THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 3, 1994 TAG: 9409050218
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Mal Vincent
LENGTH: Long : 122 lines
Meet Frresh! Fresh is a seemingly ordinary 12-year-old Brooklyn boy who does what he needs to do in order to survive. He runs heroin for the charismatic Esteban (played by Giancarlo Esposito) a man who considers his racket a regular job and treats Fresh as a protege. Fresh delivers crack and heroin before rushing to school - worried about being late. It is a casual part of life for him.
The kid seems destined for a successful life as a drug runner and racketeer until he is turned around by the fact that a schoolmate is shot dead on the basketball court by a dealer. He's also shocked straight by the discovery that his older sister is kept in drug addiction by Esteban, who keeps her hooked on heroin to make her a sex slave. The 13-year-old lays a complex and careful plot to strike back.
``Fresh'' is not a pretty movie.
``It, more effectively than anything we could present in any other media, tells young men that if they don't steer clear of this drug business, they'll end up either dead or in jail,'' said Samuel L. Jackson, who plays Fresh's estranged but caring father. ``It's that simple. It's a modern message. It's a NOW message. When I was 13, I didn't leave home worried about whether or not I would return home alive. Today, kids have that worry. They have to grow up fast.''
Jackson was seen in ``Jurassic Park,'' the most successful film in movie history. (``The special effects were the real star,'' he said. ``Steven Spielberg runs the most efficent movie set I've ever been on. When he gets there, everything is planned - every movement, every camera angle''). He also starred in ``Loaded Weapon I'' with Emilio Estevez, ``Amos and Andrew'' with Nicolas Cage, ``Goodfellas,'' ``Sea of Love,'' ``Mo' Better Blues,'' ``School Daze'' and ``Do the Right Thing.'' He'll be seen in no less than three other films later this year - as a killer in the award-winning ``Pulp Fiction,'' as a lawyer who fights to keep a baby in a black family in ``Losing Isiah'' and opposite Judy Davis in ``New Age.'' He's now filming ``Diehard III'' with Bruce Willis.
He admits, though, that 13-year-old Sean Nelson is the real star of ``Fresh.'' Nelson, who is in almost every scene, carried the movie even though he had few lines.
``He was extremely serious about the job,'' Jackson said. ``He didn't ask many questions. He just studied me and the other actors. I wanted to encourage him to loosen up. He was not like an average 13-year-old kid. I wanted to tell him that he didn't have to be perfect for every single shot, that you could mess up and they'd just do the scene again. I tried to talk to him about comic books. He loosened up a bit.''
Boaz Yakin, the film's 29-year-old director and writer, said: ``We couldn't have done the movie if we hadn't found the right actor to play Fresh. Sean was one of the first kids taped during auditions. I knew right away he was the right one. He was so quiet - in a way that made you wonder what he was thinking. It's rare that an actor so young has to play such a repressed and internal role. Fresh was smart, but he didn't want people to know he was smart. Sean had to play that kind of repression with just looks, not many words.''
Yakin is irritated that posters for ``Fresh'' feature a guy holding a gun. ``The movie is not about guns, but I understand that it's necessary to get young ticket-buyers into the theater. It's misleading to suggest it's just an an action movie. I like to think it's gritty, but elevated to a poetic quality.''
Young Sean, in real life, is almost as reticent as the character he plays. On the challenge of carrying a movie at his age, he merely said, ``I liked it because I liked being in every scene. I knew it was something I HAD to do. I understood Fresh's anger.''
It is a surprise to some that the director of the best new movie on African-American trauma is white. ``Art has nothing to do with race,'' Yakin said, ``although I have been criticized, already, on this count. Next, I'm going to make a movie about the homeless and someone will yell at me because I've never actually been homeless.''
It is the lean and scary Giancarlo Esposito who has the film's most threatening role, that of charismatic drug dealer Esteban. ``Fresh,'' he said, ``is a new kind of movie for all audiences, but especially for those boys in the ghettos. Hopefully, they will see it. Hopefully, a mainstream audience will see it, not just because it is an entertaining thriller but because it will show them about how it is to be trapped in the 'hood. Young boys may find my character cool, at first. I play a man, after all, who merely sees his drug dealing as a 9-to-5 job - a way to make money. But it was important to me that this guy ends up in jail. I wouldn't play a stereotyped part that glamourized these guys.
``I turned down `New Jack City.' I thought `New Jack City' was an unfortunate movie in that it glorified the drug dealers. They were the only guys who had money. The cops were jerks. The dealers were rich. This is not an accurate message, but it's all too often the only message young boys are getting from movies. We need to show them that they can get cars and clothes in legal ways.''
Esposito co-starred with Jackson in Spike Lee's ``Do the Right Thing.'' ``Spike is obsessed with technical things,'' Esposito said. ``He doesn't talk to the actors. He gives you the script and says `I wrote it. Now you say it.' That's about it.''
Jackson confided that ``Spike is more obsessed with shooting the movie than directing it - particularly when the budget gets larger. He'll say `Are you ready? Let's shoot.' That's the extent of the direction. Boaz is more a collaborator and talks about the motivation of the character.''
Esposito hung around 126th street in New York City to get material for his character. ``I saw boys younger than Fresh delivering drugs,'' he said. ``I'm to the point that I'm for legalizing drugs. That would run most of these dealers out of business. I'm seeing that you can't legislate morals. The way may be to bring the drugs out into the open and then educate people on why, and how, they are dangerous. We should be collecting taxes on this. Instead, the nation is going bankrupt, both financially and morally, because of it.''
Esposito feels that ``Fresh'' is different. ``It shows the effects and results of death. Many kids go to the movies and they see people being shot. It is seen as solving problems. They have no idea about death. They don't know the aftermath. They don't see a dead body and go to a funeral. They don't see the grieving family. This movie shows that. If for nothing else, it deals, seriously, with that.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
"Fresh" tells young men that if they don't steer clear of this drug
business, they'll end up either dead or in jail," says Samuel L.
Jackson.
Miramax photo
Sean Nelson, 13, stars in Boaz Yakin's "Fresh," a film that examines
the plight of inner-city blacks youth.
by CNB