Sexy Black Men & Books

The cool thing about wordpress is that they allow you to see all the stats for your blog. I can see referers, search engine terms, and clicks. Based on this, I discovered Queen Esther’s blog and found a cool post that I just have to bite. I hope she doesn’t mind. She titled the post, “If this celebrity knocked on my door, I’d run away with them.” Well, I’m going to do mine with a literary twist. Below are my top choices for sexy black men, but since this is a book blog, I’ve decided to connect them with a book in some sort of way. Maybe they mentioned their favorite book in an interview or maybe they played in a book turned movie. Whatever the case may be . . . I’m sticking to the theme.

Derek Luke

 Q: Had you read [Finding Fish] and did that have any impact on how you approached your role or was it more you and Denzel looking at the script?

DL: I thought I was set once I read the book because the script came first and then the book came in 2000. I remember running out of my house at night — I was living on Lake Avenue in Pasadena. I was reading the book and it was a powerful story, but it seemed different. I thought, “Man, I’m going to be so prepared for whenever they audition.” I get to the audition and they say, “Even though it’s the same, we want you to bring something different to the table.” And you know, I’m in there talking with Antwone and Denzel, and I’m like, “Yeah, sure.” But in the back of my head I’m like, “How can I do that?” (Laughs) (Source)

Michael Ealy

Q: Had you read “Their Eyes Were Watching God” prior to auditioning for the movie?

Michael Ealy: . . . I did read the novel prior to auditioning but the first time I read the novel was 10 years ago and I liked it so much that I bought copies for the women in my family. So please go out and encourage people to read this book. By all means.

Q: Do you think that making books into movies deters or encourages young people to read the novel?

Michael Ealy: Good question. I would say both. I remember being young and watching A Raisin in the Sun with Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee as a movie and that made me want to read the play. I think it can work. It’s up to the individual. I think ultimately books and plays are often better than the movies but it doesn’t hurt to have both. (Source).

Ving Rhames

In 1966, when King was the biggest numbers banker in Cleveland, he beat to death a man who owed him money. After serving fewer than four years of a second-degree murder conviction, he was paroled and immediately got into the boxing promoting business, helped by, among others, rock and roll songwriter/ performer Lloyd Price and Muhammad Ali. Soon, King was arranging the “Rumble in the Jungle,” the Ali-Foreman fight in Zaire in 1974, which was followed by the “Thriller in Manilla,” the Ali-Frazier fight in 1975. Newfield, in meticulous detail, shows how King promoted white racism and black racism with equal enthusiasm; his ties to the Cleveland mob; how he “stole” Larry Holmes; his betrayal of both Price and Ali; his relationship with Mike Tyson; and his very creative bookkeeping, which led to a 1994 indictment for wire fraud. Newfield, a syndicated columnist with the New York Post, has written a scathing portrait of America’s #1 boxing promoter.

Famed actor Ving Rhames, who has starred in Rosewood and Pulp Fiction, deliver[ed] a remarkable portrayal of boxing promoter Don King in HBO’s biographical drama, Don King: Only In America.

Nate Parker

KW: What interested you in doing Blood Done Sign My Name to play an important civil rights figure like Ben Chavis?

NP: To put it plainly, it was the fact that it fit my model. I prefer to make movies which not only have a message for “then” but a message for “now.” Here was this 22 year-old brother who had no idea what was about to happen, and yet, when it did, he stepped into it in a way which changed an entire community. There was leadership and a sense of accountability in this young man, and those are qualities I can talk about in 2010. So, when I read the script, I knew that it could serve as a tool in the present for some of what ails our community.

KW: How did you prepare for the role?

NP: I read everything I could about the period, including the book the film is based on. The book was incredible because it deals with racism, white supremacy and the black inferiority complex in a real way, and it illustrates how they can be a cancer on a community.

KW: And how does that relate to today?

NP: I look around today, and I see the Prison-Industrial Complex, and how 50% of our brothers and sisters are behind bars, and how half of us are dropping out of school. And I look at the escalating HIV rate in the black community. These are issues now, and we need leaders to address those crises in the way that Ben Chavis was effective at inspiring a whole generation of kids. [ . . . ]

KW: What was the last book you read?

NP: Faces at the Bottom of the Well by Derrick Bell. (source)

Happy reading, y’all.