We're delighted to report that Don Cheadle, literal Marvel superhero and now Broadway lead, literally rolled up to our LA cover shoot all by himself, dressed in a sweatsuit and holding a floss pick in his mouth. No halo of publicists or handlers, no unruly fans frothing at the gates. It was pure, unfiltered Don reporting for duty.
"It was supremely casual," says writer Yohana Desta, who profiled our latest digital cover star and hung out with Cheadle at said photo shoot. Desta, who is no stranger to the typical high-maintenance, entourage-heavy constraints of interviewing a major Hollywood entertainer, says that spending time with the 61-year-old genre-spry industry veteran felt different. "Don is so established that this was one of the more relaxed pieces I’ve ever done," she says. "His place in the firmament is quite settled, and he carries himself as such."
In our cover story, Cheadle opens up about his debut in the Broadway play "Proof" alongside Ayo Edebiri (a self-identified Cheadle stan); his longtime devotion to theater, originally sparked by a high school teacher; and his read of the current political landscape. (Re: the Zohran Mamdani of it all: "I have faith." Re: democracy itself: "I know we’re fighting against a real strong headwind.")
"There was no conversational third rail with him, really," says Desta, who particularly enjoyed diving deep into Cheadle's history of activism: "I had no idea he had beef with Condoleezza Rice!" (This was 2007.) In some ways, it's the Cheadle mantra: Commit to your art, remember your training, and stay focused on the things that matter. As Cheadle puts it: "I've always believed that the money will come. I don't want to look back and think that I've wasted the one thing money can't ever pay for, which is your time.”
Read the full story here.
