Local actor co-stars in Dakota Fanning's 'Hounddog'

As the heat of summer wanes, movie heroes are a different kind of "super."

In the case of the upcoming release "Hounddog," for instance, Atlanta's Afemo Omilami wields snake anti-venoms instead of special powers. And rather than saving the day, he helps rescue the spirit of Dakota Fanning's Elvis-loving young character, who is raped.

"You've got to always, somehow, make good of what can poison you," Charles (Omilami) tells Lewellen (Fanning). Recently Omilami spoke of his work in the movie, which opens Oct. 3, and other work he's done locally.

How do you tell someone to see such a heartbreaking film?

You know, we will never be the society we try to present ourselves as if we don't look at and address this predatory violence that's real in our lives. That's not reported. That's not dealt with. ... These are our mothers, our sisters, our wives, our nieces, our daughters we're talking about. Being exposed to this and researching this was horrifying to me. But I am so proud to be a part of telling an important untold story. This has to be put on the front burner. It happens to too many in silence and secrecy. It's going to find its own audience.

You've been acting professionally for a long time. [His first movie, he says, was with fellow Morehouse College student Samuel L. Jackson in 1971.] Did you still manage to learn something from Dakota Fanning?

I learned just that whole childlikeness again. ... She was a refreshing reminder of what it is I'm holding on to as a creative being. That childlike imagination. That refreshing willingness to go with something; and she trusted me to go there with her.

I mean, here is this young actress who has worked with Robert DeNiro, Denzel Washington, Sean Penn — Academy Awards winners — and I felt like I was one of those cats. ... And you know, she's from Conyers, and I'm right down the road in Lithonia. So she was like a homegirl.

Music is key to this movie, key to your character, for that matter. Where does it rank with you in real life?

Oh, music is the creative juice I tap into. I'm in two plays ["Gem of the Ocean" and "Radio Golf"] now at the Alliance [Theatre] and music is what drives that whole process. The blues, the gospel, the jazz, the traditional sounds of the Caribbean and Africa, I am a mixture of all of that. I know if I don't have that rhythm as an artist, I really don't have my instrument tuned up. I'm going too sound sharp or too flat. My body is my instrument as an actor.

And taking that one step further, I feel so harmonious right now because of what I'm doing as an actor and in real life. It's fantastic! The people I'm dealing with in the creative process, in "Hounddog," are the same people who come in my office in the West End [where he works with his wife Elizabeth on Hosea Feed the Hungry]. ... And the plays I'm in, by August Wilson, his work just speak to the music of the people. You can feel the energy of a man who knows his time is short. So it's all one symphony, this music I'm hearing in my life.

LOCAL STUDIO SHOOTS FOR BIG STARS: Decatur's Travis L. Ware says his Silver*Ware Studios is in negotiations with actor-singer Jamie Foxx and fellow Oscar winner Halle Berry to do a movie called "Photo Finish." He's billing the project as "the first martial arts film with an African-American female in a leading role."

"Halle and Jamie [have] never worked together before," Ware says in a statement. "And I believe they would look great together. I think the chemistry will work amazingly well."

ALSO ON THE HOMEFRONT: The rugby movie "Forever Strong" — scheduled to hit theaters Sept. 26 — features Sandy Springs' Eliot Benjamin. Also in the cast are Sean Astin ("The Lord of the Rings"), Penn Badgley ("Gossip Girls"), Gary Cole ("Office Space") and Sean Faris ("Never Back Down").