Danny Glover. Danny Glover. Danny Glover. His name pops up repeatedly when you surf the Internet for HIV/AIDS-related Web sites. Whether he’s lobbying South African President Mbeki to take bolder steps to battle Africa’s AIDS pandemic, participating in the One Billion Against AIDS Benefit Concert in Johannesburg, or announcing the launch of the Black Media Task Force on AIDS to increase AIDS coverage–Glover is out there making a difference.

Since 1998, Glover has served as the first Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Program, traveling and speaking extensively throughout Africa; in 2000, Danny was the only Hollywood celebrity to attend the International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa; and, this past April, just days prior to our encounter, he attended the Day of Hope: Fight AIDS in Africa rally held on the West Capitol steps in Washington, D.C., to demand that Congress appropriate more money and provide necessary life-saving treatment for people with AIDS worldwide.

Glover seems to be in constant motion, even on the day of our interview. Having just arrived from Oakland, his flight delayed, our interview is bumped ahead one hour, and sandwiched between meetings with his agent, in whose conference room in Beverly Hills I await Glover’s arrival. As life goes, when you wait for something, it never comes; the moment you leave, it shows up. Case in point: Glover arrived while I was in the loo. What timing! When I return to the conference room, Danny is standing by the spread of snacks and soda, munching on a pretzel. His large stature belies his gentle nature. He has a handsome, striking appearance. As I introduce myself, he apologizes for being late. I inquire about the Day of Hope. "It went well," he says, taking a sip from a bottle of Calistoga mineral water. "We had a variety of speakers, including rabbis, ministers, as well as a group of participants who are living with AIDS."

The photographer sets up and asks Glover to sit briefly by the window for the cover shot. Glover seems surprised, almost agitated for an instant, that he may not be properly dressed for a cover shot. After momentarily considering it, he lets out a sigh of relief, "It’s a good thing I have a dinner event this evening, otherwise I wouldn’t have on a suit." After a few snaps, we convene at the conference table. Danny is a bit tired, yet focused and forthcoming.

"I first became aware of the devastation of AIDS when I lost a fellow actor to the disease back in 1985," Glover notes, sitting in an executive-style chair and radiating a business-like demeanor. "I remember while working on a film, I would take him food during the day. At the time, he was in denial. He never said he had AIDS, and he never indicated to me a lot about who he was in his life. I was there to provide comfort–to honor his privacy and to be his friend." In 1990, the circle grew smaller as Glover’s brother, Rodney, was diagnosed with AIDS. "He is currently doing well, but for a period of time, his lifestyle did not embrace the fact that he was dealing with something very serious. He continued the lifestyle that had caused his infection because he had been incarcerated for a period of time. But recently he has changed his lifestyle for the sake of his two young children."

Besides Glover’s brother, Danny’s family includes his wife of twenty-five years, Asake Bomani, and their daughter, Mandisa. Raised in San Francisco, Glover lived in a public housing project until the age of ten. After graduating from San Francisco State College, he worked as a civil servant. At twenty-eight, he became interested in acting, and attended the Black Actors’ Workshop at the American Conservatory Theatre. Glover weaved his way to Broadway, eventually starring in Athol Fugard’s Master Harold...and the Boys and received wide critical acclaim. He made his film debut in a small role in the 1979 Clint Eastwood movie, Escape From Alcatraz. Subsequent films include: Iceman, Places in the Heart, Witness, Silverado, The Color Purple, Grand Canyon, To Sleep With Anger, Antz, Lonesome Dove, Bopha!, and Beloved.Glover’s latest film, The Royal Tenenbaums, was recently in national release.

Though best known as Mel Gibson’s lovable partner in the Lethal Weapon film series, of which there are now four, Danny portrayed Nelson Mandela in Mandela a 1987 TV bio movie, and in 2000, he co-starred with Angela Bassett in Boesman and Lena, a film adapted from Athol Fugard’s classic play. The love story takes place under apartheid in South Africa, and apartheid is an issue that is very deeply heartfelt to Glover, as is the current AIDS situation in Africa. Despite a busy acting career with over fifty movies to his credit and being a dedicated family man, Danny is active and committed to ending the AIDS crisis. What made his activism reach a global level? "To answer that question, you have to understand where I come from," Glover reflects. "I had been so close to the continent of Africa perhaps from the time I was about nineteen- or twenty-years-old. I had to define my life in such a way that I would spend time working in Africa in some capacity. I majored in economics at San Francisco State. I wanted to be a part of a larger community that encompassed Africa. When President Kennedy created the Peace Corps and VISTA as a way for America to become a more generous country, I wanted my level of generosity to be expressed on the continent of Africa. So I came out of that consciousness–that experience. I’ve never abandoned my relationship with the continent."

