news-record.com

GREENSBORO — Hanging with Academy Award-winning actor Louis Gossett Jr. is way cooler than going to class.

At least that's what several freshmen at Weaver Academy for Performing and Visual Arts decided Tuesday afternoon.

"I thought he was going to be, like, 31," Nina Wood said.

"Yeah, me too," said her classmate, Nathaniel Swofford. "But now I want to go back and watch more of his movies."

The 71-year-old might not be in "An Officer and a Gentleman" drill sergeant-shape, but the Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning actor held the students' attention as he spoke about acting, self-respect and eliminating racism.

Gossett met with nearly 120 students in Guilford College's Bryan Auditorium for an informal discussion before speaking at the first of the 2007-08 Bryan Series lectures hosted by Guilford College. Actresses Kathleen Turner and Jane Seymour joined him Tuesday night at War Memorial Auditorium to discuss using celebrity to promote charitable causes.

For 90 seconds, he spoke about the craft of acting versus the Hollywood business of money and demographics. For the next 45 minutes, he gave students the run of the event.

They wanted to know how he got into acting, who he looks up to, how he picks parts. Time and again, Gossett came back to the issue of balance.

"We, who are artists, have a responsibility to clean up our personal acts," he said. "We can't always be like Britney Lohan. There's a reason why those people are like that — their insides don't match the outsides."

Dressed in loafers and perched on a stool, Gossett spoke with a professor's authority about the Harlem Renaissance and the history of film, then flipped back to the present as he discussed his efforts with the Eracism Foundation.

Gossett founded the nonprofit in 2006 with the goal of ending racism and fostering cultural understanding.

The group will set up state-of-the-art sites called Shamba Centers where kids can learn about hygiene, interpersonal skills, AIDS prevention and respect.

"We'll teach the lessons that are not being taught on the streets, in the homes," he said.

Gossett has a reality TV show in the works that will take gang members to Africa to achieve a sense of cultural history.

"I want them to know their property is more than the few blocks where they shoot and kill each other," Gossett said.

When he noticed Carolina Do, a Weaver freshman, slumping in her front row seat, he jokingly pestered her to ask a question.

She sat up straight, both elbows on her desk, for the rest of the discussion.

After the event, she talked excitedly about plans to see Gossett speak later Tuesday night.

"I liked how he talked about the insides matching the outsides," she said.

Gossett's goal, the students' goal, everyone's goal, he said, should be to become a well-rounded person.

"Whatever it is — truth, truth, truth," he said. "Always be happy, never be satisfied."

Contact Katie Reetz at 691-5091 or kreetz@news-record.com