tavis: good evening. from los angeles, i am tavis smiley. our guest is forest whitaker. he has just received an award. his participation ensured that two mary different but equally praised movies would get paid, including "lee daniels' the butler and his latest project "repentence," and we are glad you could join us for our conversation with tavis -- with forest whitaker, coming up right now.

>> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ tavis: forest whitaker is a true artist and activist, and academy award winner for his portrayal of idi amin in the last king of scotland, and then he turned in another could go performance in," and then"fruitvale

station," one of the most compelling movies i have ever seen. his latest movie will be in theaters this weekend, and it is called repentance, and we will take a look right now. >> we worked it out. >> another time. >> just a drink. a drink. >> i can't. thank you. >> i understand. you have got a lot of important places to be. i don't mean to bother you. thanks for coming in the first place. >> well, i hope that your journey brings you where you need to go.

>> she said you can't believe. tavis: port anthony. anthony. >> yes, he had to go through a lot. should i tell you? tavis: please. go ahead. plays a life coach/therapist, self-help guru who has met this man who is tormented due to mental illness, and he is trying to get anthony to be his coach, but he will not, and ultimately, the abduction, and he deals with him and tries to make him admit all of the things he has done wrong in his life. tavis: so we see what happens to e, and you are

pretty worthless. >> he was a construction worker, arie wife and kids, and place my wife, and it was too and hend he cracked, became slightly bipolar, and as a result of seeking help, and he is trying to get the truth, he is tormented by the fact that he does not know what happened to his mother, so he is searching and searching for the truth, and as a result, anthony mackie's character, he ends up abducting the other members because he is searching for the truth. he is searching for the bottom of everything. have 25 questions in my head right now, so let me slow myself down. i am always so glad to have you on the program. but number one, why does forest

whitaker at this time in his career played his character? why would you want to play this? >> it is fascinating. it is a thriller. and exploringng, mental health, loss, pain, especially when someone is reaching for love -- he loves his wife so dearly. he is trying to tell his wife that he is ok, that he is alright, so his wife will give him a second chance, and he lost his mother, and it explores deep love and what happens when you lose yourself because of it and what happens in the mind, as well, and mental illness is something we have to explore to try to understand. tavis: i do not want to limit you with this very question, because it is true in your career you play a lot of characters, and you play fun-loving characters, and i do not know why i cannot remember, but i saw you with gregory hines

on and you have played some great characters in your career, so i do not want to diminish you with this question, but there is something about you that allows you to play so brilliantly these theseters that have tortured souls, if that makes sense -- if that does make sense, what is it about you or your trading or about whatever that allows you to be drawn to some of these characters and pull them off so well -- what is it about you or your training? >> looking at the reasons why people are the way they are. amin, where you can pull away all of the experiences. you try to pull away all of the experience is to get to the core of humanity to get to that light, and it is that i am searching for in all of my work, you know what i mean? it is a part of god, so these people that we misunderstand, and i am still trying to understand him a the pursuit to

deepen my connection with humanity, with others, to see myself in other people, to recognize that that soul in front of me, as tortured as they are, is me, is part of me, so that is my work. i am still inside that same journey inside that character, inside of that frame. tavis: when you do projects like this, when you are trying to get us to see what this tortured soul is dealing with in part of mental illness, maybe even you dohrenia, how do that through film, not documentary, through film, how do you do that without proselytizing and entertaining at the same time? >> yes. i think when you go to the human core of relationships, because relationships are so full -- my relationship with my daughter, which is so sweet and loving, it

is special in the movie, and when you see how deeply i love my wife, that gives you a fuller picture of what might have been a cardboard cutout before, and, of course, the movie itself goes in other directions, because anthony and another in the moving are going through their own journey with the brother. there is a triangle there, so this is very intriguing, watching everyone grow, and everyone is having to come to terms with what is the truth in their lives. iswife, and nicole, she having to come to grips with what is real, can we be together, are you saying, are you taking care of yourself, and anthony has to understand what is going on in his life, as well. doing that is very intriguing for people, and everyone is going through that, and we are watching it as a whole. no matter what race, creed, or collar, we are going

through these things with certain members of our family. and itvie is a remake, is being made with an all-black cast. what is the significance of that? or the top line, what is the significance for you, and i want to go deeper and talk about the significance of a black cast around the significance of this issue, mental illness, which even today is so maltreated inside of our community today, if you know what i mean. what it was originally called, and i said, this could be a very interesting film. we got another writer for it, and i suggested that we make it be a black cast, for that community, a very specific community, and he was really excited about that, so we went into that territory, and it just points out some issues. as you say, they are sometimes