Since Glover’s late arrival, our allotted time has been cut. Knowing this, Danny is very intent on unleashing what he thinks, and his excitement propels him to exude a passionate and continuous flow of thoughts.

"To answer your question, the decisive moment when my activism reached a global level was when I accepted the post of Goodwill Ambassador," he says. "In order to deal with the pandemic, I felt we had to deal with issues of infrastructure, poverty, and all those issues because–as we all know–AIDS is an opportunistic disease. Poverty, internal conflict, and an array of other problems are contributing factors to the strength of this pandemic. Healthwise, Africans are worse off now than they were thirty years ago. People are more vulnerable and, as a result, I’ve made it clear that in the fight against AIDS we have to link the issue of AIDS to all of these other issues."

With whole communities being wiped out in Central and sub-Saharan Africa, Glover encourages others to tighten the connection between the U.S. and Africa. "Right now there are a number of funding bills in Congress and, in addition, there are other things that are happening outside of Washington to strengthen this tie. Portland, Oregon [Glover’s home] has a sister city in Africa which supports the fight against AIDS by heightening public awareness of the problem and by providing monetary support. Telluride, Colorado, has a similar relationship." Glover eases back in the chair for a moment, then suddenly sits erect. "America is one of the most stable, the most economically enhanced, and powerful countries in the world and we should certainly advocate for more resources in the fight. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan estimates that we need in excess of ten million," he clears his throat and arches his eyebrows, "excuse me, ten billion dollars a year for this fight. And we’re not getting anywhere that amount."

Consequently, Glover is not very enthusiastic about the Bush administration, or its new director of the Office of National AIDS Policy, Scott Evertz. When I mention Evertz’s name, Glover quizzically looks off in the distance, trying to recall who he is. "I don’t hear a lot about Scott Evertz so that means he certainly is missing in action on the job," chuckles Danny, then adds, "but maybe he’s been drowned out by the other concerns of the nation and national policy." He thinks for a second. "But even when there’s been an opportunity, I haven’t heard his name mentioned as we talk about AIDS. This is not acceptable in a leadership role. I don’t think the present administration and the leader of that administration have provided the leadership necessary in the fight against AIDS."

For the past few moments, Glover’s assistant has been silently flagging him, warning that the meeting with his agent commences in a few minutes. He acknowledges, assures me that we will continue the interview afterward, and then proceeds back to where he was before the interruption.

"When do you see the U.S. administration on the forefront of AIDS?" Danny asks pointedly, sounding like Moze, the wise and insightful character that he portrayed in Places in the Heart. "Even when the primary AIDS population at one point in time happened to be homosexual, white males, even then you had a hard time getting the public officials to come out. And what’s disappointing now is that we are twenty years down the road, and we haven’t had a more forceful announcement from the administration about our willingness to fight the issues that surround AIDS." Glover pauses and looks out the huge window that frames a spectacular view of Century City. "We have lost friends, but the first prism through which we viewed AIDS was connected primarily to homosexual men. But now we see the demographics changing."

Indeed, according to the recent CDC stats, African-American women and men now have the highest rates of HIV infection. Although African-American males only make up thirteen percent of the nations population, it is estimated that they account for more than half of all new AIDS cases in the U.S. Furthermore, nearly half of all men newly infected with the virus are black, and sixty-four percent of all women with AIDS are black. According to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, African-Americans now consider AIDS as the number-one health problem facing the country and the world. What is Glover’s take on this? "You need to make a distinction between the various segments of the African American community. If we look at certain age groups, HIV infection is more prevalent than in other age groups. Teens are being hit hardest and are the most vulnerable and also, in particular, African-American women."

With that, we stop and Glover departs for his meeting. Almost two hours later, true to his word, he returns–ready and revved. He picks up where he left off with AIDS in the African-American community. "Today we have a youth culture that deals with a certain level of self-destruction. Despair within certain segments of the community adds to this. I also believe there is a kind of macho arrogance that comes out of the repressive, marginalized existence that one has in which one’s sexuality is expressed in very unhealthy ways. All this has an historical connection to it; media imagery connected to it that is often false, often conjured, and often misguided. To some degree, in all those dynamics, there is a certain level of urbanization–and what has happened with that urbanization?" Glover sternly questions. "So we take all those elements and throw those in some sort of caldron. It then explains some of the dynamics and some of the challenges, I believe, in creating a dialogue that addresses teens and speaks to them in a way that reflects the fateful kind of existence, or journey, they are on."

