The Criminally Underrated, Underused Don Cheadle

The first ever Don Cheadle role I saw was his marvelous performance as Paul Rusesabagina in Hotel Rwanda. In this real-life story of a hotel manager who in the midst of the Rwandan genocide, despite being Hutu himself, uses his hotel to provide sanctuary for more than a 1,000 Tutsi refugees at his hotel. The film itself is extremely powerful and harrowing, one I've grown to appreciate all the more with time, and Cheadle's performance is utterly brilliant. It's one of the quietest performances of a heroic figure I've ever seen, as Cheadle does not overplay the bravery or selflessness of his character. He keeps his performance very quiet, very understated, and brings out a realism in Rusesabagina's quiet but clever manipulations of the Hutu soldiers. And in the moments where the film brings out the more intense moments beyond Cheadle's control, he plays these perfectly, his authentic reactions and emotional responses to the effects of the genocide making the film even more powerful. Many talk about how DiCaprio was snubbed of an Oscar for The Aviator, but I personally think Mr Cheadle's work here is far more deserving of that 'snub' honour.

After watching that amazing performance, I thought, 'gosh, they must be falling head over heels to cast this guy in everything'. Turns out I was wrong; Cheadle's probably been one of the most underused and overrated actors by Hollywood in recent years. Even when discussion turns to the 'OscarsSoWhite' debates or diversity in casting discussions, Cheadle's name rarely comes up, which is utterly ridiculous. He may not have had the most big roles in his career nor the biggest films to his name when he's the leading man, but that should not take anything away from the fact that even in his small roles he's a tremendous talent.

1990s Cheadle was a very interesting sort of character actor. He'd pop up in small but crucial roles like the trigger-happy tough guy Mouse in Devil in a Blue Dress, or as a member of a large ensemble like Boogie Nights and Out of Sight. In each of these roles, no matter what he'd find a way to steal his scenes. I find it paritcularly impressive how he manages to do so in Boogie Nights; despite Buck Swope's story being one of the least dramatic and emotionally draining plotlines, he manages to make his depiction of a man just trying to make his way in the world so compelling.

Come the 2000s and Cheadle began finally getting considerably more substantial roles. I'd say he's arguably the most prominent character in the ensemble films Traffic and Crash, and though in both he's saddled with somewhat limited roles of officers of the law, certainly much less colorful characters than the porn stars and career criminals he used to play, he was certainly solid enough within those limitations (which include the awful dialogue of Crash).

His Cockney accent in the Ocean's films was terrible in the first one, I think he realized that too since he began to tone it down afterwards. They remain some of his relatively weaker performances, and unfortuantely are probably some of the performances most people know him for since his earlier work was somewhat obscured by either the films he was in being too small-scale (Devil in a Blue Dress), or more prominent A-listers taking attention away from him.

He had Hotel Rwanda in 2004, ad a good run as a leading television star in House of Lies (which I also need to check out), but otherwise meaty leading roles have been scarce. He was apparently wonderful as radio show host Petey Greene in Talk to Me, but the fact I can't find the film anywhere is testament to the fact that his leading turns remain criminally underseen.

He was a wonderful straight man to Brendan Gleeson's avuncular, potty mouthed Irish cop in The Guard, and was actually quite the box office success, but for some reason it just doesn't seem to come up in discussions about Cheadle's filmography. And in Flight, a deeply flawed film with a great performance by Denzel Washington, he just didn't have anything to do. It's shameful, really.

He's become primarily defined by his role as James 'Rhodey' Rhodes/War Machine in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Even in the fantastic Civil War, Cheadle remained criminally underused in those films, though in that film at the very least he had a fantastic final scene that beautifully demonstrated both the friendship between Rhodes and Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.). I don't mind that he's taken on these smaller roles, clearly he enjoys doing them; but as Miles Ahead from the same year as Civil War shows...he's one of the best in the biz the more he gets to do.

I'll probably be covering him in some capacity come awards season for 'Miles Ahead', so stay tuned...