Cuba Gooding Jr. has appeared in dozens of movies and television shows, but the roles that made him a household name, he said, are those “closest to my real life.”
For his first major part, as the break dancer Tre Styles in the 1991 movie “Boyz N The Hood,” “I was break dancing on the streets of L.A.” When he read as the swaggering football player Rod Tidwell in “Jerry Maguire,” the role that produced an Oscar for best supporting actor in 1997, “I belted down a six-pack of beer and entered high-fiving and swaggering,” he said, adding the character’s catchphrase: “Show me the money!” And when he starred in the 2016 “American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson,” similarities with the real O.J. were numerous, including marital separation, lack of seating at his daughter’s recital and a flight to Chicago.
So it’s hard to dismiss Mr. Gooding’s love of watches as simply a happy accident. Some years ago, his then-wife gave him his first luxury watch — and it prompted some research. “I was blown away by the history,” said Mr. Gooding, 50. “It started my love affair with watches.”
Soon, “any film I did, the company would give me a watch,” he said, and he came across Longines.
Mr. Gooding said he was intrigued by the 186-year-old company’s history, like its role in Charles Lindbergh’s historic trans-Atlantic flight. And Longines says its winged hourglass emblem is the oldest brand logo still in continuous use.
Also, “the watches have an elegance and class,” Mr. Gooding said. (The brand’s slogan is “Elegance is an Attitude.”)
The actor usually has his pick of about 25 watches in his collection, including two Longines. One is a Record Collection model, which he said he liked for “its clean stainless steel dial.” The other, a USA Exclusive HydroConquest, which “represents energy and excitement” — like his directorial debut last month with the release of the film “Bayou Caviar.”
But what watch was he wearing during a recent interview at the SoHo hotel he called home during a Broadway run (until Nov. 18) as Billy Flynn in “Chicago”?
“Nothing,” he said, pushing up the sleeve of his navy jacket. “I’m on my way to the theater.”
