Forest: It is possible for a kid from east Texas, raised in south central LA and Carson, who believes in his dreams, commits himself to them with his heart, to touch them and to have them happen.
Forest: My eye? It's a genetic thing. My dad had it and now I have it. You know, I just found out that it may be correctable a little bit, because it does impair my vision. When I look up, I lose sight in this eye. I think maybe for other people, it informs the way they see me. But I don't really think about this eye, other than the times people talk about it, or when people take photographs of me sometimes they might say stuff about it. I don't think it makes me look bad or anything. It just is.
Forest (On choosing studio or independent films): I go back and forth between indie and studio because I feel like it, not because I feel obligated to do one or the other. The only reason to make a decision like that is financial, you know, you can't live. That doesn't make my decision for me, I do what feels right for me. I'm not going to do a bad movie just because it's a studio movie or an indie film, and there are hordes of bad independent movies. People tend to think that indie movies are always good, but I've seen horrific ones, just as well as I've seen horrific studio films. So I just go by how I feel, it's the only way you can figure it out. Otherwise you get lost in the maze of trying to second guess the people, the studio, how you can make your career long or short. It's easy to get lost in this maze, called life, really, you know what I mean?
Forest (On his best work): If I were to mark three, I'd mark Bird, because I grew immensely as an artist, I learned a lot, and also, I think, it was when people started to take me more seriously. I'd also mark Ghost Dog, because I started to understand something about myself in silence, how I'm capable of communicating certain things without doing much. And then I'd probably mark The Last King of Scotland, which marries the internal and the external in a strong way and brings together all of the things I've learned about my work into one character.
Forest: My parents moved to Los Angeles when I was really young, but I spent every summer with my grandparents, and I'd stay with my grandfather on the farm in Longview. He was retired from the railroad, and he had a small farm with some cows and some pigs. I remember part of my youth was feeding hogs and plowing fields and stuff, so that's apart of me. And my parents raised me to say 'sir' and 'ma'am,' to open doors, things like that. That's the way I was brought up. Also, unfortunately, I was taught not to question too much. I didn't really question my mom and dad. That's usually what they told me to do.
Forest (on how powerful he though his method acting was in "The Last King of Scotland): I used to take showers, just trying to get the guy to leave me. I needed to wash those darker passions away.
Forest (on accusations he had made Ugandan dictator Amin appear too sympathethic): I'm not trying to defend him, the Amin I found was not a good man
In 2007, Forest won the ’Best Actor’ award at the British film awards for his portrayal of the Ugandan dictator, Idi Amin, in The Last King of Scotland.
Forest received a 2007 Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in The Last King of Scotland.
Forest studied opera at the University of Southern California (U.S.C), where he graduated from in 1982.
On December 27, 2006 TheMagazine named Forest as its "Actor of the Year" in their 2006 "Year in Review" issue.
Since 1996, Whitaker has been married to fellow actress Keisha Whitaker.
Forest was originally considered for the role of "Sawyer" in the hit ABC show Lost. He opted out of the role to shoot his directorial debut First Daughetr and the producers eventually settled for Josh Holloway who isn't African-American and speaks with a Southern American accent.
Forest is a vegetarian.
Forest is fond of martial arts and he is a 1st Degree Black Belt in Kenpo Karate.
Forest Whitaker and his wife Keisha appeared at the London Film Festival (Oct 06) to promote "The Last King of Scotland", where he plays the lead role, Idi Amin.
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