jaw and a strong tongue. it could suck up fish from shallow waters or pick up dead fish near the lake. >> it roamed the earth 17 million years ago, and researchers say it is one of the strangest

it's a terrible place. what are you seeing there?

>> it's difficult. i mean, we went there as an organization before the counter conflict. we were there in december 2012. and we had chosen in three states, john lee, upper nile and unity, which we thought were sort of the fragile states inside the country. and we started to train youths in jonglei state. they did a great job. unfortunately the war broke out, the civil war. it scattered people. because of technology training and human training, they started to help people get to safety. they acted in some ways as a first response unit by helping friends across ethnic lines, because it's not only a issue. >> tribal. >> so they activated that. when they came in, we worked with them to relocate or help them get situated as best we could.

and started working in the protection civilian camps. our largest project has moved to eastern equatorial, and we are training a new group of youth leaders that will go back to the communities, initiate training and projects inside of the communities. i'm really excited about them. >> the efforts are important given the suffering that is going on. >> you saw the suffering to the infamous lords resistance army and joseph kony, and the trauma that the child soldiers have gone flow is horrific. >> i heard stories from them, working with them, being with them, getting to know them. one is about a child soldier abducted with his mother and father, and they had been travelling, the parents carry loads, and when they were too tired - not at first - the mother, they took her to a tree and killed her. same happened with the father.

at one point later, after he became a lieutenant and a strong officer, he escaped and buried his gear, gun, clothes and went walking. found people that would feed him. he felt uncomfortable. he decided to go back to pick up the gun and weapon, and return because of the loss - he couldn't fit back into his community, his world. he was confused about his emotional self. he'd been eight years in and didn't understand how to re-address the world. it's unusual, and other stories are different. i worked with something called children not soldiers, which is with a special representative for children in conflict, and we are working with disarming youth. on the last trip we met with the president to talk about disarmament of children and they signed an agreement to reaffirm their commitment and met with the soldiers to talk about

disarming children in unity state. the organization works on a lot of different levels. >> it's difficult to describe. the trauma that some of the kids have gone through over the years. >> americans are becoming increasingly isolationist because the wars and people seem to want to pull back from the rest of the world. what would you fell people about why it's important to support doing? >> i think it's important because you - what is occurring in other places it affecting you in different ways. first of all, on a human level. what you see crossing you, it is a part of the reflection of your life, your environment. whether you see it on a tv screen or right - whether you can touch it, it affects you in some way. the laws of nature make it that way. we have to recognise that we have to change those things in order to maybe the whole lines better, because it's our environment, our world that we are talking about. the community of man, you know

you have been described as an optimist. that's what you are coming across as right now, even though the fact that you have seen some of the worst of human suffering. do you see yourself as someone who is hopeful, who is optimistic about the future, even in these terrible places? >> i am optimistic, i have seen people go through some of the deepest tram dis you can imagine -- tragedies, you can imagine. people who have been forced to do things they can't recount, and can't sleep through the night. but they go on. all the nameless heroes fighting. you see a smile, who you see a child playing, you know, inside of what some might consider rubble. but they consider their joy, and they feel good. they feel happy at the moment. we have to celebrate the human condition, even in the tragedy. we have to look and zero in on the problem, and give a

solution, and offer it, you know, opportunity to flourish, to grow, like a plant does, like a flower, you know. it's there. you can see it from an eye. you can see if from the deadness in the eye of a kid that you work with. you don't see the light. two years later you see a light and, "there it is. he's got it, found the place again." so how can i not be hopeful. they transform themselves, you know. we have to, like, recognise that their transformation is a part of our own, as human kind. >> you are watching "talk to al jazeera", coming up on the programme, forest whitaker says he tries to find sympathy for all the characters he plays on screen - even if they are murderous dictators. >> i'm ali velshi, the news has become this thing where you talk to experts about people,

and al jazeera has really tried to talk to people, about their stories. we are not meant to be your first choice for entertainment. we are ment to be your first choice for the news.

i'm antonio mora, and my guest is forest whitaker. he's working with children affected by conflict as a u.n.e.s.c.o. special envoy and initiative. >> let's talk about transformation, when it comes to you. you referred to your childhood earlier, and how there were gangs and issues you grew up in one of the roughest neighbourhoods in southern california, and by high school you ended up having to travel long distances every day from one of the roughest neighbourhoods in southern california to one of the richest in southern california to go to school. how transformational was that? pass.