not addressed appropriately. going it every day, just through the streets. you may see a homeless person. a large portion of those people have certain degrees of mental illness based on the pains of their lives, and inside certain communities because of different things, violence, will a station, abuse -- there is a lot of mental illnesses that are occurring around us. she is a breast -- is depressed or stays in her room, or you -- him,alk to you because he goes into rage. all of these things we see around us, to be addressed and dealt with, and sometimes you try to go back to the core of where it began, and in this case, my character is continually trying to go back to a moment where this happened that sparked this for him. something happened, and in his case, it was the death of his mother that sent him over, was

the tipping point for him, and when he goes to that truth, he is able to start to reclaim a certain part of his life. there are some people who will that certain abuses happened to them, that forced them to be, a tipping point that they fell over, and everybody except that that is the way it is, or doesn't accept and treats them as lesser than. >> is there a takeaway for black folk when they see this issue being wrestled with on the screen, with a black family? >> i think there is a couple of things. the core of what holds this character together is the love that he has for his family. in fact, it is the thing that makes him maintain himself at least in some way, and this is the issue of having to address our past pains, which have to be addressed by my character, have

to be addressed by anthony's character. he has to address the things done in his life in order to move on with his life. he has to address those things, and i think that is something that everyone, regardless of color, has to look towards, addressing certain issues that will allow them to move forward and embrace their lives so they can have true happiness, and the film deals with this, in an entertaining way, as you say. it is entertaining. since we are talking about films, let me talk about two issues relative to film. one, your personal film journey, and then the year that we have told what a year this has been in black film. we are days away from the big show, the academy awards. you have been on the stage in the past, winning the biggest award of the night as best actor. what is your thought at this stage, now that we're almost at

the end game, what is your take now as you look back on this year that you were told was this phenomenal year in black film? everywhere you went or everywhere you looked, there were conversations being had about the year that this was in black film. what do you make of it now looking back on it, particularly that you were a part of it? always been a lot of films being made by black filmmakers, and they were not seen or recognized in the way they were this year. i guess for me what is exciting is the diversity of the filmmakers, the diversity of the storytelling. it is like a completeness of telling the full story, and a courage to be able to start to recount our own history and stuff in a way that allows people to embrace it, and it is not the history of african-american history or black history. it is the history of this nation. it is a history that this nation

was built upon these principles, built on the principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and anything that is a break from that stands between us being what it stands upon, so all of that movement is just to allow the country itself to become actualized and hopefully be something for the world so it can be actualized in its fullness, and i think the movies that came out allowed us to see the fullness of the experience, and there is a greater fullness that is still to come, not just for the african-american community, but for the asian community, for all of us that are part of this tapestry, which is humanity, and i think that is what is exciting about it. this is a straightahead comedy, and this one is silly, you know what i mean? this is really powerful. when you look at 12 years a slave, that is a powerful piece. we are looking at this one about west man's holiday, and looking at this one where you're dealing with a social issue that puts a

human face on a social issue. butler."alled "the buts: and one called "the ler." to that film live up expectations, whatever those are? didn't live up to your expectations, and i ask that in part because you are diehard fans -- you have been so busy, you probably have not had time to go on the internet, but there is a lot on the internet about oprah got robbed, robbed, and you expect your fans to say that, but i want to ask you what you expect of the film, did it meet your expectations, and what did you make of the critical acclaim not this is fairly being met with a variety

of nominations for the award season? we entered in a few phases as an artist, as a human. it is one of those experiences as an artist that was transcendent for me. i expanded because of this film. so it was a great gift for me, and then i was really excited. it exceeded my expectations, and i think everyone's expectations, with how much people wanted to see the film. the film was number one weeks in a row, and then internationally, in france, number 13 weeks in a row, number one in all of these countries of the world, and people embraced the film and accepted the story, so i was really happy about that. i think it was really important, and, quickly, i think it does speak about the individual and the different journeys that you can make to create the world and the life that you think you deserve, and it shows that through haven's character and my

character, all the different ways, all the different possibilities to change your life, you know? awards, i cannot live in that space. there are some great films, some great performances. i am very proud of mine and some of the other performances that were great, and i am happy to celebrate them, because the time for whenever that is supposed to happen will happen, and right now, it allowed people to think and dream and hopefully leave a legacy for people to watch for years to come, so i am really happy about it. the top of this conversation that your intimate involvement helped to get a couple of projects made in the last year, one that we just talked about, the butler, and "fruitvaleit again, is just a powerful

film, and i encourage everywhere i have gone, on the radio show and in speeches around the country, i say you must see this, particularly that it happened to come out around the time of the verdict in the trayvon martin case on the so this story of oscar grant and what happened to him, everybody needs to see it. this is my opportunity on national television, my chance to thank you. i have a foundation called the tavis smiley foundation, go figure, that works with young people and has for years, thousands across the country, and every summer, we have a leadership institute on the campus of ucla, and kids from around the country come for and talk days to train about what it means to be a servant leader. you cannot lead people if you do not love people, and you cannot save people if you do not serve people. >> beautiful. tavis: we bring these kids out every summer, and they were out

