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Lee Daniels is the Oscar award winning
producer of Monster's Ball. He also was the first
black man to win at Cannes for his film The Woodsman.
His directorial debut Shadowboxer arrives on DVD
this November 7th.
What was it about the script for Shadowboxer that made
you want to take on the project for your directorial debut?
Lee Daniels-The uniqueness.
I thought the story was a very unique story that I hadn't
seen before. For me, what inspires me as a film maker
is seeing stuff that I haven't seen before. I think as
an African-American, I'm turned on by stories that often
as African-American's we don't get a chance to see. I
think people expect a certain thing from us. People expect
something that we as African-American's sort of have to
supply and I thought that this was something that you
wouldn't ordinarily see as African-American cinema.
I know you can't believe everything you read on the Internet,
but I read on the Internet that Ryan Phillipe was originally
supposed to play the role of Mikey. The role eventually
went to Cuba Gooding Jr. How did casting the role of Mikey
as an African-American change the dynamic of the story?
Lee Daniels-I don't
know. For me I cast from a sense of color blind. I never
thought twice about it until everyone starting making
a big hub-ub about it. Then I started thinking "Oh
I guess it did change it a little huh?" I think that
if it were Ryan Phillipe and it were Helen Mirren it would
take the believability factor of mother and stepson away
a little bit and make it more…
Incestuous?
Lee Daniels-Yeah,
mother and son. Not that it wasn't that anyway, but it
really would have hit home. I had just done a movie about
pedophilia and I thought, "been there, gone there,"
lets not hit them home too hard.
I told my mom about the movie and she was like "Helen
Mirren, the lady who played the Queen?" How did you
get Helen Mirren on board as Rose?
Lee Daniels-Well,
I am an Academy Award winning producer.
I know. It just seems different than anything I've ever
seen her in.
Lee Daniels-Yeah. People
often ask me that. She sought me out. My first movie I won
an Oscar, my second movie I won Cannes, the first African-American
to win Cannes. I think that might have had something to
do with that along with the script and the story.
Speaking of awards do you think Shadowboxer will be remembered
come award season?
Lee Daniels-I don't
think so, I don't know so, I don't care so. I don't want
to think about that. I never think that any of my movies
are worthy of awards. I'm just happy to get have them out
there in the universe.
I saw the movie and toward the end I just had this feeling
that everyone was going to get shot. Were there any alternate
endings filmed for Shadowboxer?
Lee Daniels-We knew
that Clayton had to go. That's the great part about cinema,
when you are writing material you can create your own world.
And the great part about independent cinema is that we don't
have to have traditional endings. We can fuck peoples head
up if we want. I think that we didn't know…I felt that
Clayton has got to go. He's too sick not to go but let's
scare people. That's why I'm so glad you said you didn't
know where we were going with the film. I knew it at end
of the day the bad guy had to die. Even though they were
all fucked up and they were all bad, the ultimate bad guy,
he had to go. But let's scare the audience into thinking,
"Is he really going to go?" So to me it was all
about the fear factor of who's going to go. Who's outski?
There is some violence in the film and some of the sex scenes
are over the top. Did you have to make any cuts to secure
an R rating?
Lee Daniels-Oh my Lord.
How about yes. Yes, I did. This movie is not for everyone,
nor are any of my films. They aren't for everyone. They
are for a mature audience. I had to go through many cuts
to finally appease the rating board. The rated R cut is
not my cut. This is the cut I had to make to satisfy the
rating board. My cut is a little out there. The directors
cut.
How does a new film maker going about getting the money
to make films?
Lee Daniels-That's
the million dollar question. You don't need money. You
need money to buy a video camera. You have to show your
talent some kind of way. I think that the way of showing
it is by making a movie and you can make a movie on video
with the technology that you have right now. You have
the ability to shoot a film on video. Most of the directors
I have hired in the past have done just that and that
is how they got in the position to work with me.
A lot of people wanted me to ask you about your involvement
with the casting for the Prince movie's Purple Rain
and Under The Cherry Moon.
Lee Daniels-That experience
led me to where I am at right now. Discovering new talent
is what ultimately placed me into being so daring to cast
Mo'Nique in a role that was written for a white woman
who was blonde and skinny. It gave me the gonads to be
strong in my casting choices and stand by them.
How do you go about finding new material for your movies?
Lee Daniels-It's hard.
It's really hard to find a good story. That's the hardest
part. I don't know. It's rough. Prayer. I pray a lot.
I look for stories that move me and you have to get up
pretty early in the morning to move me. I have a team
of people who are always looking for great stories. That
is what most of my money is spent on paying people to
look for stories for me.
I know you said don't pay attention to Internet and
tabloids. So now I have you on the phone. So can you tell
me about your upcoming movie Tennessee because all we
hear about is characters cast in the movie?
Lee Daniels-I love
it so much. It's this movie…they keep talking about
Janet or Mariah and that's just so secondary to the story.
The movie is really about two brothers and they were pretty
abused when they were kids so they run away from their
dad because their dad was abusive. They were born in Tennessee
so they run away from Tennessee. 10 years later, the younger
of the two brothers discovers that he has cancer. He has
to go back to the abusive dad with his brother, back to
the dad who abused him, for a bone marrow transplant.
In route, they find this chick who wants to be a country
western singer. This girl is their sister?
No.
Lee Daniels-A country
singer. In route to Tennessee, they find this country singer
but her husband has told her she ain't nothing aint never
going to be nothing you my wife and you aint going no where
and he is abusive to her and she is Mariah's character Crystal.
They run off all three of them together to Tennessee. Her
to Nashville to be a country Western singer but she can't
sing worth a lick and that's the irony of Mariah because
Mariah can sing certainly. And these boys to find a cure
for his cancer and what happens I can't tell you.
Lee Daniels-interview
copyright Dorrie Williams-Wheeler, and Thabiz.com 2006
Dorrie Williams-Wheeler is the author of Be
My Sorority Sister Under Pressure and the Unplanned
Pregnancy Book for Teens and College Students. She is
the founder of Thabiz.com
and Imissthe80s.com
and writes for the Rap,
Teen, and 1980s
section at Bellaonline.com. She is an ASCAP member as a
writer and a publisher. Please contact Dorrie for advertising
inquiries, lyric writing inquiries, reprint rights,
paying
entertainment jobs, or general comments.
Visit Dorrie on the web at www.sparkledoll.com
or add her as a friend at MYSPACE.
Lee Daniels-interview
may not be reprinted, copied or distribute without permission.
You may link to this interview.Interview copyright Dorrie
Williams-Wheeler, thabiz.com October 2006.
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