Don Cheadle is shadow-boxing in a lime green coat on a sidewalk on LaBrea Avenue in Los Angeles, much to the delight of a gaggle of onlookers taking pictures from Sprouts next door. They watch as Cheadle flows through tai chi moves for the camera, hyping himself up between set-ups. “There’s levels to this shit!” Cheadle declares as he drops pose after pose. People slow down their cars to catch a glimpse of the obvious celebrity; several shout, “Don!” from their windows. 

Where do they know him from? Everywhere. Marvel movies like Iron Man 2 and the Avengers series. Auteur cinema like Boogie Nights and Traffic. Tasteful crowd pleasers like the Ocean’s films. Countless hit TV shows like House of Lies. The rhythm of his career has a jazzlike structure, because, after decades of success, he has a jazzlike approach to work. “I’d rather sit in a room and smoke weed and play bass than be on a set I’m hating with people I don’t want to be with,” Cheadle says later, leaning back on a tucked-away couch. Most actors who dropped a line like that would sound like supreme posers. But Cheadle, who is calm and slightly aloof in person, radiates a genuine nonchalance. It’s not on him; it’s in him.  

The word most used to describe Cheadle in the bloated media landscape is “cool,” in the most innate sense. There are no external markers to Cheadle’s aura: no tattoos, no piercings, no radical haircuts, no outré outfits or wild personal lore. He’s just a relaxed elder statesman of stage and screen, melting into his roles like a second skin. He is genre-spry — an intuitive comedian, a wrenching dramatist — acting alongside the greats and portraying them alike. He first absorbed the spotlight in a villainous breakout role in Devil in a Blue Dress alongside Denzel Washington; embodied the prolific Sammy Davis Jr. in The Rat Pack; and directed, co-wrote and starred in Miles Ahead, a biopic of Miles Davis, the man who practically invented cool. Kendrick Lamar has an entire alter-ego based on Kung Fu Kenny, Cheadle’s Rush Hour 2 character. The coolest person in any given room probably thinks Don, now 61, is cooler than them. 

“I have a daughter almost exactly her age, and she’s a Libra too,” he says. “I already feel very paternal.”

“Don’s sick, evil, wicked,” Edebiri jokes, flipping the typical fawning interview on its head. Except she actually can’t help but be earnest about Cheadle, whom she admires not just for his talent, but also for the way he conducts his life. “He really cares about his partner and his kids and his family,” Edebiri adds, positioning Cheadle as an example of what a well-rounded life in show business can look like. The actor has been with his wife, interior decorator Bridgid Coulter, for three decades; they have two children, Imani and Ayana, who are largely out of the public eye. “He’s not afraid to stand up for things and to speak out.” 

Edebiri could be referring to many political moments in Cheadle’s career that arose after the actor starred in Hotel Rwanda in 2004, the searing film about the Rwandan genocide that garnered him a best actor Oscar nomination and prompted Cheadle toward public advocacy. There was the time in 2007 when he argued with then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during a visit to D.C., urging her — and the U.S. Senate — to be more vocal about the genocide in Darfur. Or in 2019, when Cheadle wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the phrase “Protect Trans Kids” while hosting Saturday Night Live. 

“I’m obviously politically active. I’m involved,” Cheadle says. “It’s scary and not completely clear… if we’re going to have the ability to salvage this fragile democratic experiment. I think we will, I hope we will, but I know we’re fighting against a real strong headwind, and the codification of a lot of things that are making it much more difficult, and at a rate that’s exponentially faster than anybody could have imagined.”

“Our lack of ability to fight, or have our own psyops and strategic response that has teeth and protection is alarming,” he adds. “Cardi B said, ‘When they go low, I go to hell.’ I was like, ‘Yes!’”

Cheadle is looking forward to experiencing New York after Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral victory. But, like anyone with a drop of political awareness, his expectations are tempered; he’s not interested in glazing a zeitgeist-y politician. “He’s coming in under siege,” he says of Mamdani. But, he adds, “I have faith. So we’re going to see how that plays out.”

Focusing on theater is also, perhaps, a respite at a time when Hollywood — like everything else — feels precarious. Shortly before our conversation, Netflix announced its bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, heralding a sort of cinematic apocalypse. (Netflix was subsequently outbit by Paramount.) “If everything is just going into the black hole of streaming, what even are movies?” Cheadle asks. “When three people are making everything, what’s it going to be? Just tentpole, four-quadrant movies that are watered down? I don’t know.” Although he’s starred in four-quadrant work, Cheadle has a more holistic approach to the roles he takes on. “I have very few gigs I ever just did to get paid,” he says. “I’ve always been like, ‘Oh, there's a character there. This is a cool story. I vibe with the creatives. I vibe with these actors. This script is great.’ Several things have had to line up. It’s not just like, ‘Here’s this big ass check.’ 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.”

That doesn’t mean Cheadle is backing away from the screen. He’s constantly working, his name connected to high-profile projects that may or may not go. He’s long been attached to Armor Wars, a Marvel spinoff announced back in 2021. (He demurs on further details: “I don’t know what the buzz is on that.”) He’s also reportedly going to be in the upcoming Ocean’s 14, which, according to George Clooney, has a great script and will begin filming this year. “I don’t know how people’s schedules are going to work… but we’ll see,” Cheadle says. If he’s in it, he would likely reprise his role as bomb expert Basher Tarr, whose Cockney accent is so thick and so divisive among viewers that Cheadle once swore he would never do a British accent onscreen again. When asked if he plans to keep that vow, Cheadle deflects: “It’s many, many years later.” Maybe, he posits, Basher has changed everything about himself. That thick accent? A thing of the past. The thing about Cheadle is that he’s always happy to switch it up.  

“I’m excited to do things I haven’t done before,” he adds of revisiting an old character. Or, like diving into Broadway — which, especially at this stage in his career, feels “exhilarating and exciting and alive.”

“You’re on the high wire. When you’re really in it and really playing with people that are in it too, and no one’s leading, no one’s following, it’s like playing jazz, you know what I mean? It’s like being in a great band and feeding off of each other,” Cheadle says. “There’s just nothing like it.”