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Updated
1/29/03 We're Hangin' With..... BIKER BOYZ' DEREK LUKE by: Lynn B. Hottie Derek Luke is currently getting great critical and audience acclaim for his title role in Denzel Washington's Antwone Fisher. In a year he's gone from selling t-shirts to tourists at the Sony Studios gift shop to landing two starring roles. Young Derek came all the way from New Jersey to pursue acting but had only done small guest appearances on t.v. shows like "Moesha" and "The King of Queens".
AGW:Did this role require a little less of you than your role in Antwone Fisher? Derek: It was much less an emotional roller coaster. AGW:Are you concerned with being typecast as the angry youth? Derek: No. Not at all. My mother told me something really important. She told me that I have purpose and everything that I do was purposeful. So, I believe if I'm presenting how men's lives have been changed, then that's not really a bad typecast. AGW:Tell the story of being discovered at Sony in the gift shop. Derek: I never get tired of telling that story. It was three weeks after my fifth audition for Antwone and I didn't hear anything and (the real) Antwone happens to be in the store shopping that day for his daughter and we strike up a conversation. It's so funny that he happens to be there when I got cast. So, we're walking out. He's on my right, I'm here (indicated left). We're just standing and I see Denzel and I go like this (he turns away) because I just felt like I don't want to try to mingle my way in. I turned and started talking to Antwone and in a millisecond Denzel comes in and says 'Antwone' and I'm like 'oh, please, please, please'. I couldn't hide it. Ever since then, it's been incredible. AGW:Antwone Fisher has gotten rave reviews and is up for nominations. Has that recognition changed things for you? Derek: I was so safe in who I was playing and I never thought being exposed would be like that. I would cry almost every minute on my wife's lap. I said 'man there's so many people touching me and I just wanted to act'. But now I understand there's more to it (a career) than just acting so my hat goes off to those guys that I see on the screen. AGW:For Biker Boyz, did you go to the biker training camp? Derek: Yeah. I almost hit a couple of human cones a couple of times. I had a lot of fun. I was nervous and sometimes I wouldn't want my wife there because I liked to stand up and I didn't like for people to see me falling. I had a lot of fun. Brendan Fehr and Rick Gonzales, we've crashed together many times. AGW:What did you learn about handling a bike? Derek: I learned that the machine is to be respected and that you are humbled by that speed and it's amazing how they refer to it as horsepower because, when you're sitting on it, if you've ever sat on a horse you feel the same intensity. You feel that power by going like this (leans) or going like that (leans) it's the same thing. Pretty intense. AGW:Had you ridden a bike at all before? Derek: Yeah. But it had a chain to it and I had to peddle it. (laughs). AGW:What did you learn about this world of weekend bikers? Derek: I learned that there is a whole culture of people that we don't understand. I would see a biker and be like 'oh, there may be a fight'. But you have these big, huge guys and they have honor within their club. We were shooting a particular scene and this guy was drunk and the next thing you know, one of the guys, the club President, went over to him and said 'listen, we're filming' you need to cut it out and it just stopped. There's honor and integrity within their (group). And they deal with a lot of stuff. AGW:What was the most difficult thing physically to do in this film? Derek: Most physical thing was the weight loss. I had to lose a lot of weight because he was a young character. I remember being eighteen, you could see more of my bones around my stomach area. I lost like 22 pounds. AGW:How did you lose it? Dieting teens want to know. Derek: No bread, no carbs, no sugar and a lot of help so I didn't fall out of it. AGW:What kinds of music are you into? Derek: I'm a big hip hop fan. Hip hop, jazz and classical. I like Eminem because he reminds me of Kid (his character) and Nelly, Cathleen Battle. There's a lot of artists I like. It's unlimited. AGW:What is your anti-drug in life? Derek: My mother showed me how to pray when I was five years old in the morning. Just a little short prayer for strength. So that has been my deterrent. But, without sounding like the good boy, I understand pressures, anxieties and if it wasn't for good people around me, I know I would have been strung out. AGW:What was the most difficult character or emotional aspect of this film? Derek: Trying to find the difference between Antwone and Kid. Kid was this fearless guy. He refused to back up and shrink. He therapy was speed, challenge, rivalry. I think he was very courageous. Antwone went through different things where innocence was robbed from him which pushed him back so much he had to come out fighting. Kid was a fighter from the start so it was two totally different characters. AGW:Have you had any weird fan encounters yet? Derek: Yes, I had some very cool encounters. Most of them have been the reactions from men. I've never seen so many men cry and be honest. I saw some really big guys come up and say 'Derek, you know, that movie was something else'. That almost made me cry because when I'm making it, it's not doing that for me. I just like 'man, this is a stressful day'. I think that was the fan approach I've been surprised about. AGW:Who were your role models growing up? Derek: Al Pacino, Denzel Washington. But, mainly, it was the home heroes I had. My grandmother was a fighter. She had so much fire in her. She raised eight, nine kids. She was the first one out of them to have a brand new car. She was very powerful. And then my mother. She raised three boys in the inner city and they are all three survivors and that's unusual. Without being gooshy, gooshy, it was mostly the women. AGW:What was the worst job you had? Derek: Selling icys, Italian icys. Downtown Norwalk where all the cute girls used to walk by. I had a bell and I would say (funny, high voice) 'Come get your fresh lemon, cold icys'. I had to have an apron tied to me. Now people remember and say 'man, you sold me some good icys'. I'm like 'is that all you remember'?
Derek: A woman that's very, very beautiful who had every chance in the world to date anybody she wanted. A woman that would marry me, making four fifty an hour and tell me that I would be a star the first day she met me. I woman that would sleep in the truck when we first got married for seven days. (He tears up a bit) That's emotional.. something like that.
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In
his new picture Biker Boyz, the actor had to switch gears and take
on a more physical role as a member of a motorcycle club who wants to
unseat the leader to become "The King of Cali". Until this film
the only "bike" Derek had been on had a chain and pedals! In
our chat we found the young, upbeat actor to have great respect for his
craft and for the women in his life who shaped his character. 
AGW:What
is your idea of your ideal dream woman? What qualities? You can describe
your wife.