Glover’s journey has brought him to a high profile advocacy position for human rights. In 1989, Danny and other artists founded Artists For A New South Africa (ANSA), an organization dedicated to furthering democracy and equality in South Africa, and confronting the AIDS disaster. Coincidentally, on the morning of our interview, a blurb appeared in the newspaper about Anglo American, a London-based mining conglomerate in South Africa that reversed its decision to cover the expense for AIDS drugs for its workers, twenty percent of whom are HIV-positive. When hearing this, Danny tenses slightly. "It is unacceptable! Unacceptable!" he firmly repeats in his low and eloquent voice. "This is sending the wrong signal. You’re sending a signal that you don’t care. It’s important that we call attention to this and organize to bring about a reversal."

This trademark of passionate activism also extends into other causes besides AIDS: from serving on the board of a math empowerment program, to being an advocate for literacy, to giving a million dollars to TransAfrica Forum, an African-American lobbying organization. What motivates this busy actor to be a civil rights crusader? "I’m fascinated with knowing more about people’s stories. It comes from my grandparents, from my parents, in some sense, and from a degree of activism that was prevalent in my family life. It is part of the cultural memory that I have. I’m fueled by that," he says zealously. "As an actor, you are always trying to understand the human dynamic. Philosophically, as an artist, you always try to understand the context of that and your relationship to it. Even someone like myself, who has studied economics and political science and has listened to the voices of those all around the world, I always wanted to know what their connection was to me."

He continues: "I’m a product of speaking to the highest ideal of who we can be as human beings. That’s what my activism comes out of. Whether it comes out of strong people like Martin Luther King or Malcolm X, or artists such as Ozzie Davis, Ruby Dee, Maya Angelou, Harry Belafonte, Paul Robeson, and I can go on and on and on–I am an extension of that. I try to understand what the possibilities are," insists Danny resting his hand on his jaw momentarily. "How do we build a sustainable world? That’s one of the questions I ask myself each morning. And maybe you can say that I have the luxury to ask myself those questions because I’ve been relatively successful as an actor and it has provided me a degree of financial security. But, I used to work at San Francisco’s Office of Community Development in the poverty program. In the late sixties, I worked as a volunteer with groups that were supporting more democratization and participation in redevelopment programs in San Francisco. If you run into a person who says they remember me saying I wanted to be an actor in high school, then there is a little fallacy behind that," he says bemusedly, with a subtle nod.

Danny is scheduled to attend his dinner engagement shortly, and must depart. As our meeting ends, he sums up his thoughts: "AIDS is now on a whole other level. We have to deal with this fact, and that’s the scary part. Containment was initially the easy part of the battle. We have to access how we can now elicit the support and the input of those who’ve already gone through the struggle, who have dealt with the struggle, and how can we import their understanding of the dynamics of it," he implores, referring to long-term HIV survivors." Glover continues: "Now, AIDS has really broken out of its cage. It’s no longer simply a homosexual problem. Today, we’re talking about South Africa; soon, we’ll be talking about South Asia, and about South America. Where do you go then? I think we’re all grappling. We have three weapons: education, treatment, and prevention. How far can we run with them and what impact can we have with them?" he asks. "That is another one of our challenges. We have to say, ‘Let’s do it now!’ Let’s put out all forces in all three of those areas. And since we know they involve a variety of other dynamics and concerns, we have to create a climate in which we can win."

Opinionated, articulate, and committed, Danny Glover serves as a fitting role model for the Hollywood community. Lending his notoriety, his charisma, and his strength to the AIDS war, he is an actor who enlightens–a star in every sense of the word who casts his light onto issues and causes that are now shaping our world, and will continue to impact our lives well into this new century.

Dann Dulin interviewed Eve for the May issue.

In One Word

Danny picks one word to describe some of the people who have touched his life

Mel Gibson: generous

Sally Field: joy

Whoopi Goldberg: magic

Nelson Mandela: just

Alfre Woodard: irresistible

Oprah Winfrey: amazing

Maya Angelou: extraordinary

Danny Glover: ordinary