DAILY DOSE OF HOPE – BLOG – NAIMA LETT
Dreams Can Come True
© NaimaLett.com/blog

©Photo/AFP, Michael Clarke Duncan

“This is really like a gift from God… in Hollywood, dreams can come true.”

That’s what Academy Award nominee Michael Clarke Duncan, who quietly passed away Monday (age 54) never fully recovering from a heart attack in July, said about his new acting career in the 1999 New York Times article, “For a Gentle Giant, A Big First Step“.

“All my life, I wanted to come to Hollywood,” he said. “It was something my mother always wanted to do, but nobody pushed her.”

Sounds like she gently pushed him, though, when he needed it the most. After surviving Chicago’s South Side as a child, leaving Alcorn State University to take care of his ailing mom, digging ditches at a gas company for years to support the family, security-guarding on the play tour Beauty Shop 2, and deciding to stay in Los Angeles when the play came to town, Michael called his mom from a roach-infested, cheap Hollywood hotel with $20 left to his name.

Mom’s Advice

Single mom, Jean, gave him the following life-changing advice, “If you have given it your all and it still isn’t working, then you can quit. But if you haven’t given it your all yet, you have to keep trying.”

So, he kept trying, and landed security guard work for Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Jamie Foxx and LL Cool J. After building trust, Michael secured an agent who “helped him land some small roles on some of the television series starring his clients, like The Jamie Foxx Show and Fresh Prince of Bel Air,” usually as a bouncer, security guard, etc., because of his 6’5″, 300 lb stature.

What People Say Can Come True

The television work led to small film roles as a bouncer and security guard, which led to an audition for Bruce Willis’ 1998 blockbuster Armageddon, as Bear, one of the members of Willis’ digging crew. The irony, CNN reports, is that when Michael used to dig ditches at the gas company back in Chicago, his co-workers called him “Hollywood” because he talked so much about his dream of becoming a movie star. They used to tease Michael while he was digging and say, “Hey, man, Bruce Willis wants to talk to you about a movie.’ And they’d just crack up laughing.”

Wow, did that come true!

Armageddon’s director Michael Bay recalled that Duncan cried during his first audition for the film because he “wanted to make his mom proud.” Duncan landed the role and Bay says he earned the most improved actor award because he went from a not-so-great actor to ‘everyone loved him, his infectious spirit and great belly laugh’.

This may surprise many actors, but Michael Bay didn’t hire Michael Clarke Duncan for that blockbuster based on his outstanding acting skills. Bay told Duncan, “Mike, I hired you for you. I want the sweet Mr. Clarke Duncan I met in that (audition) room. The audience is going to fall in love with you.”

Wow, did that come true too!

Dreams Come True

While still filming Armageddon, Bruce Willis read the script The Green Mile based on Stephen King’s bestseller and told Michael about it. Michael recalled, “Bruce told me about the part and said that if I was interested, he would call the director, Frank Darabont, and tell him about me, but that from then on it was up to me. I told him, yes, of course, but I didn’t know if he’d really do it.”

Bruce Willis made the phone call. Michael didn’t land the starring role opposite Tom Hanks based on his resume. Writer-director Frank Darabont remembers, “There was something about him (Michael) that I just couldn’t ignore. After his first reading, he kept haunting me. Given that he was a fairly inexperienced actor at that point, obviously there was a concern about ‘Gee, how would this guy do?’ But once we put him on film, it became apparent that he was up to the task.”

Michael got an acting coach, Larry Moss, to teach him how to dig deep within and access his wealth of emotions for the many emotional scenes in the movie (LA Times). Take after take after take, Michael worked hard. His performance as John Coffey, the falsely accused gentle giant with healing powers who dies for the sins of another, was a dream come true.

It was no accident that John Coffey had the initials J.C. It was impossible to miss that he was the Jesus Christ figure in the story. It was as if Romans 5:6-11 jumped off the pages of the screenplay (excerpt): “Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person… But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us…”

This John Coffey/Christ-figure role earned Michael nominations for the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild Awards, MTV Movie Awards, NAACP Image Awards, and he won 2 People’s Choice Awards. The role launched the rest of his career which spanned almost 15 years and about 50 films including The Green Mile, Armageddon, The Whole Nine Yards, Planet of the Apes, The Scorpion King, Daredevil, Sin City, Kung Fu Panda, Brother Bear, and Redemption Road.

Our prayers are with Michael’s family. His story is truly an inspiration to all of us that our careers are a gift from God, that we don’t have to give up, and that dreams can come true.

Keep dreaming, Fam,
Naima

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