last summer in ucla around the time it came out, and i wanted these kids to see it badly, and the truth is, i did not have hundreds of dollars to take these kids to the movie, and something just told me to call forrest whitaker, and he was on location, filming a movie, and literally within a matter of minutes, an hour or so, he called me back personally and made arrangements for the film, not for the kids to go to see the film, not that we would have to bust them and get them to see it, he had the film brought to us on the campus of ucla, and all of the kids got the chance to see that film, and i want to tell you and thank you in person, because the conversation -- these kids are there for about seven to 10 days, intense leadership training conference, but there was nothing in the conference that picked up the

conversation like it did when these kids had the chance to see the film, so i want to thank you for coming through for me in a clutch, in a matter of minutes, and that is a long way to get to asking how pleased you are about the response to that particular film? >> i really love what you are doing. itvale," i am so proud of the film. i am so proud to be involved in it, because it really does put a human face on a situation that we need to look at and act on, and i was fortunate enough that a student came in to meet with decided that meeting, i to make that film with him and michael b jordan, who ryan always wanted, and the amazing crew that follow the leader. the movie,hepherded and to bring this out. it is so important to have this dialogue, this discussion about this issue. as you say, it came out during the trayvon martin and george zimmerman. we are withere

another one. it is like this movie keeps on resonating. >> yes, it is unfortunate that this cycle is going, but at least if we can talk about it, maybe we can come to something for changing it. >> how bright do you think the future is for ryan, the young director out of there? we had a great conversation, but my sense is he has got more great work up his sleeve. >> he is a really centered person to be so young. i think he is a great filmmaker, and he willlmmaker, speak to us for years to come. studio commercial films, his sensibility is going to engage those, and it is going to open up and create dialogue around different things and show us sides of the world and sides of people lives that we probably do

not see. you, and ire i lose know you are such a humanitarian that i do not want to color this conversation too much, and asking you what you are working on, as far as your humanitarian work is, you have a lot of raw checks you are working on, what are you doing? what's my foundation just started our branches in mexico. we started working on our harmonizing program, which is a transformation program that tries to work with peace builders to become community builders in their neighborhoods, you know? first worked for the years, and we train them in conflict resolution and life skills. a life coach, things of those and trauma release, and then we support them. the program is a three-year program, and it is a monthly program, so they are working all of the time. they work on computers. we train them in computer

technology, so we have that program there and in south sudan. at the moment, there is the conflict going on. a lot of our programs were in the areas of conflict there, and in uganda, and we are working on a program here to engage with the school system, so we are working on the area of gang violence and bullying, and hopefully we will be working with cal state university to engage in that. asking on me close by a personal note, because there is always something to glean from these answers, how you balance your life, your acting, you're directing, you're producing, you are doing your foundation work, you have a wife and kids -- hey. balance in your life. how do you do this? >> i try to live my life in a holistic way so all of it intersects. because i am coming from the

same place. now, at the core of it, i am just trying to connect, so i am trying to be there for my butly, my kids, my friends, the rest of it also, it is integrating even more. my film work and the things that the philanthropic work, the worlds are crossing, so i can stay on track. working with unesco, it is usually in alignment with what i am doing with my foundation, and now we are starting to tell some stories. for example, i produced a film called rising from the ashes, and it is about getting away from the pain of genocide that they experienced, and that became part of the foundational work, and that was also a film i was really proud of. like i said, at the core of it, i am always on that same journey, so hopefully that light will be shed out on everything. find anyoneill not

in this town trying to shed more light, and on top of that, he is an artistic genius when it comes to his act inc. raftery in his movie, repentance, is this weekend, and if you want to be scared just a little bit -- >> yes. tavis: go check it out, with an all-star cast. .nthonymachie it is a great cast. you are always welcome here. as always, keep the faith. >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. tavis: hi, i'm tavis smiley. join me next time for a a check in for oscar nominees from nebraska, years a slave, and that is next time. we will see you then.

♪ >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ >> be more. pbs.

tonight on quest -- for nearly 80 years, the hetch hetchy aqueduct has been supplying drinking water to millions of bay area residents. but that pipeline is long overdue for a seismic upgrade. >> we've done a lot of things to improve building codes, to make sure buildings don't fall down. but all of that falls apart if there's no water. >> quest looks at the multi-billion dollar project designed to earthquake-proof this critical water supply. and since the dawn of photography, scientists have been capturing images of celestial objects in the night sky. now, astronomers in north carolina are attempting to save those historical records before they vanish. >> if we throw this stuff away, the opportunities of exploring this world around us go with them.