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Spike on Politics, Making Black Films in Hollywood and His Moment of Delusion
posted on Mar 31, 2008
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Filmmaker Spike Lee had some harsh words for democratic presidential
nominee, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, during an interview with him
last week at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel as he was about to be honored
by Chrysler with the "Behind the Lens" Award. Spike talked up politics, making films in Hollywood and his moment of delusion.
Q: Do you still have more sports films in you?
Spike:
Yeah. So far I'm 0 for 3. I haven't been able to get money for Joe
Louis and Jackie Robinson and also James Brown so I'm 0 for 3 for the
black biopics.
Q: Why has it been so hard for you to get the films made?
Spike:
I think all of these men made a great contribution to America and the
world and I don't want to do the small version of their life. And its
not that they say I can't get the money, they don't want to give me the
money I need to shoot the vision I want. That's what happened to
"Malcolm X" and I had to turn to other people to bail me out. I can't
make those calls again. That was really tough making those phone calls.
Like
my man Obama has said, progress has been made. When I first started,
and I was in film school there was the only one African American
filmmaker working in Hollywood and that was Michael Shultz. It’s hard
to make a film, black or white, unless you're Spielberg or Lucas or
James Cameron. Its just hard. For example, the studios they tell you
this and that, so "Inside Man" was my most commercial film ever.
Worldwide including DVD sales, over $200 million dollars. So when
you're told all the time, 'well you haven’t had a hit over $100 million
dollars,' and once you reach that, which is a huge hit and only cost
$49. Usually Denzel gets $20 million for a film alone. So you get him
Jodie Foster, and Clyde Owens and it’s made for $49 million, they're
getting a bargain. So, that success put me in a delusional state
(chuckling) where I thought, 'Oh yeah I'm in there now.' But, I
couldn't get the money for James Brown. I want to do a film about the
L.A. Riots that was written by John Ridley, couldn't get that money. I
was pissed and got on the plane to Italy and that’s how we got the
money for this new film called "Miracle at St. Anna," a WWII film.
Disney Touchstone is the American distributor but the bulk of the money
is coming from Europe.
Q: Why is it so hard to get wealthy African American doctors, lawyers and the like to invest in black films?
Spike:
It's risky. It's gonna take time, It's gonna be evolutionary. You can
get films made with black themes but most of the money is gonna go the
comedies or hip hop, drug, shoot-em-ups and that’s not something I want
to do. After "Inside Man" I got sent like twenty scripts about black
heists. I think that demonstrates how creative Hollywood is -- 'Oh you
got a heist film, send it to Spike.' It shows you the breath of their
intelligence. If i were going to go the buffonery coonery route I'd get
money for that. But there is just some things I'm not going to do.
Q: You said 'your man Obama,' you're obviously supporting Obama. Can you comment on that?
Spike:
I just think that the Çlintons are bad people, they will do anything to
win, and they keep demonstrating that. This last thing when she said
she was under fire and my man Sinbad straightened that out real quick.
That’s not something you just, you know, 'oh I thought it was Tuesday'
and its Wednesday. No, that was complete fabrication -- just
fabricating stuff. Then the stuff Bill Clinton has been saying ...
Maybe it went to his [Bill Clinton] head when Toni Morrison said he’s
the first black president but its been back firing because of the stuff
he said about Obama, South Carolina, and all that stuff.
And
then this whole thing with Florida and Michigan, each one of those
democratic nominees understood the rules. Howard Dean laid it out.
Florida and Michigan cannot be counted and Hilary Clinton was thinking
like the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl, 'It’s in the bag. F$%#
Florida and Michigan, I’m not gonna need them anyway because by that
time I'm rollin.'" But it didn’t work out like that, so now its like,
oh this is un-American if the voices of Florida and Michigan are not
heard. She wasn’t saying that stuff when she signed the thing. It’s a
complete flip flop and I really think that Americans are getting more
sophisticated. Some of us are not going for the okey doke.
But
I will say this ... my Grandma, she put me through Morehouse and NY
Film School. She lived to be 100 years old. She’s died Christmas Eve
2006, the day after James Brown died, both in Atlanta. Her mother was a
slave so I’m only four generations from slavery and I think the mistake
we make as African Americans is we talk about former years, but to get
former years we have to talk about the day it ended, 1865. We talk
about history, 1865 was like yesterday. And she [grandma] went to the
grave for sure not thinking that a black man would ever be, or have the
chance to be, President of the United States. So we living in an
amazing exciting time.
When
asked if he though Obama wass going to win the democratic nomination
and the presidency, Spike said yes. He added, "there's gonna be a lot
of people who are going to
have to explain themselves." He specifically mentioned BET founder
Robert L. Johnson and Congressman Charles B. Rangel. Johnson, a
Clinton supporter, came under fire for making a reference to Obama's
admitted teenage drug use while campaigning for Clinton in South
Carolina back in January. He later apologized. While
announcing his support for Clinton’s presidential, Rep. Rangel, who
represents Harlem, said
Obama had no chance and claimed
the people who enthusiastically backed him were motivated by “Black
pride.” Rangel later reassessed
his outlook.
"I
think its gonna be tight and once I think he is gonna win the
democratic nomination. But McCain, its not going to be a walk," Spike
added.
Next up for Spike is "Miracle at St. Anna" which chronicles the story of four black American
soldiers who are members of the US Army as part of the all-black 92nd
“Buffalo Soldier” Division stationed in Tuscany, Italy in 1944 during World War
II. They experience the tragedy and triumph of the war as they find
themselves trapped behind enemy lines and separated from their unit after one of them risks his life to save
an Italian boy. Directed by Spike Lee from a screenplay written by
James McBride, the author of the acclaimed novel of the same name, the
film stars Derek Luke, Michael Ealy, Laz Alonso, Omar Benson Miller, Matteo Sciabordi, John Leguizamo, Joseph Gordon Levitt and James Gandolfini.
The film will be released October 10, 2008 by Touchstone Pictures.
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