Don Cheadle Shows Off His Funny Side

By Valerie Nome

Don Cheadle plays a spy in Traitor, but the father of two remains coy about whether he’s ever snooped in real life.

“I could tell you, but I’d have to kill you,” he tells OK! at the Traitor premiere in N.Y.C on Thursday.

According to director Jeffrey Nachmanoff, Don’s wit is a pleasant surprise.

“He’s got a very dry sense of humor, but for such a serious actor he can be quite funny,” he tells OK! “Sometimes he’ll play pranks or he’ll pull your leg and you won’t know it," he says. "We were joking around on the set, and he and I would start talking and I would buy into whatever he was saying. Then he’d say 'Jeffrey, I was just telling that story, I was acting,' and I thought he was being serious about something. He can deadpan deliver just about any story, and you’ll believe him."

In order to play a former U.S. Special Operations officer in the international spy thriller, the 43-year-old Oscar nominee picked up a new language. 

“I had to learn to speak Arabic for the prayers and observance of the rituals,"  he says.

Hmm, was he joking?