Cuba Gooding Jr. Leads The Choir
Academy Award-winning actor Cuba Gooding Jr. is back on the big screen in "The Fighting Temptations," a comedy that he says also includes some pretty good gospel music.
Gooding visited The Early Show to discuss this feel-good movie for the fall.
In the film his character, Darrin Hill, is a man who just lost his job because of fraud and finds himself way over his head in credit card debt. But Darrin discovers he can collect a large inheritance from an aunt as long as he fulfills one small stipulation in her will — to lead his childhood local church choir to the annual "Gospel Explosion" and bring home a victory.
"He sees the opportunity here to make a little money, so he lets them know about his producing skills and musical background," Gooding says.
The choir, however, is not in good shape. So Darrin starts recruiting the talent from town, such as the singing barbers (The O'Jays), talented convicts (Montell Jordan and T-Bone) and a beautiful singer shunned by the church (Beyoncé Knowles).
Knowles's acting and singing lights up the screen, Gooding says. And it's one of the reasons he decided not to sing in the movie.
"Why would I sing when we got Beyoncé and all of these wonderful vocal gifts?" he says. "I don't want to mess the movie up. They don't want that."
Gooding says the creators of "The Fighting Temptations" thought of Beyoncé for the role because of her unique qualities.
"We thought it would be nice to get someone who can make people just feel at home and relax and she has that quality about her," Gooding says.
He says the movie's theme is about the importance of community. The community, he says, also helps Darrin rediscover his life and roots by being selfless.
"When I read this script, I saw one of the themes being that you can't quite forget where you come from," Gooding shared. "You can go home and find strength in that. The qualities that made you the person you are today."
The movie also stars Mike Epps, Angie Stone, Melba Moore and Steve Harvey.
Gooding will next be seen starring opposite Ed Harris in "Radio," in which he plays the real-life mentally challenged James "Radio" Kennedy.
Gooding explains Radio was taken in by coach Harold Jones to help the football and basketball teams in Anderson, S.C., and Radio has since been in the 11th grade for 38 years — encouraging the students.
"[The town] realized that he had so much unconditional love and he just brought it to this community," the actor explains. "They didn't see a little black kid. They just saw a soul. It just united this little town and it's unbelievable."
Gooding adds: "[It's about] the relationship between the two men. We take one year of their life in 1970. Anderson, especially back then, was just a small southern town at the height of the civil rights movement."
Gooding won an Academy Award for his portrayal of flamboyant professional football player Rod Tidwell in "Jerry Maguire."
He made his motion picture debut as the star of John Singleton's "Boyz N the Hood," in 1991. A year later, he was featured in "A Few Good Men."
He also acted in "As Good As It Gets," co-starring Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt and Greg Kinnear; "What Dreams May Come"; "Instinct"; "Chill Factor"; "A Murder of Crows" "Men Of Honor" and "Pearl Harbor."