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The Race Card Westside Chicagoan Larenz Tate takes on an incendiary role in Paul Haggis' artful "Crash." Written by [ Richard Sharp ] Larenz Tate has apparently done this interviewing thing a few times before. We're at the Ritz Water Tower discussing his latest film, "Crash," and as soon as the recorder is on, he's interviewing me. "Hey - I'm gonna conduct this interview now. Tell me, what did you think about the movie 'Crash,' I mean have you ever read a script like this before? I mean, what'd you think? Did you know it was coming your way?" "Well," I say, "it was interesting the way I prepared for the film…" Luckily (for all of us), this doesn't go on for too long. Tate is one of the stars of "Crash" and, besides being able to take over an interview, he also has an artful knack for turning just about any question, no matter far off topic it is (mainly, anything not related to "Crash"), and bringing it back to the film. It's a handy skill for an actor to have, and luckily, he keeps coming back to a film that's as compelling an offering as anything I've seen this year. "Crash" tells the story of an intertwined cast of characters who live out their lives in Los Angeles plagued by isolation and anger, racism and classism, insecurity and desperation. It's more fun than it sounds. If writer/director Paul Haggis deserves credit for anything, it's for presenting a blazingly original script. Featuring an amazing cast -Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Sandra Bullock, Ryan Philipe, Thandy Newton and Ludacris - "Crash" serves as a head-first dissection of race and politics, bothering to ask questions and address complexities that few films would even touch. There's nothing PC about "Crash" and for this, audiences of all races should be eternally grateful. We sat down with Tate to discuss his role in the film, growing up in Chicago and a career that's clearly picking up after a cherry role as Quincy Jones in the Academy Award nominated "Ray." Tate: Were you there at the Q&A last night with the audience? ChicagoFilm: No, I saw it at a preview screening. Different movie, ain't it. It's definitely got something to say. Yeah, it's definitely racially charged. My guess is you hear that quite a bit. I have not heard "racially charged." I like that though. "Racial tension," I've been using "racial tension," but now I'm gonna use "racially charged." I'm feeling that from you. You get the script from Paul Haggis. Describe to me your initial reaction… Like Don Cheadle, I looked at the script and said "who's going to make this movie?" The nature of "Crash" is very interesting, but very raw, very unapologetic. And what was on paper was even racier than what we saw. Not to say that he toned it down, but he let it out on paper in the rawest form and I was blown away. Like, "can we really do this in a movie?" Don Cheadle said "yeah, but we just gotta find someone who's gonna get behind us and allow us to do this." It didn't look like we had a fighting chance until Bobby hjhjh, who financed the film, really stepped up to the plate and got us going. We shot the movie and got it to Lion's Gate, who really got behind it and really wanted us to get this movie out there that really speaks to the mind and the spirit. This film has a conscious level of writing that I hadn't seen a lot of. That voice that I haven't really been able to use in a film. Crash lent itself to giving all of us a voice, so there's no surprise why Sandy Bullock and Brendan Frasier and Matt Dillon and the rest of those guys and myself came to the project based on what it meant to us. Hopefully, this will serve as a catalyst for more films like this to come. I mean you have this mix of ethnicities sort of all crashing together, involved in each other's lives, one after the other. But also look at how many types of actors you have. You have black actors, Latino actors, you got white people, everything in-between from Asian to Middle Eastern. You got everything in this movie. And I'm saying wow, wouldn't it be nice to have more films like this. Not to say that we're trying to make the rainbow movie or anything, but it's good to know that we can do movies that have different kinds of people in there. I mean, they don't make those types of movies all the time. Well it's been a hell of a year for you, being involved with "Ray" and now this. What was the experience like working on that picture and how has it impacted your career since the awards ceremony? Well "Ray" was a phenomenal experience. When I read that script, again, I was like wow, they're gonna do the Ray Charles story. You don't oftentimes get a chance to see black stories told. But this guy was a legend. I'd like to see more black stories told from a musical standpoint. I'd like to see a lot of stuff done…No shot to Elvis, but I see a lot of movies done about him. All the time, the same guy. And I'm like, "yo, let's get something else." We love the King, but let's get something else. It was really refreshing to see that they were gonna take a chance. And again, that was a rough movie to get made, but there was such a rich concept and story to it, and all the characters felt right and everything felt right so I said "I gotta be a part of this." I said "I want to play Q, Quincy Jones," and he was happy to spend time with me on the part. "Ray" just really got the right buzz. At first people didn't know if this was gonna be a TV movie, a cable movie, in the theaters, we didn't know. But once the buzz got out there how phenomenal Jamie Foxx was in it, how he really became this guy, people got really excited. Once I saw him perform, I told him on the set, I believe, I really believe, you're going to get nothing less than an Oscar nomination. I think you deserve it. Since