Don Cheadle has played some legendary figures, from Sammy Davis Jr. to Paul Rusesabagina. Now he’s trying to get a Miles Davis biography going, with himself as the legendary jazz man. Music lessons are already underway.
"I’m playing now, yeah," said Cheadle. "I’ve been touring so much and traveling so much, I haven’t been able to jump back into the lessons so much but I play every day."
He won’t have to be perfect for the film. It’s just an acting exercise really. "It’s a work in progress, I’ll tell you that much. It doesn’t sound good to me but I’m not going to play in the movie. I just have to play so I’m comfortable with it. We have all of Miles’ archival music. I’d never try to play it personally."
Cheadle is hoping to pull the project together before the anticipated guild strikes, but development is still too early to know about costars. "We’re just putting it together now and just writing the start of the script now.
Meanwhile, Cheadle stars in this week’s "Talk To Me" as socially conscious 1970s radio DJ Petey Greene, which currently enjoys an 83 percent Tomatometer.
