I thought I wasn’t good enough!: Forest

doweshowbellyad=0; Forest Whitaker (AP) Best remembered for his performance as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in the 2006 film The Last King of Scotland, Forest Whitaker has won several major awards, including an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and a BAFTA for the same. He���s also earned a reputation for his intensive character study work for films such as Bird and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai.In the forthcoming Vantage Point, Whitaker plays Howard Lewis, an American tourist video taping the historic event when President Ashton (William Hurt), is shot moments after he arrives in Spain. Here he talks about Vantage Point and his life post the Oscar win
Is it easier to play a regular guy or an extremely well-etched out character?
The irony is that sometimes when I play characters like your ���everyman��� or what would be considered simple characters, I���m more afraid, ���cause I don���t get the same feeling, like I don���t know the feeling. And I know it drives people around me crazy, because I don���t think I���m doing anything. But for any other character I���m like totally possessed and obsessed by it, and my body vibrates differently. But the other can be frightening for me. I don���t know where I stand all the time.
Have you worked in Mexico before Vantage Point?
I did a movie in Mexico City, called The Air I Breathed. So that was the first time. I like Mexico City and I had a great time exploring it differently each time.
Has life changed after the Oscar?
Yeah, I think there���s a lot of opportunities to work and opportunities to get movies made. But I kind of have been going about choosing my characters and living it pretty much the same way. Whether it���s a leading role or supporting role, I���m just kind of going by my guts and just doing it. Maybe I���m working more right now. But it���s not really because of the Academy Award.
Where do you keep the Oscar?
In my house, as you go down the stairs, there are shelves built into the side-walls. And it���s there as you go down to the main floor of the house.
Is it with your other awards?
A lot of them, but not all of them (laughs)!
The most important?
Well, I wouldn���t say most important, but it���s through the years. Like the Cannes Film Festival Award and things like that.
Do you go, ���I have an Oscar,��� or is it just there?
Oh, no, no. I mean, I notice it. Sometimes when I do check it out, it���s a great moment.
Do you watch your own movies?
Most of them. I haven���t seen all of them, but I do. Now it���s easier for me. When I was younger it was really tough to watch my work on film.
Criticising yourself?
Yeah, it was really tough. Now I go back and I can look at a film and say, ���Oh, that���s interesting���. But at the time, I was nervous. I was always thinking I wasn���t good enough.
Do you feel that your best performance was in The Last King of Scotland?
I think it���s a kind of a complete, more complete character, and that shift was important. The movies all have something different to teach. And I assimilated a lot of it into The Last King...