Steve Pratt talks to Cuba Gooding Jnr about the claims he's made poor choices after winning an Oscar for Jerry Maguire.

YOU have to wait until the final credits roll to see Cuba Gooding Jnr's most surprising work in his new film The Fighting Temptations. There you'll see the Oscar-winning star perform a breath-taking breakdance routine.

Not quite what you expect from the actor whose portrayal of football player Rod Tidwell in Jerry Maguire earned him an Academy Award as best supporting actor. He reveals that his career began breakdancing as a street performer, before turning professional as one of the back-up dancers to Lionel Richie at the closing ceremony of the 1984 Olympics.

His breakdance turn in The Fighting Temptations arose from the director asking him what he'd like to do on screen over the credits.

"I was sore for days after dancing. I don't move like I used to," says Gooding Jnr. He didn't get to dance in the film itself as his character, an advertising executive back his small home town to organise a gospel choir, is an awkward mover.

Since the Oscar win, his movies have included serious dramas, including Instinct with Anthony Hopkins and Men Of Honour with Robert De Niro, as well as more forgettable, lightweight fare such as Boat Trip and Snow Dogs.

He doesn't necessarily think the Oscar has stopped him getting the kind of roles he'd like because all kinds of factors come into play when casting. "I know there has been a lot of criticism in the roles I've done afterwards, that they don't live up to what Jerry Maguire was," he admits.

"It's funny when I read that. I can either buy into it or hear it and move on. One studio head said my role choices were that of a 40-year-old woman. I think the statement he was trying to make is that being an African-American actor, the choices are limited.

"To change the opinion of film-makers is a fight. Roles that aren't written African-American are presumed to be Caucasian. I was always a huge fan of the Daredevil comics and went after a role. The director wouldn't even meet with me because he said the role couldn't be black. You'd think at this point in my career I'd at least earned the respect to sit and have a conversation with him. Things like that to me are kind of silly."

Accepting roles in family films isn't a conscious effort because he's a parent. Having children doesn't define the roles he takes. "I'll be open to take kids' movies but it won't stop me doing a film with Quentin Tarantino or anybody," he says.

He has a good meaty role in forthcoming release Radio, which is based on a real life story. He plays a mentally handicapped man who's still at high school age and wanders the streets of a South Carolina town pushing a pram with a radio on it.

"Wait until you see that one. Talk about an awkward performance. It's been well-received and I found I lost myself in the character," he says.

The role came his way through a friend who's a studio executive, although he's aware the makers were originally courting a "real big star", who turned down the role. Gooding Jnr also knows that when casting an African-American character, the list of black lead actors who are "somewhat bankable" is pretty short. His other role is voicing a horse in the new Disney animation Home On The Range. He recorded his contribution over a four-year span, with the makers taking the microphone to wherever he was working including LA, Canada and Germany.

It was movies rather than individual actors that made him want to act in the first place. "I remember as a kid seeing Superman and wanting to do that, and The Wizard Of oz and wanting to be in that," he says.

"I liked people like Tom Cruise and Timothy Hutton, guys closer to my age who were doing the things I felt I wanted to do. Then there was Eddie Murphy."

He made the decision to go with drama rather than sport - he was a pole vaulter and track star - in his high school senior year when football practice classed with play production.

While playing the highwayman in a school stage version of Tom Jones, an agent came backstage and offered to represent him. Eventually he decided to wait a year until he was 18 before pursuing his dream.

If his own children want to act, he says they'll have to wait until they reach that age. "I don't want them to be child actors because it's too much responsibility on them," he says.

* The Fighting Temptations (PG) opens in cinemas tomorrow

Published: 11/12/2003