Ving Rhames Found It Easy To Bulk Up For Role

With his massive musculature and shining bald pate, Ving Rhames has an imposing presence, the kind that makes you follow him on screen. He seems to command attention with a certain glint in his eye that gives his lines punch and his characters a sly, extra dimension.

He first burst onto the scene as the creepy Marcellus in Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction.” He’s following that with a flurry of four films. He’s the sneaky cyberspy in the blockbuster “Mission: Impossible.” In “Striptease,” he’s a lovable bodyguard to Demi Moore. He’ll be in the South African drama “Dangerous Ground” this fall, and later in John Singleton’s “Rosewood.” Here he gives his spin on his busy days in show business.

1. Do you have a favorite computer password?

Rhames: I’d rather not say. You know what I’m finding is that there’s so many ways to get into…wherever. That was a little frightening to me. If somebody really wants to get into your system and your personal life, they can.

2. For “Striptease,” you did lot of research by going to strip joints. What was that like?

Rhames: Actually, I really got very desensitized and very turned off to the whole strip-club concept. And after a while I got tired of seeing silicone breasts.

3. You did a De Niro for “Striptease” by putting on 30 pounds for your role as a bouncer. How did you do it?

Rhames: I got a trainer. The trainer flew with me to London where we were filming “Mission: Impossible.” I was on a high-protein diet and I worked out lifting very heavy. It wasn’t that difficult to put on, quite honestly.

4. Who are some of your role models?

Rhames: I don’t look at an actor or an athlete as a role model. I’d look more at a doctor as a role model, at a schoolteacher as a role model. I really look up to God. That’s really my focus. I’m no perfect human being. But I look toward Jesus Christ or Mohammed as images of following a positive spiritual life, as opposed to any man who’s living today.

5. What’s up with your name, Ving?

Rhames: It’s short for Irving.

The following fields overflowed: SUPCAT = COLUMN, QUESTION & ANSWER - Five Questions CREDIT = Patricia Bibby The Associated Press