Djimon Hounsou - Model Citizen
From being homeless on the streets of Paris to being nominated for two Academy Awards, Djimon Hounsou's life story is like something out of movie.
It was the great Steve McQueen who said that he didn't think acting "is something a grown man should be doing." By way of contrast, Djimon Hounsou's very serious about acting. And he's more serious still about being an African actor. As he observed during an interview with CNN, "America has this understanding of Africans that plays like National Geographic: a bunch of negroes with loincloths running around the plains of Africa, chasing gazelles. It's not intentionally racist; I wouldn't call it racist at all. It's a lack of understanding another culture.
"Meanwhile, we have Africans and African-Americans, contemporary men, with great stories, great integrity, great heroes and nobody wants to see or hear about those African heroes and those African-American heroes. One day, I will be in a position to play those great human beings on-screen."
The road to the great roles Djimon Hounsou dreams of playing has been circuitous,
to say the least. Born in Cotonou, Benin, in 1964, he moved to Lyons as a teenager where a series of unfortunate events led to his becoming homeless. Then a stroke of luck occurred - Hounsou was spotted by a fashion photographer. This in turn lead to an introduction to designer and perfumier Thierry Mugler who convinced the lithe
6' 1'' youth that he was destined to prowl the catwalks of Europe. The teenager who'd been reduced to eating out of bins was soon transformed into a twentysomething with a swish Paris apartment and the fashion world at his feet.
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