Djimon Hounsou, 'Blood Diamond'

Supporting actor contender

By ROBERT HOFLER

Hounsou

It's a classic story told in a novel way: A father devotes his life to finding a kidnapped child only to discover that the child has been assimilated into an alien culture.

John Wayne played the role in "The Searchers." Djimon Hounsou plays it in Ed Zwick's current "Blood Diamond," essaying a man in search of his son in rebel-torn Sierra Leone.

"I've never even heard of the film," the 42-year-old Hounsou says of John Ford's 1956 classic. "And I saw a lot of John Wayne movies, and cowboy films with Gary Cooper, when I was growing up in Africa and France."

To Hounsou's credit, while the outline of "Blood Diamond" recalls "The Searchers," his intense, high-energy performance is a total reinvention, pointing 180 degrees away from the laconic, if not iconic, Wayne.

Hounsou began his career as a model, and the experience during his teen years helped his bigscreen career blossom.

"There was some good training in it. Overall, what I learned from modeling is to really not be concerned about the cameras around you. It is difficult to act like there's none around. Then again, having been a model, you can become too self-conscious about how you look, and that can be bad for an actor."

He would soon trade in the glamour of the catwalks for much more intense work, starring in such heavy dramas as "Amistad" and "Gladiator." Soon after, Hounsou received an Oscar nomination for his turn as an AIDS-afflicted neighbor in Jim Sheridan's "In America."

Now with "Blood Diamond," which he calls his most difficult shoot to date, there's more Oscar buzz.

"There was never an easy day, and it was a five-month shoot," Hounsou says. "One month into the shoot it occurred to me how physically and emotionally difficult it was. Day in and day out, we had something challenging, and it was getting painful."

Co-star Leonard DiCaprio ended up in hospital with knee injuries. Hounsou survived filming of the chase sequences in better condition.

"There was nothing light-hearted about this film," he adds. "We were in Africa in some of the most deprived areas, and seeing the life of these citizens makes you think twice. Even when we went to our hotel rooms at the end of the day, it never felt like we left the story of the film."

On working with Zwick, the pic's helmer, Hounsou explains: "He doesn't necessarily give you a lot of directions. That's one of the traits of a great director. They often don't tell you anything. They see that you understand the situation. They see what you give them and then they go from there.

"Good directors don't want to cloud your mind. I definitely prefer not to be dictated to on how a scene should be played. At the end of the day, I'm the instrument of those emotions. I have to understand how to bring it out."

Next Project: He'll be seen Friday in the fantasy action pic "Eragon" and is co-starring in indie "The Trunk."