The SoulBounce Q&A: Don Cheadle Opens Up About Becoming Miles Davis & Bringing His Story To The Big Screen In 'Miles Ahead'

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BP: You were quite authentic. I’m curious to know what the family thought once they saw the final piece because you looked like him, you sounded like him. You totally embodied the character.

DC: Well, you have to poll each one of them. They all have different reactions. Vince and Aaron came while I was filming it, Aaron is his son, and I was staying in character and I was in costume and said forgive me for talking to you in this way and coming to you in this way, but I can’t jump in and out right now. I’m trying to be this dude and direct and everything. Aaron was looking at me sideways. I would say stuff and he would be like, "I’ve got to go. I can’t be here." He left. I would come over to talk to Vince and sometimes tears would be streaming down his face.

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So that was heartening. They were with me. They rode the ride all the way from the beginning to the end. Like I said, there were a couple of times when I had some come to Jesus moments where I would be like guys, we could do a story where we try to click off every event in his life and give some really short shrift to each one, and it would look like some movies we’ve seen before and we would kind of know where we were headed and it would be familiar territory. Or, we can be like your uncle was, like your dad was and make this kind of gangster. Make it kind of crazy and wild and inventive and make it feel like a whole experience, like you’re walking around inside this man. So, I was like, you tell me which one you think he would want. They were like, "nah, do that."

SB: And speaking of gangster, Miles Davis got very gangster in this film. How factual was all of the car chasing, shootouts and killing people.

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DC: I’ll say this. You can look at the record, take a look at the book, there is a lot of research and you can find for yourself what’s factual or not. There are a lot of facts in this movie. We were not as concerned that we hit all the facts, but that it was very truthful. Miles was shot in a drive by. There was a secret recording that people were trying to get that no one ever heard and that was never released. The record company was saying, “Hey man, where’s that album, what’s up?” Columbia Records did sign another trumpet player famously during this period when Miles was not play, a young trumpet player to fill the void that Miles had left. He absolutely did have a relationship with Frances Taylor. We did what all biopics do, but we were just more honest about it, I think. Which is to say, we are going to create composite characters, we’re going to get rid of people, we’re going to tell a story in the way that we want to tell it. We’re not going to try and say that this is "based on a true story" or anything like that.

In ours, Miles Davis being a storyteller corrects somebody who’s trying to do it in a very didactic way, and goes "ah, shut up. I’m going to take this over," and he puts a horn to his lips and he plays. [laughter] That’s what this movie is. It’s a composition. A man’s creative take on his life.

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BP: This was you directorial debut. What are your thoughts and feelings about the process and the final product?

DC: Nerve-wracking. Really, really intense. I don’t think I will ever do it this way again. My wife came to visit halfway through, she had to do her thing and came back afterwards and I had lost weight and she could see all of the stress on me and she was like, you can’t do this again, not like this. It was the only way I could do it. Five years ago, I tried to give the directing away. I tried to do it in a different way because anticipated, I’ve been on 500 sets and knew what the job was, or at least thought I knew. Once I was doing it, I was like, yeah, this is no way to live.

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BP: Do you think it was the weight of the role?

DC: It was the weight of everything. It was everything. You’re the captain of the ship and as the producer, co-writer, director, actor, writing some of the music…

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SB: That’s a lot.

DC: There is nowhere to hide. There was nobody I could offload all of the responsibility to and just go do either or. I had to do all of those things at the same time and having the weight of knowing that people were going to see it, and that the take that I was doing on it, I’ve seen it, a lot of people have rejected it and been like "eh, I don’t like this take." You have to take that on, but it all felt very meta-Miles, you know? Miles had some of the worst reviews ever of the stuff that he had done, but he didn’t care about that. He had to follow the thing that was driving him and at the end of the day, I wanted to be like Miles. So, I said that I’ve got to follow the thing that’s driving me and come hell or high water, this is my voice out there.

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SB: You achieved your goal of making Miles Davis come alive on film.

DC:
Thank you.

SB: I love the dash at the end. That it’s open-ended and then with the performance with contemporary jazz greats. That was awesome.

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DC: Thank you.

SB: I’ve actually been a fan since you’re star-making turn in the Angela Winbush video. [laughter]

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DC: [laughter] I’ve still got the jumpsuit in the closet.

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