Djimon Hounsou has spoken about his role in Shazam! Wrath of the Gods as’redeeming’ some of the pain he’s gone through in his 25-year-plus Hollywood career with demanding parts – as well as a battle to secure roles.
Born in Benin, West Africa, the 58-year-old actor was moved to France as a child and began his career as a model and dancer in music videos for musicians such as Tina Turner and Janet Jackson after relocating to Los Angeles with no English knowledge.
Following a few minor roles in the 1990s, including Stargate with James Spader and Kurt Russell, Hounsou landed his big break as Cinque in Steven Spielberg’s Amistad in 1997, about the 1839 mutiny of Mende prisoners aboard a Spanish-owned ship off the shore of Long Island.
Since then, he’s received two Academy Award nods, for In America and Blood Diamond, both starring alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, and has acted in films such as Gladiator, The Tempest, Furious 7, and A Quiet Place Part II.
He’s also made a name for himself in blockbuster comic book adaptations, as Korath in Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain Marvel, as well as the Wizard in both Shazam! films.
At the London premiere of Shazam!, I spoke with Metro.co.uk. Hounsou, Fury of the Gods, reflected on what he would have told his younger self at the outset of his career.
‘Wow, it’s been 25 years? Listen, I wish I could say I did it all by myself but there’s a team and there’s also a huge need to believe in yourself and in what you’re doing, because again, time and time again – and especially when you start – you hear so many times no. “No, no, thank you, thank you but no,”’ he admitted.
‘So, you really have to stay strong, and I think films can [help you] aspire to really live out your dreams. Like [in] Shazam, your immediate family is not [necessarily] your blood family, you know, and it’s what you make of your friends that you meet when you embark on this life experience.’
The actor also named some of his most prominent roles, as well as both of his Oscar nominations, as jobs that have presented him with the biggest obstacles of his career.
‘Well, Amistad was a challenge, my first one with Steven Spielberg was definitely a challenge. I had the luxury of working with Jim Sheridan and for what that was, it was also quite a challenge – I remember that was not a happy moment to film that.’
In the film, which followed the challenging lives of a family of Irish immigrants living in a decrepit Hell’s Kitchen tenement, Hounsou played a reclusive artist and photographer dying of AIDS.
‘Blood Diamond was also a great challenge because it dealt with social issues that we’re still dealing with in the present day. And so, hopefully you have Shazam! Fury of the Gods, pictures like that, that redeem a little bit of the hardship that you go through at times,’ he added.
The actor has considerably more screentime in the sequel, which even allows him to show off his comic abilities, in line with the film’s and its hero, Zachary Levi’s, irreverent attitude.
Shazam! The Daughters of Atlas, played by Dame Helen Mirren (Hespera), Rachel Zegler (Anthea), and Lucy Liu (Kalypso), are eager to reclaim their power from Billy Batson (Asher Angel), his adult superhero alter-ego (Levi), and foster family, who are keen to reclaim their power from Billy Batson (Asher Angel), his adult superhero alter-ego (Levi), and foster family.
‘Having Helen Mirren, Lucy Lui Rachel Zegler [in the film], they were met with such high anticipation and we really couldn’t wait to shoot the scenes with them – and of course Helen Mirren, I’d worked with her once before and this was my second time,’ enthuses Hounsou.
His Wizard becomes involved in the action and epic fights between the goddesses and the ‘Shazamily’ of Billy and his foster brothers, all of whom had superpowers after Billy shared them with them at the end of the first film.
Of his pivotal role in the new movie, Gladiator actor Hounsou teased: ‘I hope I did my bit to champion these kids to take over. I chose the champion, and I hope I chose the right champion because you come to find out in the second one that they’ve mishandled the power that I bestowed upon them.
‘And so that is the reason why I’m back, to help them really believe in themselves.’
Shazam! Fury of the Gods is in cinemas now.