>> it was different, engaging in a new culture, going to a school on the beach. it was so different. it allowed me to experience a breath of not just opportunities, but, like, the possibilities, you know, that it offered out there. my mother made that decision. >> your mother was a teacher. >> mum was a teacher, and i was in some difficulty, and she made an executive decision to send me far away and make sure i was out of harm's way. >> in a way, you saw what - how your life can be transformed. did that, do you think, in the long run help you to think "i people." >> it did. making people aware of possibilities is something that is sometimes lacking in violence of poverty. do you know what i mean, of not having, and, you know, then seeing the difference through my

life, you know. >> clearly an important time for you, and obviously your mum did a great job. polytech... >> u.s.c., drama. >> when you started, you were football. >> i did. >> and you had a back injury. >> i did. >> and talking again about transformation. how big a deal was that. did that change your life. all of a sudden football more. >> yes. i had to have a scholarship to go to college. it made me redefine what i was going to do. i woke up one day not able to move. so then i looked at the other things that i was excited about and ended up moving into music and, you know, acting and stuff like that. singer.

>> i had a music scholarship to u.s.c. >> not only were you a singer, you were an opera singer, a tenor. how did your football friends - like, doesn't seem to mesh well with the stereo player. >> in high school it was a big joke. they'd go to the play, i'd sing in the play and it was a source of ridicule, like on the football field. specially if i had to do dance numbers or something like that, you know. dance. >> yes. >> must have been fun. >> and then you go - you do drama, and your acting career takes off almost immediately. >> yes, it did. i started working when i was in, for sure, college, second year college. a lot of my classmates were working too. i went back to the conservatory, left town. i was worried i wouldn't become a good enough actor. came back and worked again.

i was working since i was 19. >> you were at richmond high. >> yes. >> which i had forgotten until i read that. >> you were in a bunch of iconic movies in the '80s, in "the colour of money", with paul newman. in "platoon", oliver stone directed that and in "vietnam", with robin williams. >> yes, i was. >> by the time you were 30 you were an established actor. >> yes, i was fortunate. i worked hard to get better and had a couple of opportunities. i was still going flow, you know, the same struggles of surviving the life and stuff like that too. >> talking about getting better, then you get to play charlie parker in "bird." clint eastwood directed that. you won best actor at cannes, again, before you are 30. nominated for golden globes. was it a heady time.

did it go to your head? >> no. i mean, i think i was always so critical. i was just blown away, you know, by the experience. working with clint - i had never done publicity for a movie, and you are thrown into an arena where there are thousands of people. i took my brother and he said "i heard someone say you might win the award." i'm like, "really? no." know. >> you were a hard-working innocent kid. >> yes. >> you threw yourself into the role of charlie parker, you learnt to play the sax and lived a spartan existence, is that something that you have a reputation for, delving deeply into the characters you play? >> yes, i dived into that and lived the character most of the time. my interest in acting was to continue to explore how i was connected to other people.

when i pull away the layers of a person's life to get to the core, at the very core there's a light or something that connects us all. then i put the stuff back up on top. it helps me go on a journey to understand the individual and find his connection to me. i think that philosophy, which is my real reason for doing my acting is the same philosophy approach to the other work i do in the field, too. >> i thought it was fascinating in talking about the layers, and the kind of work you do and put into becoming isi amin and -- i'di amain, and how you learnt swahili and playing the accordion, and spend time talking to people who knew him. how important is it for your process to go that deep? is it only some characters that require it. >> i say all characters require the same amount of depth.

all require the search and journey to find the core. that search may not be difficult. i know what it's like to be amin. and what it is like to be african. i'm african-american, that's a big journey to take, and understand the politics and the little things about who he was, what made him, what created his fears, what were the real world things and the imagined things that fuelled him to, like, make some of the choices that he made. it's like that journey, i'll pushing to understand that. in a way i'm driven a bit by my fear of not knowing. so i'm trying to get enough information to be able to do it in a true way. work. >> it's incredible to acquire that kind of knowledge and delve into someone like that, a murderous dictator, a guy responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths. you played another character, a mob assassin. >> ghost dog.

