Get on the Bus
(Ossie Davis with
Roger Guenveur Smith)
PHOTO BY DAVID LEE
The supporting character of
Smiley which he performed in
the Oscar-nominated “Do the
Right Thing,” Roger said, “was
completely improvised. If you look
at that screenplay you won’t even
see the character in it because we
made him up as we went along. I
brought the character to the table
and Spike gave me the green light
for it.”
The most recent collaboration between
Roger and Spike Lee is Roger’s solo performance
as the title character in “Rodney
King.” Premiering in 2017, the one-man
show depicting the victim of a 1991 police
beating in Los Angeles won an off-Broadway
“Bessie” award and was airing on
Netflix at the time of this interview.
Born in Berkeley, California, Roger
grew up in the mecca of the entertainment
world: Los Angeles. He attended
two colleges, including Yale University
where, he said, “I switched my graduate
school major from history to drama. My
mom was a dentist and my dad was a
judge but they were both very supportive
of my acting career.”
He continues to reside in Los Angeles
with his wife, writer LeTania Kirkland
Smith, and their three children.
Throughout most of his early post-college
career, Roger took on multiple roles
on screen and stage before finding a niche
that has become a specialty for him: solo
performances portraying prominent, reallife
historical figures. “I created ‘A Huey
P. Newton Story,’ inspired by the late
co-founder of the Black Panther Party
COVER STORY
Roger Guenveur Smith
John Singleton,
Roger Guenveur Smith
PHOTO COURTESY OF ROGER GUENVEUR SMITH
for Self-Defense, and
performed it more than
600 times nationally and internationally
throughout the late 1990s.” he said.
The piece earned him an Obie
(Off-Broadway) Award and was later
directed for TV by Spike Lee where it
was distinguished with a Peabody Award.
Since then, in addition to Rodney King,
he has portrayed such historical figures
as Frederick Douglass, Christopher
Columbus, artist Charles White and
others. “I am currently portraying
Holocaust survivor Otto Frank, father of
Anne Frank who wrote the famous diary
documenting her family’s hidden existence
during the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam,”
he noted.
Roger’s connection
to New Orleans
and Louisiana began
in the mid-‘90s with
the filming of Kasi
Lemmons’ critically
acclaimed directorial
debut, “Eve’s
Bayou,” in which he
played the husband
of a woman who was
having an affair with
the title character’s father.
“Before that, New Orleans
had only existed in my imagination,”
he said, adding that,
“Every time my mom (a Xavier
University graduate) went there
for a Xavier event she’d bring back
a praline as a memento of her visit.
It would take us a whole year to eat
that praline because she’d make us take
just one bite at a time,” he laughed.
Since his first trip to New Orleans,
Roger has returned many times to perform
original shows. These include “Rodney
King” at the Contemporary Arts Center
and “Frederick Douglass Now” at the
CAC, the Lower Ninth Ward Village
Community Center and Dillard University.
He also co-wrote and performed a duet
with New Orleans native artist, musician
and actor, Mark Broyard, titled “Inside the
Creole Mafia” at Southern Rep Theatre.
Premiering in Los Angeles in 1992,
“Inside the Creole Mafia” is described
by the two authors and performers as “a
not-too-dark comedy” about the Creole
Do the Right Thing (Roger Guenveur Smith with Spike Lee)
PHOTO BY DAVID LEE
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