Cuba Gooding Jr was a young actor making a name for himself in Hollywood when he landed a part in the 1996 movie Jerry Maguire opposite Tom Cruise.
During the shoot, Gooding invited his father on set and introduced an excited Gooding Sr to Cruise. As his father reached over to give the star a hug, he told him ‘I love you, man’, before adding: ‘Now seriously, are you gay or not?’ Gooding says now: ‘I just wanted the ground to swallow me up and take my father with me so that we’d never, ever have to see Tom again.’ He laughs. ‘But as they say, you can pick your friends, but you can’t pick your family.’
The movie was memorable for another reason – Gooding’s brilliant portrayal of the fiercely loyal football player, Rod Tidwell, saddled him with the famous catchphrase: ‘Show me the money!’
Cuba Gooding Jr stars in the hit musical Chicago, which is returning to the West End after a five-year absence. It’s Gooding’s first time on the London stage, playing Billy Flynn
‘People still come up to me, asking me to say it,’ says Gooding. ‘The worst is when they do it while I’m in a public bathroom.’
The role earned Gooding a Best Supporting Actor Oscar at the age of 29, and while it undoubtedly opened doors for him, ‘the negative was what it did to my psyche’, he says candidly. ‘I thought, “Oh, I’m an Academy Award winner so I don’t have to study [acting] any more”, and there were times when I auditioned and I was like, “I’m an [Oscar] winner”, and their response was, “We don’t care – you’re not getting the role!” ’
While Gooding continued to star in quality movies such as As Good As It Gets (1997) with Jack Nicholson and Men Of Honor (2000) with Robert De Niro, he was, he says, ‘in the wilderness of Hollywood for almost ten years’. He ignored the advice of Jerry Maguire director Cameron Crowe only to work with great directors and turned down Oscar-nominated movies such as Steven Spielberg’s Amistad (1997) and Michael Mann’s 2001 biopic of Muhammad Ali.
‘I can’t say I regret those decisions because they made me what I am today, but I definitely recognise the mistakes in my decision-making. So when I was told [director] Ryan Murphy wanted to meet me, I said, “Whatever he wants to do, I’m in!”’
Gooding was a young actor making a name for himself in Hollywood when he landed a part in the 1996 movie Jerry Maguire opposite Tom Cruise
The result was The People v O J Simpson – the TV drama of the infamous 1995 trial of Simpson for the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown. It shot Gooding back into the limelight two years ago, and won him a slew of accolades and an Emmy nomination for his portrayal of the disgraced American football player. ‘Everyone told me if I played O J Simpson I’d never work again, and it scared me to death. But every role that scared me turned out OK, so I’m hoping this will be the same.’
The ‘this’ in question is the hit musical Chicago, which is returning to the West End after a five-year absence. It’s Gooding’s first time on the London stage, playing Billy Flynn, the smooth-talking lawyer. ‘I’ve never been in this physical shape in my life and it’s tailor-made for my erotic energy,’ says the 50-year-old. ‘This is the first time Billy Flynn will get his inner pimp out!’
It is also Gooding’s first role in a musical, although his background suggests it won’t be a problem. His mother Shirley was a member of the group The Sweethearts, while his father was the lead singer of Seventies band The Main Ingredient, whose hits included Everybody Plays The Fool. Music was in Gooding’s blood and stars from Al Jarreau to The Jackson 5 came by his home.
When Gooding was six, his parents separated and money was short. ‘From a young age I was the one going out, getting jobs. I was always hustling.’ That quality stood him in good stead in showbusiness where, after first becoming a professional breakdancer (he performed with Lionel Richie during the 1984 Olympics closing ceremony), he shot to fame in the 1991 drama Boyz N The Hood.
Gooding in The People v O J Simpson – the TV drama of the infamous 1995 trial of Simpson for the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown. It shot Gooding back into the limelight two years ago
While he says things have improved for black actors in Hollywood, he’s aware the industry is having to face up to many of its underlying problems. Some of Gooding’s friends have been caught in the post-Weinstein crossfire. Kevin Spacey and Dustin Hoffman were his sponsors to become an Academy member.
‘Everyone is now having to be held accountable for the power they wield, and that’s the hardest thing for powerful people to accept. When you get a lot of power, you get numb to your responsibilities, so when you hear about these abuses of power, while you can’t justify it, you can understand how it can come out in ways that can be inappropriate.
‘But let’s be honest here,’ he adds, ‘we’re not curing cancer. We’re just entertaining people.’
Cuba Gooding Jr stars in ‘Chicago’ at the Phoenix Theatre, London, from March 26 to June 23, chicagowestend.com.