>> yes, and these are kind of - you know, not the nicest guys in the world, obviously. how do you find - i know you said this, that you tried to find something that is play. >> it's not that i'm trying to find something sympathetic. i'm trying to find the reason. everyone started with a core, i believe, of something good. the experiences of life dictates the behaviour, who they are, where they come. i'm looking for the thing that made me what i am, that humanizes the character, and it's that spot saying i understand that, i know that. that's like me. it's that journey. it's not a conscious effort to think of him in a good way. it initially do think of him as a human, you know. >> is that what let's you play an incredible variety of characters who you played from film to television and back to the crying game.

which is one of your first big starring successes. these characters are so incredibly different. >> yes. i enjoyed that. we shot the film in, like, two weeks. my character. you know. when i went there, my driver, he gave me his voice. i learnt how to speak with the right accent through him, do you know what i mean, through his experience, and they figure out the character in a lot of ways. >> still ahead on "talk to al jazeera". forest whitaker was accused of shoplifting at a high end deli in new york. he talks about the incident and what it says about racial equality in america. >> these people have decided that today they will be arrested >> i know that i'm being surveilled >> people are not getting the care that they need >> this is a crime against humanity >> hands up! >> don't shoot! >> hands up! >> don't shoot! >> what do we want? justice! >> when do we want it? >> now!

>> they are running towards base... >>...explosions going off we're not quite sure... >> fault lines al jazeera america's emmy winning, investigative, documentary, series...

you're watching "talk to al jazeera", i'm antonio mora,

speaking with academy award winning actor forest whitaker. i want to talk about "the butler", a terrific movie. robin williams was in that with you too. >> sure. >> he played eisenhower, and you were in a scope with him. what was your -- screen with him. what was your reaction when you heard what happened to him? >> i know robin, it was tragic. you know, amazing loss. he's a beautiful person, an amazing mind. deep soul, you know. so it's really - it's really unfortunate. i wish i could have understood or if i could, you know, maybe had been able to help. i don't know. >> "the butler" painted a portrait of american race relations for more than half a century. where do you think we are today, especially in light of something

that happened to you last year, which i did not know about, which was that you were stopped and frisked and accused of shoplifting at a high-end deli? new york city where you had gone to pie yoghurt. >> right. certainly, i mean, racial equality hasn't been completely found. you know, people are always looking at differences and fighting it. i think that was really unfortunate event that happened, you know. it happens to many people. many people, i think, mainly a lot of people of colour, experienced this kind of discrimination. because i wasn't doing anything - he made a mistake, wasn't looking, saw a guy walking out and decided to do this, you know. and it's unfortunate that it happened. it's unfortunate when it escalates to someone being killed or whatever because of a misjudgment of character or stereotypes, or because of their

own fear. film obviously with "the butler", it tries to move you through different ways to how we moved to where we are stood of so-called equality, and slavery from all the way through, and shows us the different ways to protest and continue to achieve or try to continue to achieve which is fairness of life, liberty and happiness, the american dream, by martin luther king talked about, the treatment that we should all be able to share in. it's the american dream, not the african-american dream, the american dream, what the constitution says. until it's acquired, until we can gather it and have it, the country will never become what it's supposed to be what it says it is. we can see these things happening. i produced a film last year that explored that with elements of tragedy that happened with oscar

grant and what happened with him. all these things influenced us. when you look at the gaol rate and things of that nature. how many people are in prison, you are looking at one out of 2.3 million people of colour black, you know, individuals are in prison. the other 50% is latin and black. there is a disparity and a problem, and we have to address it in some way. i think trying to look at all the different ways to do that, while recognising that we, as a nation have a lot of opportunities that others don't have, but recognising that this exists. and that you have to deal with it, and to heal it to reach truly what we are trying to become, to evolve to become america the country, the place that we say we'd like to be. >> i know you are trying to take the dream and opportunities to kids around the world. it's a pleasure to have you with us, forest whitaker, best of

luck with your efforts, they are important ones. >> true. >> great to see you. the day after a shooting, rampage in it's corridors.