'HONOR' ROLE CUBA GOODING JR. LIVES OUT AN INSPIRATIONAL STORY - ON SCREEN AND OFF.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Writer

Cuba Gooding Jr. is his usual, restrained self.

``I'm just telling ya, man, I am so proud of this movie,'' Gooding effuses exuberantly about his latest feature, the true-life story of amazing military perseverance, ``Men of Honor.'' ``This is an inspirational story about an inspirational man. It gives me hope.''

Yes, the man who made ``Show me the money!'' the catchphrase of the '90s - and set the high bar for grateful Oscar acceptance speeches when he won best supporting actor for saying it in ``Jerry Maguire'' - is charged up again.

And understandably so, although the demands ``Men of Honor'' placed on Gooding, both physical and emotional, were hardly conducive to happy dancing.

The film recounts the struggles of Carl Brashear, the first African- American to become a U.S. Navy Master Chief Diver, the highest rank an enlisted man can achieve. And what struggles they were: overcoming both institutional and virulently personal racism, learning the ropes of the most dangerous job in the Navy while being sabotaged at every step, suffering an injury that would end most people's active lives, let alone a high-risk career.

The 32-year-old Gooding, a dive virgin, had to learn how to maneuver both on land and underwater in cumbersome, 200-pound, '60s vintage surface-pumped suits. He had to figure out how to respond to epithets no one should have to hear anymore - and have them spit in his face by no less formidable a presence than Robert De Niro.

And, through it all, the real Carl Brashear was on the set every day. Talk about your actor's nightmare - but at least that aspect of the difficult production worked out like a dream.

``We cover a lot of really personal stuff with his life, and when we started filming and he was there I thought, 'Oh no, how is this going to go?' '' Gooding says of Brashear. ``Dealing with the loss of his father, then the accident he had ... As an actor, you always want to reach into the real emotional stuff. But I thought, how is this guy going to take it?

``He was so supportive, though, you never even knew he was on the set. I thought that was a real testament to his valor, because he really could have stepped in and said, 'Y'know, I never acted that way' or 'Why are you doing that?' He just seemed to be so open and vulnerable, and that really enabled me to give a free performance. And if I ever had any question or concerns, I would walk up to him and he would just go on and on with stories, just tell me anything I possibly wanted to know.''

The Master Chief says the admiration was mutual.

``Cuba played the role of a deep sea diver, and portrayed me very well,'' Brashear affirms from his Virginia home. ``He was energetic, he had a good attitude, he was upbeat all the time - and no swearing. Well, very little swearing.''

Gee, wonder what triggered that? Perhaps hauling around one-tenth of a ton of drysuit that took nearly an hour to get into, and another one to get out of, each day. If that wasn't enough, then being dumped into murky, trash-strewn water up on the Oregon-Washington border, where the New Jersey diving school Brashear attended was re-created.

``The suits were strapped on secure with belts and leather and weights, and they're very restrictive,'' Gooding says. ``If you're claustrophobic, just give it up. If you scuba dive, you only have the regulator in your mouth and the oxygen tank on your back. This is like going inside the tank. The helmet alone weighs 90 pounds and everything is so tight and uncomfortable.

``I'd done no diving of any kind before this,'' adds Gooding, who put in several weeks of intensive training to prepare for the role. ``And I've had enough! I'm telling you, when you get down there, especially in this environment as deep as it went, you realize that humans aren't supposed to be underwater. The things it does to your joints, the time it takes to surface and decompress - I'd rather swim on top and then go into the house and watch TV.''

Funny. But in the 1950s and early '60s, at least as far as the semi-integrated Navy saw it, black humans definitely weren't supposed to be underwater. Throughout the film, as he did in real life, Brashear faces appalling bigotry and outrageously unfair treatment every step of the way. And the movie, which was directed by ``Soul Food's'' George Tillman Jr., doesn't inaccurately softpedal the racial animosity of the time like such recent films as ``Remember the Titans'' and ``The Legend of Bagger Vance'' do.

``It's a necessary evil, that's for sure,'' Gooding says of the verbal and mental abuse that his character takes. ``First of all, nobody should have to deal with any negative remarks; I have two sons, 4 and 6, who have a white mother and a black father, and I'm dealing with racial identification with them.

