Djimon Hounsou Net Worth

Djimon Hounsou's Quotes

• School bored me. Being educated and being intelligent are two different things. I thought I was smart enough. And I wanted to be an entertainer. I stopped going to school as a way of saying I was mature, a way of saying I was going to choose who I was going to become. --Daily News, December 3, 1997.
• America has this understanding of Africans that plays like National Geographic: a bunch of Negroes with loincloths running around the plain fields of Africa chasing gazelles. Meanwhile, we have Africans and African-Americans, contemporary men, with great stories, great integrity, great heroes and nobody wants to see or hear about those African heroes and those African-American heroes. One day, I will be in a position to play those great human beings on-screen.
• The gym can serve as an excellent place where kids and young men and women can really empty their issues right on the floor.
• Africa is my continent. It is where I opened my eyes.
• Funny enough, every role that I have had, I try to tone down my accent or speak with better diction.

Interesting Facts about Djimon Hounsou

1. Name pronounced Jie-mon Hahn-soo.
2. Came to Paris from Benin at the age of 13, couldn't find a job and ended as a vagrant, sleeping under bridges and rummaging in trash cans for food. Things changed for the better when fashion designer Thierry Mugler discovered him and made him a fashion model.
3. Was in Janet Jackson video "Love Will Never Do Without You" (1992).
4. On ER (1994), he played Mobalage Ikabo, a refugee from Nigeria. His actual homeland of Benin shares its largest border with Nigeria.
5. Eighth black male to receive an Oscar-nomination for acting. The seven others are: 1963 Sidney Poitier for Lilies of the Field--Best Actor; 1982 Louis Gossett, Jr. for An Officer and a Gentlemen--Best Supporting Actor; 1989 Denzel Washington for Glory--Best Supporting Actor; 1996 Cuba Gooding, Jr. for Jerry Maguire--Best Supporting Actor; 2001 Denzel Washington for Training Day--Best Actor; 2004 Jamie Foxx for Ray--Best Actor; 2004 Morgan Freeman for Million Dollar Baby--Best Supporting Actor; 2006 Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland--Best Actor.
6. Learned English by watching television.
7. Engaged to Kimora Lee Simmons from June 2008 to November 2012.
8. Has a son: Kenzo Lee Hounsou (b. May 30, 2009) with ex-fiancée, Kimora Lee Simmons.
9. Born on exactly the same date as Cedric the Entertainer.