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Davis explains his cult JFK role

Veteran actor never expected the part

TORONTO (CP) -- One thing's for sure. Movie fans who are familiar with actor Ossie Davis' stellar career, one that spans more than 50 years in the movies, never, ever expected him to be offered the role of John F. Kennedy. "Let me join you," says Davis in a telephone interview to promote next Tuesday's video release of the cult film Bubba Ho-Tep. "And even now I'm still surprised at the kind of response it's getting." Bubba Ho-Tep is one of those underground films that defines the term cult favourite. Directed by indie filmmaker Don Coscarelli (The Phantasm), it proposes that Elvis Presley and slain U.S. President John F. Kennedy are still alive and living incognito in a Texas old-age home. There, they become aware that a demon mummy is at large stealing the souls of the elderly and they must join forces and do battle with this monster.

Elvis is played by cult star Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead 2) and it's understatement to describe as eccentric the casting of Davis, at 86 one of the most respected black actors of all time, as the revered but definitely white JFK. Asked if he considered doing a Kennedy impersonation, replete with Boston Irish accent, Davis says only inside his own mind, but quickly rejected it. While Campbell delivers an impressive Elvis, Davis decided just to play it straight, as an elderly African-American in a wheelchair with a big head-injury scar. "I figured it would require a great deal of work and it would have to be sustained and it would have to be funny and light, and yet not noticeable enough for people to stop and say 'Oh look, isn't that a nice JFK accent he's using.' So I just let the audience imagine." Davis, who met Bobby Kennedy but not Jack, says the film was a worthwhile project but not one that requires a lot of deep thought about whether the two "heroes" are genuine or just a couple of crazy old-timers with delusions of grandeur. "I laugh at the possibility of it, I laugh at the impossibility of it. I laugh at the idea I'm involved in this," he says. "You don't take a whole day or even an hour to put it in some kind of perspective. It happens. You move on." As for that illogical cultural phenomenon in which fans refuse to believe Elvis is dead, Davis says it's an impulse that is necessary for a lot of people. "Somehow, what Elvis was when he was with us, was so generating, he helped create a sea change in a whole generation. I imagine a generation of people who would find it hard to identify themselves if you told them they had to leave out the Elvis Presley section of their public identity." He says also that perhaps we cannot accept that such a heroic figure died the way he did, that he had clay feet after all. Davis says that with JFK, too, there was something that went beyond the man and the presidency. "He had that something else that made him almost mythological while he was still alive. "Even to this day there is the magic." Davis' first chronicled film role was in 1950's No Way Out. His filmography since then fills six pages and includes both feature film and TV roles in The Joe Louis Story, The Emperor Jones, The Cardinal, The Hill, King the mini-series, Roots: The Next Generation, Don't Look Back: The Story of Satchel Paige, Do The Right Thing (He's the one who gives that titular advice), Evening Shade, Jungle Fever, Malcolm X (where he replicated the real eulogy he delivered in 1965 for the slain black leader), 12 Angry Men, Dr. Doolittle and Dinosaur. He's also a writer and director (Cotten Comes to Harlem) and has been married to actress and sometimes-co-star Ruby Dee for 56 years. They met on Broadway in the 1940s where he had appeared in A Raisin in the Sun and No Time For Sergeants. Together they served as emcees for Martin Luther King's 1963 March on Washington, risked blacklisting for defying the McCarthy era and were arrested for taking part in civil rights protests. Asked what he thinks of the progress by African Americans in Hollywood over those years, Davis says he's pleased but that it's impossible to ever let up on the pressure. "You have to keep the argument going until it becomes obvious that the argument is silly," he explains. "As wonderful as it is, there's always the possibility that we could revert. "We have to keep saying 'Hold it! Hold it! Not quite enough"' Asked if he was up for another Bubba film, Davis says he would probably consider it. "What actor ever says never?"

Huffman amazed Macy chose her

Actress and Oscar-nominated husband occasionally work together

Photo: Actress Felicity Huffman poses in Los Angeles on April 15. (AP/Damian Dovarganes)

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Felicity Huffman is on her cell as she enters the restaurant for an interview. She's talking to husband William H. Macy, who's half a world away filming the adventure Sahara. As parents of two young daughters, the acting couple try to juggle their busy schedules so only one of them is working at a time. Occasionally, however, they end up working at the same time -- even on the same project. Such was the case with the crime thriller Scott Turow's Reversible Errors. The miniseries, which also stars Tom Selleck and Monica Potter, airs May 23 and 25.

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