Article: Cuba Gooding Jr.: still passionate about his craft.(CENTER STAGE)(Interview)

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No one forgets the characters Cuba Gooding Jr. plays. Distinguished and versatile, Gooding can play for laughs, for thrills, or for tears.

This has been a busy year for the actor--he has four notable projects coming up. In November, he stars with Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe in Ridley Scott's newest crime drama, American Gangster. The film tells the harrowing true story of a 1970s drug lord who used the coffins of American soldiers returning from Vietnam to smuggle heroin into Harlem. Gooding says he was drawn to the character of Nicky Barnes, a vicious drug lord who plays opposite Washington's title character, Frank Lucas.

"I'm ...

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