Romadal
Romadal is so cute.
The show is alright, but Romadal is the only reason
I watch. Ilike how he keeps calling averybody B*tch.
Dan white is sooo sexy.
Making the cut
Hampton Roads Academy graduate stars in the Showtime series 'Barbershop'
BY MIKE HOLTZCLAW
928-6479
September 10, 2005
Dan White is not an ex-con. He just plays one on TV. White, a 27-year-old graduate of Hampton Roads Academy, laughs out loud when asked about similarities between himself and Romadal, the paroled felon he plays on the Showtime series "Barbershop."
"No, I haven't done time," White says. "Haven't done that. Not planning to do it."
Rather, he is the son of two doctors - his mother is a radiologist, his stepfather a urologist - and those who knew him in high school invariably describe him as a highly motivated, intensely focused student, athlete and actor.
Connie Holmes, the forensics coach at HRA who first got White involved in acting, has a vivid recollection of the series' premiere last month. Before the first episode, the cable channel ran a preview that included interviews with cast members.
"In that preview, it was Dan talking in Dan's voice, and the moment I saw him I started crying," Holmes says. "Then when the show came on, I thought, 'Am I going to sit here and cry for 30 minutes?'
"But when he walked on as Romadal, he is not Dan White. He is mysterious, and his character is rather nefarious. He was so convincing and so good that it was no longer Dan White on that stage. It was Romadal. And after that episode was over, there was this 'wow' factor that kicked in."
White was born in Jackson, Miss., but moved to Hampton with his family when he was in sixth grade. He first studied acting at HRA and, as a senior, became the first performer in the school's history to qualify for the national forensics championships. He went to the nationals in Florida that year doing a piece called "Blind Date," in which he portrayed a guy on a first date, as well as several of the character's alter egos that emerge in the course of
the evening.
While visiting his parents in Yorktown earlier this week, White stopped by HRA and talked with Holmes' current drama students. He told them that the voice he uses to narrate MTV's "Pimp My Ride" is actually a derivation of one of the voices he first developed while doing "Blind Date" a decade ago.
"I had interned for one of the executive producers (of 'Pimp My Ride') back in '98, and he'd heard me do that voice," White says. "So when I was getting ready to do the voice-overs for that show he told me to give him a little bit of the Isaac Hayes and Barry White thing. He knew it was a voice I use when I'm joking around, but really it goes all the way back to Hampton Roads Academy."
After getting his master's degree from California Institute of the Arts, White signed on with one of the top management firms in Hollywood, The Gersh Agency. The agency is influential enough, he says, that "it gets you in the room for the top jobs." It helped him get in the room when Showtime began auditions for a series based on the hit movie "Barbershop" and its sequel.
Most of the show's characters were taken directly from the movies, but the Romadal character was completely new. White earned the part over the course of three auditions last winter.
John Ridley - who writes, directs and produces the show - met with each of his cast members to talk about the characters and how they would develop over the course of the first season. White's character does not cut hair, but he must work at the barbershop in some capacity as a condition of his parole.
To get a better understanding of Romadal, White read several books about prison life and spoke with inmates and parolees about "life on the inside." What he learned, most of all, is that prison life is dominated by fear and intimidation.
"That's how they survive," he says. "Now that he's out of prison, Romadal still uses a fair amount of profanity. Well, 'fair' is a serious understatement. He uses a lot of intimidation to influence the other characters, because that's what he knows."
But White says the character will continue to grow throughout the first season.
"The exterior of a person hardened by the penal system is a large part of what you get initially with Romadal," White says. "As the season progresses, you get a little more insight into who he is, his heart and soul. What I think I bring to the character - in that we have very different backgrounds - is that there is a sense of loyalty that I certainly have and that I try to instill in Romadal. I wouldn't necessarily beat anybody up, but I would go to great lengths to take care of my friends and family."
He is enjoying the success of "Barbershop" - White, a big fan of Ice Cube and Cedric the Entertainer, says he saw both of the films "on the day they came out." And he's hoping that the exposure will lead to more work. On Monday, he will begin work on his first motion picture - a horror film called "Hunter's Moon."
Back at Hampton Roads Academy, Holmes says she is thrilled at her former student's success. But not surprised.
"Dan has treated this as a business since he was in high school," she says. "Some kids show up and some kids don't show up. Dan always showed up. He came in on his own - before school, after school, during lunch, any time he had a free period - to come and work with me. He's always been the choreographer of his own dance."