``But you're talking to a guy who grew up in the high desert, in a place where there is a big faction of the KKK and where I got called 'boy' and worse more than I can tell you. And you're also talking to a guy who listens to rap music - and has a brother, Omar, who's got a rap group - in which everybody throws the ``n''word around like it's 'buddy' or 'pal.' And you're also talking to a guy who's played ice hockey for six years with guys who don't play hockey with black people at all.

``So I've been surrounded by it. But I finally put myself in the mentality of, if I can't change you and I can't change the way you think about my race, I can at least make you respect me for what I am through my actions. That's why I didn't want to play my character in this movie as an angry man. This is one of the few scripts I've read in which a black man faced racial aggression and opposition, and rose above it ... and didn't have to kill somebody to do it.''

Whether due to his optimistic philosophy or go-getter energy, Gooding has always had a knack for overcoming hardship and influencing people. Named for his father, the lead singer of soul group The Main Ingredient (``Everybody Plays the Fool''), New York-born Gooding moved with his family to Southern California in the early 1970s. But the good life they initially enjoyed soon disappeared along with the family-abandoning dad.

Cuba Jr. ended up attending four different high schools as his mother moved her children around the Southland - and despite the attendant financial and adjustment hardships, he became class president at three of them. His show-business career began with a breakdancing stint at the 1984 Olympics ceremonies. And because he did not inherit his father's voice, acting seemed the logical route to take from there.

There were small bits in such films as Eddie Murphy's ``Coming to America'' and guest roles on television series before the first big breakthrough, as troubled South Central youth Tre Styles in John Singleton's landmark ``Boyz N the Hood'' (1991). In the nine years since then, the career has oscillated wildly between precarious (such forgettable movies as ``Judgment Night,'' ``Lightning Jack'' and last year's action thing ``Chill Factor'') and impressive, ``Maguire's'' Oscar-winning running back Rod Tidwell being the peak.

Like that 1996 effort, most of Gooding's best films have cast him in supporting roles. Not quite superstardom, but on the other hand, they've also given him opportunities to work with a Who's Who of great co-stars: Jack Nicholson (``A Few Good Men,'' ``As Good As It Gets''), Tom Cruise (``Good Men,'' ``Maguire''), Dustin Hoffman (``Outbreak''), Robin Williams (``What Dreams May Come''), Anthony Hopkins (``Instinct'') ...

And now De Niro, who plays the racist diving trainer Billy Sunday, a composite of three noncoms Brashear dealt with, in ``Men of Honor.''

``He has got to be one of my favorites I've worked with, and I've worked with some pretty great people,'' Gooding says. ``But he is, by far, the most intense actor to be on the set with. He's not a real conversationalist, but he's one of the most focused actors I've ever met. He pulls you into his world; it's all about the feeling of what he's doing. It makes you pay attention!''

Gooding will be at attention again the next time you see him, in Jerry Bruckheimer's mega-expensive production ``Pearl Harbor.'' He's playing another real-life military barrier-breaker, a steward in the segregated World War II Navy who, with no training, managed to shoot down two Japanese planes during the attack.

``He was the first African-American to receive the Navy Cross,'' Gooding says, awe still in his voice.

Gooding gets away from the spit-and-polish in his next two films, the cross-country comedy ``Rat Race'' and ``Winterdance,'' in which he'll play a Miami dentist who inherits an Alaskan dogsled team.

He plans to start shooting that one in January. On location.

``It's gonna be cold, it's Alaska, I've gotta learn how to race dogsleds,'' Gooding says, howling at the thought of the impending discomfort. ``There's this one scene where I fall into a freezing-cold lake. I don't know what I'm doing to myself.''

Well, among other things, feeling mighty lucky.

``I've been blessed,'' Gooding says. ``You know, I see men like Sidney Poitier and Morgan Freeman and Denzel Washington, who opened doors to allow me to be able to do the things that I've done. I'm just hoping I'm carrying the torch the way they did.''

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Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) Man of `Honor'

Art an life mirror one another for upstanding, outspoken actor Cuba Gooding Jr.

(2 -- 3) ``This is one of the few scripts I've read in which a black man faced racial aggression and opposition, and rose above it ... and didn't have to kill somebody to do it,'' Cuba Gooding Jr. says of his new movie, ``Men of Honor.'' Cuba Gooding Jr. portrays real-life Navy hero Carl Brashear, left, in the stirring ``Men of Honor.''