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Across a 2,145-mile phone line, Forest Whitaker still sounds like the gentle giant you remember from "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" and "The Crying Game," a big bear of a guy whose hearty, infectious laugh is as comforting and warm as an early fall sun.

But in current performances at the movies and on TV, the 45-year-old actor is, to put it bluntly, frightening.

NEIL DAVIDSON/Fox Searchlight Pictures (ENLARGE)
Forest Whitaker (center, with James McAvoy as his physician) gives a layered portrayal of the admittedly monstrous Idi Amin.
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THE FOREST WHITAKER FILE • Born: July 15, 1961, in Longview, Texas • Current film: Portrays Idi Amin in "The Last King of Scotland." The title refers to the often-kilt-wearing Ugandan leader's affection for the foreign country. • Among previous films: "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" (1982), "The Color of Money" (1986), "Platoon" (1986), "Good Morning, Vietnam" (1987), "Bird" (1988), "Diary of a Hitman" (1991), "The Crying Game" (1992), "Jason's Lyric" (1994), "Species" (1995), "Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai" (1999), "Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000" (2000), "Panic Room" (2002) • Among films he's directed: "Waiting to Exhale" (1995), "Hope Floats" (1998), "First Daughter" (2004) • Awards: Best actor at Cannes Film Festival for "Bird"; best made-for-TV movie Emmy for "Door to Door" (2002; as producer) • Whitaker on whether relationships between African-American women and men have improved a decade after "Waiting to Exhale": "The question is: Have men evolved? Whenever people talk about this, they're not really talking about the evolvement of women, they're ultimately talking about the evolvement of men. Men are dogs. Women are goddesses. "So I don't really know. Hopefully, we've gotten better. You have to ask whether you are a better man than you were 10 years ago. "If so, all right then. It's worked." — Compiled by Bob Longino

In the big screen's "The Last King of Scotland," opening today at Regal Tara, Whitaker barrels through the film as the outsize, overpowering Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, responsible for the slaughtering of hundreds of thousands of his people. On television, Whitaker still has two episodes remaining on "The Shield" as the imposing internal affairs cop with the menacing glare of justice in his eyes.

These characters are the new Forest Whitaker, the guy already garnering best actor Oscar buzz for "Last King." The man Rolling Stone describes as "on fire."

Critics are heaping on the praise.

"This is not hyperbole," the Associated Press' Christy Lemire writes in her review of "Last King." "This is how good Whitaker is: He actually makes you feel sorry for Idi Amin."

Whitaker believes that since last year, when he shut down his film company, Spirit Dance Entertainment — through which he made "First Daughter" (2004) and "Chasing Papi" (2003) — he's discovered professional nirvana. It's a point in time when his abilities as an actor are in full swing.

"All that period of time with my company, I was growing, but I had never stopped and sat still to experience and express the growth," he says during a visit to San Francisco and the nearby Mill Valley Film Festival. "I've become more centered. And as an artist, I've become more full in my work. I think I'm going to get stronger and stronger now."

Clint Eastwood, who directed Whitaker in 1988's jazz biopic "Bird," which nabbed top male acting honors at Cannes, has always admired the actor's naturalness on-screen.

"He's terrific. I saw him in a few small parts in movies prior to 'Bird,' and his acting always stood out," Eastwood says. "I believed his characters more than maybe some of the others."

He also says Whitaker, in order to more effectively portray saxophonist Charlie "Bird" Parker, did his own extensive research and took alto sax lessons.

"He could only play moderately, but he could get the feel of it and emulate one of the greatest technicians ever on alto sax," Eastwood says.

To play Amin, Whitaker again thrust himself into intensive research.

He studied films, TV interviews and tapes of Amin's speeches. In Uganda, he talked with Amin ministers and fellow military officers. He visited his family, including the elder sister who had carried Amin in his youth on her back. He ate local food. Learned Swahili.

"I was just trying to get all this information to inform the backstory," Whitaker says. "I had a sort of simplified image of who he was — this mad dictator. I wanted to understand more, to help paint and color the character. Ultimately, I'm searching for the spirit of the man. I think if I had just played Idi Amin just as he was, it wouldn't have matched the iconic image people have in their minds. What I tried to capture is his mythic, archetypal power."

Whitaker also walked the line between playing a monster and someone who, at least originally, wanted to help his people.

"There's a lot of things about him that I could respect and like in a sense," the actor says. "I didn't like the fact that hundreds of thousands of people were tortured and killed. But going into Uganda and seeing the different people, you recognize that it's a much more complicated picture than that."

The Ugandans, he says, speak of Amin's efforts to create jobs, build schools and get them to respect their African language and roots.

Along with Martin Scorsese's "The Departed," "Last King" is on the front end of fall films being released for major Oscar consideration.

Awards season is a familiar time for Whitaker, who's often been the subject of speculation — potential Oscar nominations for "Bird" and "The Crying Game," a probable Emmy nod for "The Shield."

None of those ever gelled.

Does he feel his acting has been overlooked? Is this time with "Last King" the time?

"I don't know, man. I don't know," he says in the sheepish cadence so familiar during the trophy-bestowing time of year, when actors are reluctant to say much of anything so as not to jinx their chances.

"I'm just trying to live in the moment on this movie," he says. "You know, I'm feeling pretty good about it."

And he keeps talking until he finds his way out with just the right thing to say.

"If you want to look at 'The Crying Game' or 'Bird' or, as you say, 'The Shield' — hopefully, there's not a pattern."

And he's laughing again. A loud but gentle laugh as big as the sun.