LOS ANGELES -- If you're accumulating a list of upcoming Oscar nominees, consider Michael Clarke Duncan a lock for the Best Supporting Actor list.
His is not exactly a household name, but you'll know the actor when you see him. Duncan is best known for the not-too-strenuous role of the roughneck oil-driller Bear in the 1997 summer hit Armageddon.
That's about to change. In his follow-up, the Chicago-raised Duncan got to stretch into a part as big as his massive, six-foot-five, 320-pound frame: the role of John Coffey, the enigmatic, magical Death Row inmate in the new Tom Hanks star vehicle, The Green Mile.
As soon as he read the Stephen King novel, Duncan says he felt a kinship with Coffey, a huge man with the heart of a child and the powers of a messiah.
"I cried when I read it," he says, a startling admission from someone as physically imposing as Duncan.
"I'm an emotional type of guy," he says, adding that he could relate to this gentle soul, whom everyone assumes is dangerous because of his size.
"When I was a kid, if I played too rough, (my friends) would be like: 'You're not mad, are ya?' 'No, I'm not mad, I'm just having fun like everybody else.'
"I could identify with John Coffey and I figured, 'Nobody else could play this guy, and I didn't want anybody else to play this guy.'
"I claimed it the minute I read the novel."
If he wins an award for his work, expect him to thank two important people. One is his mother. The other is Bruce Willis.
It was Willis, Duncan says, who told him about the role of Coffey while they were shooting Armageddon in Orlando.
"He said, 'Michael, I have the role of a lifetime for you.'"
Willis told him that King's book was being adapted by the writer/director of The Shawshank Redemption, Frank Darabont.
"He said, 'There's a role in this movie for a guy that is you.'
"He said, 'I'm always doing favours for you, but this is the last favour. I'm going to call Frank Darabont when we get back to LA. and after that, I'm through. But you are this guy.' "
If Willis got the ball rolling, it was Duncan's mother who urged him to become an actor in the first place.
Duncan is moved to tears when he describes his mom. His father left when he was just five, so his mother worked 18-hour days cleaning houses to support Duncan and his sister. She trained him to be an actor from the beginning.
"When we were reading those See-Jane-run books, I could not read it like anybody else," he says. "My mother was teaching me how to read with feeling. So, I'm in there and instead of saying 'See ... Jane ... run,' I had to say, 'SEE Jane RUN. WHY does Jane RUN?'
"I said to my mama, 'Why can't I read like everybody else?' And she said, 'Because you're not going to be like everybody else.'
Duncan's eyes shed more tears when he describes how his mother is suffering from a debilitating case of lupus, but promises she'll be in attendance at the official premiere of The Green Mile.
"She has to be there," he says.
"She's really proud of me because it's something that she wanted to do. But she didn't get the chance to do it," he says. "And I guess I'm living her life."
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