All News
Photo by Jonny Marlow _ CPi syndication, courtesy of Keith David.
Acting , Interview , The Daily Roundup

Keith David Discusses the Aura He Brings to His Roles, What He Learned From Gregory Hines


February 27, 2024

Keith David seems like a guy you don’t want to mess with. No matter what he’s doing, he has that air. Hero? Villain? Comedy? Drama? Doesn’t matter. Keith David has that thing that so many people want, but can’t touch.

It’s been that way through most of his career. You can trace it back at least 40 years to his first major role in the classic horror film The Thing, trace it through There’s Something About Mary to the Oscar-nominated American Fiction and Amazon’s current hit animated series Hazbin Hotel, in which Satan’s daughter opens a rehab hotel to reduce Hell’s population. On top of that, there’s his voiceover and narration work, which has won him three Emmy Awards.

David’s got a lot going on and is still in high demand. He took some time from his busy schedule to talk to us from his home in Los Angeles.

I’m curious how you got into acting in the first place.

I wanted to be an actor my whole life. I believe acting is a calling. My first calling was to be a minister, but I believe acting is my ministry. I love to act, and I want to act, but it’s more than that. It’s what my soul needs to express itself. I have to do it. I felt that from a very, very, very young age. Second grade.

When I think of you as an actor, the word “badass” comes to mind. A bunch of years ago, I saw you in Midtown Manhattan, just walking, and someone saw you and yelled, “Hey! Keith David!” You didn’t stop, you just smiled, gave a one-finger salute and kept moving. I saw it and thought, “That guy is just smooth.”

(Laughs) Well, I gotta tell you, I learned a lot from Gregory Hines. Because Gregory was the kind of guy everybody wanted to shake hands with. Everybody wanted to stop and talk to him. But he would stop and talk to nobody. He would greet you, [give] a little wave and you would feel like you had a moment with him.

In that vein, it’s hard to peg your career. Maybe I’m wrong, but regardless of what part you’re playing, there’s an attitude that comes with it that seems very cool. Is that a conscious thing? Or is that just the innate thing that you bring to your work?

I’m not sure how to answer that. I guess partly, it is innate, you know. To me, it’s like, of all the people that we know, if we counted 10 or 15 people that we know, seven of them are Aries. They share similar traits, but they’re not the same person. So, you can talk about them, and in your talking about them and your description of them, there will be some things that you would check off for similarities, but they’re not the same. I try to find the differences, not the similarities. But it’s still being filtered through me, so there are gonna be some inherent similarities, but those are not the things I’m looking for. I know how to play myself. But how do I play someone else? That’s the question.

Do you look back on your career and think that there is a quintessential Keith David role?

I would assume you’re asking about movie roles…

Not necessarily.

When I did August Wilson’s Seven Guitars, playing Floyd Barton, I think Floyd Barton was one of the characters who was most like me, or rather, I feel like I was most like. The difference between Floyd and I was he had a desperate ambition that I do not have. I mean, there are goals in my life that I want that I’m not willing to kill, steal or go to jail for. But I shared a deep kindredship with Floyd.

One of my favorite films of yours is the often misunderstood Cloud Atlas, which I think is a masterpiece.

I appreciate that because I had a blast. It’s one of the things that I am so glad that I got to be a part of. it was a very special movie. if you have any relationship with soul travel and, you know, reincarnation and the journeys of souls, then it resonates very differently.

Hazbin Hotel is an interesting choice, too. It’s very funny, and you get to sing in it. Was that what drew you to it?

That was one of the things that drew me to it, yes, that I would have a chance to sing. Also, I just love the whole premise. I told you that I used to want to be a minister, and the whole exploration of Heaven and Hell, the Devil, God, how we get there, the notion of redemption, how one gets redemptive, its relationship to sex and sexuality, that was all very interesting to me.

What have you not had a chance to do yet that you would like to do, acting-wise?

There are a couple. I want to play Frederick Douglas. I’ve played Paul Robeson on stage and would love to play him in a movie. I think the thing that I want to do the most is to play a grand sorcerer. I want to be the black Merlin.

How do we make that happen?

I don’t know, but I’m putting it out there.

One last thing. Recently, there was a story in the news about actor Tom Hollander mistakenly getting a sizable bonus check from Marvel that was meant for Tom Holland. Has that ever happened with you and David Keith?

(Laughs) No. No, it has not.

Casting directors use Casting Networks every day to discover people like you. Sign up or log in today to get one step closer to your next role.

You may also like:

Related Articles