It’s never too late to be a happy camper
Cuba Gooding Jr. was a bit apprehensive about his role in “Daddy Day Camp.”
“The last thing I want to do is a sequel, following in Eddie Murphy‘s footsteps,” he says of the follow-up to Murphy’s sleeper smash, “Daddy Day Care.”
“But I looked at the script, which is about trying to be a better father than your father was, and it has 10 times the heart of the first film, which was a fun movie.”
Gooding, 39, had sworn off comedies a few years ago, but he has been in two of them this year: a supporting role in Murphy’s February hit, “Norbit,” and now “Daddy Day Camp.”
The father thing was a tipping point. Comedy or no, sequel or no, Gooding was in for “Daddy Day Camp,” which has his character taking over the camp where he had both fond memories and major disappointments as a child.
“I didn’t do camp when I was growing up,” he says. “But both my older kids do camps every summer. I’ve been the father-chaperone, the guy sleeping on the floor of a museum in a tent with the kids. There’s comedy in there.”
Gooding was born in the Bronx and raised in L.A. by a single mom. His father, the rhythm and blues singer Cuba Gooding, walked out on them when he was 6.
So he wanted to play a dad – a dad having issues about bonding with his son and measuring up to his own father – even if it was in a comedy.
“I did ‘Boat Trip’ (2002), ‘Rat Race’ (2001) and something else. Look, even I can’t remember the title. (It was 2002’s “Snow Dogs.”)
“None of them were hits. I sat through the screenings, hyper-critical of myself, and just said, ‘I need to back off the comedy thing, go back to what I know.’ “
Before that, he had won an Oscar for his heartfelt, over-the-top hilarious turn in 1996’s “Jerry Maguire.” He followed that with “As Good as It Gets,” was in “Pearl Harbor” and held his own with Robert De Niro in “Men of Honor.”
He kept working, but the movies turned worse. He did the bad comedies. He did “Radio,” a modest 2003 success that earned him an NAACP image award for playing a mentally challenged young man who becomes the motivational mascot for a South Carolina high school football team.
It also landed him a “Razzie” nomination in the annual anti-Oscars.
“The good roles? They come in due time,” Gooding says.
“I’m in (the upcoming) ‘American Gangster,’ with Ridley Scott, Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. That’s a big break. Because even though Denzel plays Frank Lucas, the guy who masterminded smuggling heroin over in body bags from Vietnam, the real flashy gangster and drug dealer of that era, the guy Superfly is based on, is Nicky Barnes.
“I play Nicky Barnes. Now that’s a cool part.”
The birthday bunch
Country singer Porter Wagoner is 80. Actor George Hamilton is 68. Musician Mark Knopfler is 58. Jazz guitarist Pat Metheny is 53. Actor Bruce Greenwood is 51. Rapper Sir Mix-A-Lot is 44. Actor Peter Krause (“Six Feet Under”) is 42. Actor Casey Affleck is 32. Actress Imani Hakim (“Everybody Hates Chris”) is 14.