everyone in Hollywood

If it's a truism that everyone in Hollywood comes from somewhere else, then Djimon Hounsou may well have come the farthest. Born in Benin, a French-speaking, key-

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shaped country on the underside of western Africa, the 6-foot, 2-inch actor first glimpsed his destiny in the Gary Cooper and John Wayne westerns that filled the small rural cinema of his youth.

Still, many of his roles have been tethered by African roots -- in Amistad,In America and Edward Zwick's Blood Diamond, a political thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio and set in the illicit African diamond trade against the backdrop of Sierra Leone's 1990s civil war. There is growing speculation that his

He's very considered," says Zwick, finding the precise word to describe the 42-year-old actor's peculiar mix of intensity and reflection. "He's West African and a phenomenal actor, the right age and all of those things. But if you look beyond that, you find someone that is deeply, deeply soulful."







Hounsou, the youngest of five children in a family where both parents were cooks, went to live in Lyon, France, at age 13 with his brother Edmond, who was studying law. There he gave up a promising boxing career in deference to his mother but couldn't meet her demands that he become a doctor.

Heading for Paris instead, he spent his 20th year homeless, sleeping outside the Pompidou Center, where he harbored fantasies of becoming an actor. Hounsou was discovered by a freelance photographer who brought him to the attention of fashion designer Thierry Mugler.

In quick succession, he became a major runway model, was photographed by the likes of Herb Ritts, moved to Los Angeles, became a Gap model, transitioned to music videos (Madonna, Janet Jackson, Paula Abdul) shot by future A-list directors (David Fincher, Michael Bay), then was chosen by Steven Spielberg to star in 1997's Amistad.

                    Living

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"Living in France and auditioning for modeling jobs," says Hounsou, "countless times I heard, `You're too dark-skinned' or `You're too African-looking, your nose is too flat, maybe you want to redo your nose and make your lips smaller, bleaching your skin would help.' I'm thinking, `What of me belongs to this industry? If every single thing you see about me from the outside is so wrong, what exactly is it that you like?' It's not something that I curse, and I was very grateful to have the spoils of it, but when I had the opportunity to move into something I liked doing, I took it."

With his role in Gladiator three years later, Hounsou began working regularly, albeit invariably as characters with African roots.
"The continent of Africa has provided so much for the world -- it was the cradle of life, civilization and so much wealth," says Hounsou. "And yet malnutrition, famine, health problems, the genocide in Darfur -- if it's not in someone's explicit interest, it doesn't get dealt with."
Hounsou participates in the Entertainment  Campaign to combat AIDS and eradicate global poverty and makes appearances on behalf of Oxfam, the former Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, which also targets entrenched poverty. And through his production company, Belly Serpent (named for the mythological origins of Dahomey, the antecedent of his native Benin), he is actively seeking to "tell African stories through the eyes of Africans."

"For some of us who don't have the luxury of traveling outside the country and seeing other cultures," he says, "[film] is arts and entertainment of the best tools ever for understanding ourselves. It's instrumental -- vital -- to our evolution as human b