Opening this week, the highly anticipated heart-stopping thriller Homefront, is a new movie featuring renowned actor Omar Benson Miller. Miller, best known for his stellar performances in movie such as 8 Mile and Miracle at St. Anna, is also recently known for captivating audiences in the weekly hit drama CSI Miami. Homefront, also an action flick, features Miller in this new dark and cozy hometown-style story that is filled with unexpected twists, deception, and manipulative lifestyles that breed off of the illegal drug known as meth (methamphetamine). Miller’s character, Tito, is a friendly man trying to keep the peace in a small town. The screenplay for Homefront was written by veteran screen icon Sylvester Stallone and directed by Gary Felder. In a one-on-one interview, Miller shared with AFRO insights on his film.

AFRO: Let’s talk about your upcoming movie Homefront, what is your character doing?
Omar Miller: That’s a really good analysis of it. That’s exactly what my character is trying to do. I play Tito in the film Homefront. The character is Jason Statham’s only friend. And he’s a guy; he’s an outsider that’s moved into a very exclusive, small town. Not exclusive in it’s class or anything like that. Just exclusive in the sense that they don’t take kindly to outsiders. So I’ve actually embraced him and we are doing work together on his house that he is trying to restore. And I’m just trying to keep the peace, and unfortunately I’m not successful at that, so we have an action film.

AFRO: What was it like to work with Sylvester Stallone?
Miller: Sly was really, really cool. We had a rehearsal session with the director where we ran our scenes, and improv stuff and came up with new stuff. He was very open to creativity and whatever you were gonna bring. I really, really appreciated that from him.

AFRO: Do you feel you are being typecast in Hollywood?
Miller: No, I think to be typecast you have to be complicit in that. If you look at my body of work, it’s pretty diverse. I’ve been the good guy, I’ve been the bad guy. I don’t feel like I’m being typecast and I’ve definitely made it a conscious effort to avoid that.

AFRO: You have also been a director?
Miller: I directed a film, a very small independent film about family that I made with my family. It was a lot of fun! I learned a lot about filmmaking, just the process. It helped me to appreciate the great directors that I’ve worked with. Just helped me appreciate the process of film making in general, even more.

AFRO: You were Private First Class Sam Train in Miracle at St. Anna? Why was that your favorite film?
Miller: Because of what I was able to do. I was able to do something so, as an actor that was very challenging. He wasn’t really slow, he was really sharp and in tune, just in a common sense sort of way. So I really loved the film, I loved how it came together. I just wish more people would’ve seen it.

AFRO: As an actor, you have a unique appearance, you are very tall. You’ve played a lot of supporting roles. Are you interested in the premiere role in a cast versus a supporting role?
Miller: For me, I’m always interested in trying to figure out how … I can bring my own physicality in real life to this character, to this role. So, I always want to do that and Homefront is a great example, because they get to use my size.

AFRO: Thank you so much for the interview Omar!
Miller: Thank you Aunni!