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White on Noir |
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| 07/12/2009 |
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A guest of the Noir in Festival, Michael Jai White stars in Scott Sander’s competition film Black Dynamite, a vintage story set in the 1970s about a former CIA agent and his fight against “The Man.”
The role suits White, who studied with Shigeru Oyama, trained with Joe Lewis and has seven black belts (in Shotokan, Tae Kwon Do, Kobudo, Goju Ryu, Tang Soo Do, Wushu and Kyokushin). He explains: “I began doing martial arts for a simple reason. I was insecure as a child and I simply wanted to be stronger.”
Born in Brooklyn in 1967, as a pre-teen White moved to Bridgeport, Connecticut, which at the time boasted some of the highest crime rates in the country, and a social fabric worn down by AIDS and drugs. After studying at university, he began teaching in a junior high school. “I was a troubled kid,” he says, “so I knew how to reach and teach other troubled children. Delinquent children are not easily intimidated no matter how big you are. They respected me because I understood them.”
He entered show business after responding to a casting call and later worked in films such as Ring of Fire, Full Contact and Lion Strike. He landed his first important role in 1995, in the HBO film Tyson, on Mike Tyson. His breakthrough came in 1997 when he played the lead in Spawn, for which he won Best Male Newcomer at the Blockbuster Entertainment Awards.
He has worked with Jean Claude Van Damme, would like to work again with Steven Segal and appeared in the Hong Kong box office hit Silver Hawk. His dream is to be recognized the world over and to work on every continent. “I want to do my best in every film I make,” he says. “I want to become the biggest martial arts actor in the world. I’m not afraid of the star system. My heroes were never fictional characters. In my life I’ve been inspired by the great martial arts masters and teachers. I think teaching is one of the most important jobs in the world though teachers are not paid well enough for it.
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