Actor Michael Jai White, <em>Black Dynamite</em>

Director Scott Sanders's feature film Black Dynamite is a raucous, absurdist homage to '70s blaxploitation films, starring Michael Jai White (Tyson) as shit-kicking former CIA agent Black Dynamite. After his kid brother is mysteriously murdered at the hands of a sinister drug cartel, BD's drawn out of retirement to crack skulls all the way from L.A. to D.C. But when he uncovers a twisted conspiracy involving malt liquor, genetic mutations and Little Richard, his bloodlust morphs into a higher, more hilarious calling. And Sanders lovingly captures all that gonzo action on high contrast Super 16 Color Reversal Kodak film stock, for that extra '70s feel.

Black Dynamite screens at the Tribeca Film Festival one more time tomorrow night. You can watch the amusing trailer here, and here's the official website. White, who co-wrote Black Dynamite with Sanders and Byron Minns, spoke with us last week about the movie.

So you don't find the original blaxploitation films to be offensive or racist? God, no. When it first started it was an incredible thing of pride for African-Americans, who only had subservient characters as representations of them in years prior. So for the first time you had actual alpha males in leading roles and the movies were actually very quality films. It only became exploitative later when Hollywood realized you could make these movies in a matter of two weeks and with a very little budget. That's when it became exploitative; they started making these movies and short-cutting them and putting in very little money. That's when it gave way to that term: blaxplotation. Take a movie like The Mack; I would declare that if The Mack were done today, it would be nominated for an Academy Award. Basically, Hustle and Flow is like today's Mack. A lot of the earlier work was not exploitative and not demeaning at all.

Where did the idea for this character Black Dynamite come from? I came up with the idea while I was listening to my iPod, listening to James Brown's "Super Bad," and I thought of this character. I first named him Superbad until we found out that name was taken. But basically the whole concept of the story came to me while thinking about the song and I kind of developed it from there.

So is your personality much different than Black Dynamite or are you pretty much playing yourself in this? No, no. That's a kind of bigger than life character I created. That's not me.

When you were doing the film did you find the character getting under your skin when you weren't shooting? No, not at all. I've heard this concept about actors before, but I never quite understood that. When I hear that it makes me think that somebody may not be too sane. Maybe some folks use that as an excuse to be... I don't know, I mean if that works for people and makes them commit to it, that whole method acting approach, then fine. But I'm not from that school. I turn it on and turn it off like a switch.

But all the kung fu skills Black Dynamite has, you also have. Oh yeah, I spent a lot of time in martial arts. But for the movie I chose to do it more in a hokey manner. It's really ludicrous. Personally, I've been involved in martial arts since I was eight years old. And it was really fun to get a chance to play some of it.

That's what I thought was impressive, because a movie like this could have been done in a really half-assed way. But the martial arts and the combat and most of the stunts were all real, with you executing them. There's one part where you jump over a fence and do a foot plant off a wall in mid-air! How hard was that? Not hard. I've been doing this stuff for a really long time. I have friends who are stunt guys and martial artists and we just get together and do stuff like that for fun. So to do it on film is really a great opportunity.

It was funny; at one point we had a bunch of fight scenes on this one specific day, and I happened to really notice that each person who playing even the most minor stunt roles were in fact stunt coordinators in major films. And I'm like, "I have a Who's Who in the stunt world doing little bumps and falls!" Because we all came together for the pure enjoyment of it.

And the nunchuck work is incredible. How long did it take you to get to this level with that? Not to sound like a bragger, but that's really nothing. I didn't practice that; I haven't played with nunchucks for years. But I had done it for so long; I used to compete in nunchuck competitions with a really fancy type of nunchuck work. What I did for the movie is pretty much... I kind of toned it down because there's a level where it would take you out of the picture, and I never wanted to take people out of that time period. So I kind of toned it down and did some stuff on the fly. I didn't know what I was going to do. It was more improv.

You had an interesting career arc; you didn't originally set out to be an actor. Can you tell us about that? Well yeah, I enjoyed acting, but I thought it was something more for play; I thought I really needed to do something in what I consider the "real world." I was a school teacher. I was quite proud of it because I think I offered a great deal as a school teacher. It was only when I continued to do this hobby that I asked myself if I would blame myself if I didn't try it for real. I didn't want to be one of those older guys saying, "I could have done this." So in my off-season time as a teacher, in the summer, I would go to New York and audition for shows and eventually landed a major theatrical role. So I started doing theater pretty seriously and I left teaching. I continued to teach in my own way, because I've always been very active with motivational speaking around the country and I've been pretty active in the outreach-type programs.

Is it with at-risk children? Yeah, that's what I specialized in when I was a teacher: EMD, emotionally disturbed. So I had a lot to give to that world because I was pretty much one of those children myself. I've been on my own since I was fourteen. I really found a purpose in teaching, so I haven't left that behind. In a weird way what I do now enables me to reach more children.

Is that why in the film [spoiler alert!] there's this resolution in the end where Black Dynamite goes back to Pat Nixon and apologizes for hitting her? Is that part of what you were just talking about, trying to promote a positive thing? Well actually, with Black Dynamite it was more particularly entertainment, just a popcorn movie. There are certain messages that are in it, but we pretty much adhere to that '70s movie type of genre. And sometimes we're really exploiting it to bring about the comedy. So that's really the paradigm for the film. Regarding this whole teaching element, I really just wanted to make the character well-rounded and even, despite the absurdity of the entire thing.

And part of your childhood was originally spent in Brooklyn? Yeah, I was born in Brooklyn. East New York. Bushwick Ave and Chauncey, that area. I moved away in Junior High School to Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Have you been back to that neighborhood? Yeah, several times. I have family in that area.

Observed much change since you grew up there? My God, yeah. I think, unfortunately, the advent of the thug culture has taken hold in a really devastating way. Of course in the '80s, that whole crack thing, it hurt, it laid waste to a generation. And the influences of the whole hip hop and rap thing has glorified the thug way. But I've got to say it's a bit less so in Brooklyn than around the entire country. I've always been dealing with children, and I've noticed a marked difference from when I grew up, to when I was first teaching, to now.

A difference in a negative way? Yes, unfortunately. And it's exacerbated around the country. I think some of it could relate back to a reason for doing Black Dynamite. As a child, when I first saw Jim Brown, he was like bigger than life. He was the first real black action superhero. I wanted to be like him growing up. One amazing thing is that he's like a family member to me now. He's like the dad I've never had. So we spend a lot of time together; I work with him on a lot of outreach programs. I think we come from kindred spirits. Jim Brown and I play chess every month, and after I had the first part of the movie done, he and I sat in a theater in his house and he watched it. And that was kind of the most nervous moment for me because his opinion meant so much. And when he really loved it and enjoyed it and saw that a lot of the character I did was based on him, he was quite flattered. In one of the scenes I actually wore an outfit that he gave me. The white outfit.

That reminds me; there's a hilarious, absurd cut-away to Captain Kangaroo in the movie. And I meant to look this up because I'm thinking, "Wait, I thought he was dead." Was it a Captain Kangaroo stand-in or did I miss the fact that he's still alive? No, unfortunately I think Captain Kangaroo passed awhile back. But there was this... Sometimes I just go off in a certain direction; I'm still a student of Monty Python. Monty Python influenced me a great deal and I think some of those elements show up in Black Dynamite.

Additional assistance by Amanda Spurlock.