services as distribution portals for our own content.
We're still waiting for Mr. Disney, Mr. Paramount and Mr... whoever else to discover us and these other folks they're not waiting. People are putting webisodes (Web series) up on the Internet, right? And they're getting television shows based on those webisodes but they're owning the content, a lot of it, because they put their dollars in and invested in it. Make any sense?
MODERN MYTHOLOGY: Yeah.
DUKE: Go online, there's a brand new camera called the Flip camera? And that Flip camera, man, it costs $239 bucks or something like that. The big one. $239 and it's four hours of HD content. High definition. FOUR HOURS.
MODERN MYTHOLOGY: Wow, I remember my VHS cam.
DUKE: That's what I'm saying! You can make a movie!
I think psychologically it's something we're not prepared to accept in terms of the paradigm shift. That's what's stopping us, our heads. But the capacity to do it, the technology and everything is there.
MODERN MYTHOLOGY: You're going to be doing a Q&A at The Black Panel this weekend, and it's usually pretty packed. I may be asking you to repeat yourself, but if you were going to give any advice to aspiring filmmakers, actors, writers, what would it be?
DUKE: Stop waiting. Just stop waiting. Shift into the new paradigm of self-discovery. I mean go and get a Flip camera and a sound pack and start shooting movies. And start shooting cell phone content. And start shooting virtual world content. Start shooting avatar content and animation. The technology is there.
-------------------------------------------
Actor, director and producer Bill Duke will be honored at The Black Panel at the San Diego Comic-Con Saturday July 24 at 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. the San Diego Convention Center Room 5AB
Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
"I'm gonna have me some fun. I'm gonna have me some fun." That scene from Pedator still fires me up! Mac rules! What a great job on the Q&A. You shed some light on this terrific guy for us.