then, it's just been phenomenal, because what it says is that you can have a black film that can cross over to all races, all demographics. There's not always the most positive connotations when you say "the black film" - it sort of limits you. Although certainly, it's been really interesting to watch in the past couple of years how a lot of black films that are clearly targeted to a black audience have really soared in the box office. What do you think explains the success of these films? Well, I think the different consciousness level of the audience is out there. You can't underestimate that, their sophistication. They want to see different types of movies. I mean, you can't continue to shove the same thing down people's throats. I think the higher the quality of these films, the more likely they are to be supported. I think that this says that clearly black actors have the same star power, the same box office draw, as white actors. Given the right opportunity and given the right scenario, we can make something happen. There's no secret that Denzel is a crossover person and has been so for some time. Now Jamie Foxx is getting that same thing. The Halle Berrys of the world, the Lawrence Fishburns. I'd like to see more of it, because we do so much in the industry, working just as hard as the next person. I'm happy to be doing what I'm doing and to continuing to get these roles, no matter the size of the part. On the flip side, you look at a guy like Ice Cube. Your careers - where you got your start, your Chicago ties, he got his real break with "Boyz in the 'Hood", you got yours with "Menace II Society." There's a lot of parallels there. Do you have any aspirations to do the kind of directing and producing work that he's doing? Absolutely. I've been fortunate to have an eclectic body of work. And I always like to tell people that I'd like to do more roles than I have. I seem to have set a precedent where I keep doing roles that are very different then the ones before that. I do all kinds of stuff. And Hollywood doesn't create all kinds of stuff for young African American actors. I don't have the same opportunities as Leo DiCaprio or Colin Farrell. Bottom line. Those opportunities have to be created for me. I have to create them, I have to push. To get studio heads the opportunity to see that if you use me it will be worth your while. If you have the machine, it doesn't matter if you're black or white or anything in between. If you have the Hollywood machine behind you and you have something to offer you'll do okay. You see it with Ice Cube, you see it with Denzel. You see it with Will Smith. The machine is now behind these guys. And it's gonna continue to work. Of course I have aspirations to do other things as far as directing and producing. In fact my brothers and I created a small little production company. We're not set up anywhere. We've had some meetings around town. Right now we're just focused on doing something independent. We'd love to come to Chicago. We're hometown boys. We'd love to get involved in the local scene that's going on here - especially with some of the larger films, with some of the tax breaks that are going on here. There are so many films that are coming here and we want to be a part of that boom. We shot a little independent comedy about a year ago in L.A. called "The Hot Spot" that's gonna be released nationally on video and DVD. That comes out June 7th. And we're really excited about these little films. And with that particular film, we said we wanted everything to be independent, hands-off from Hollywood. So we handled everything - the financing, the producing, the writing, the directing, the marketing. We're doing everything and we're trying to push it man. That was cool, but now we know that it can be a pain in the neck. Of course we couldn't afford any star actors, so we had to use all new faces. That's okay, because that's something we really wanted to do. You brought up your hometown ties. Talk to me about growing up in Chicago… I lived over in Central and Madison, not too far from the Austin district. We're right over there on the Westside near Columbus Park. I was born at Loretta Hospital and we still have a place over there literally four blocks from where I was born. And my grandmother is over there, my mother's family. It's good, man. Some of my father's family is over on the South Side. I love that we're able to come from a place like Chicago from the Westside. There are so many good things that are coming out of Chicago and we want to represent the community in the best possible way. We feel as though we are very much connected to Chicago. We're here all the time. We're connected to the community in a number of ways. We started the Tate Brothers Foundation to help fight Sickle Cell Anemia and we do a big thing every year over Labor Day weekend. This'll be the fourth year we're doing it. We get some of our celebrity friends from all over to come to Chicago. They love it. Just being a part of the town is really important to me. This movie "Crash" sort of reflects some of that, how people in some of these large cities like L.A. or Chicago sometimes there's so much segregation. How people from different groups don't mix or intertwine or socialize other than going to work. Nobody's trying to force a cylinder through a square peg, but at the same time, you have to realize that if you only live your life in an Italian neighborhood, or Korean neighborhood or whatever, there's so much more that you can learn from each other. Again, I'm not suggesting that we have to all hold hands or be this great America or anything, but it's interesting to know how close so many of us are but how far apart we truly are. Written by [ Richard Sharp ] [ Home ] |
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