NASHVILLE, TENN. — Jeff Obafemi Carr says he doesn't capitalize the first letters in his name as a reminder to stay humble. Despite starring in the newly released film The Second Chance, he plans to keep it that way.
"I've not allowed myself to be excited about this process. The gift of being able to do this is the big thing, not me," he says.
A stint in juvenile jail at age 17 convinced Carr to turn his life in a positive direction, a decision that has led to an impressive list of accomplishments, starting with his tenure as student government president at Tennessee State University. In 1990 he led a student protest that spurred state leaders to allocate more than $140 million for campus improvements. Since graduation, he has performed as a jazz vocalist, acted in professional stage productions around the country, and founded the nonprofit professional Amun Ra Theatre, which has produced Langston Hughes' Black Nativity and run summer drama camps for young people, among other projects.
Carr has also written plays, including a seven-character one-man show called How Blak Kin Eye Bee? and Before the People Came, which was first mounted by Amun Ra (an Egyptian phrase meaning "the hidden light") and later by Nashville Children's Theatre.
"I'm very sensitive to the notion of being a black actor because I know what it's like to be an actor of color in a place where your art is not seen as being important in other peoples' eyes, where it's on the back burner," Carr says. "To step forward like an Ossie Davis did, to step forward like Ruby Dee or Paul Robeson or Langston Hughes and say, 'Here's our culture on the front burner — we're just as important,' makes me feel it's an honor to say that I'm a black actor. Putting that on the table makes me part of a greater humanity, so long as we understand that just because we come from different backgrounds doesn't mean that one background is better than another."
Carr has also addressed social issues like these through published articles and as a commentator with National Public Radio's The Tavis Smiley Show and News & Notes with Ed Gordon.
What drives the 38-year-old Nashville native to do so much?
"If you're given a warehouse of food, your mission's clear," Carr says. "You have all this food you can't eat, so it's your job to share it with others. Likewise, I feel others have given me a warehouse full of stuff, and it's my job to share it, to give back in various ways, whether it's acting, music, writing, or some other form of communication."
Take The Second Chance, a film that had a limited national release in February. Shot in Nashville with a predominantly local cast and crew, it depicts the social divide between two fictional churches founded by the same man but with different missions: the urban Second Chance Community Church, which serves blacks, Hispanics, and others living in or near city housing projects, and the Rock, a suburban megachurch attended mostly by affluent whites.
At the film's dramatic core is the interaction between Jake Sanders (played by Carr), the activist Second Chance pastor, and Ethan Jenkins (Grammy-winning gospel artist Michael W. Smith in his first starring role in a feature film), the Rock's associate pastor and son of the churches' founder (J. Don Ferguson).
Initially, Steve Taylor, the film's director and co-writer, was looking for a well-known Hollywood actor like Don Cheadle or Andre Braugher for the role of Jake. But he changed his mind after meeting Carr and hearing him do a cold reading that, Taylor says, "completely blew me away." From then on, Carr "became a true collaborator in the project and brought an authenticity to the role that I'm convinced no other actor could have matched. As a fellow writer, his perspective was invaluable, and I frequently consulted him both in script rewrites and on the set."
"When I read the script," says Carr, "I said, 'This is honest,' because in real life you're going to face these situations, if not worse. I think that's what will make The Second Chance jump, in my eyes and my hopes, from a secularized Christian audience to the secular audience as a whole."
Carr also thinks people will see something of themselves in the film: "[It] is about people who think they're in different worlds, with different lifestyles and beliefs. They don't realize that they're actually in the same world, just different sides of the planet, turning in the same direction. I think it's very much a metaphor for our lives in general, and a very powerful story about faith, how we walk in our faith in different ways."
Is there a chance The Second Chance will take Carr away from Nashville? "I'll spend some time in L.A. and some time back in New York, where I lived for a couple of years," he says. "But I think I'll always maintain a home and a presence in Nashville. I want to maintain a presence here to provide opportunities for artists in Nashville to have work and gain respect here instead of having to go elsewhere."