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Thursday, January 5, 2006
Southern sense inspired ‘Hustle & Flow’ writer
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U)S ANGELES He does
n’t look like it, but Craig
Brewer is DJay, the street
wise Tennessee pinip who
finds redeni{)tion in rap in the
film "Hustle & Flow"
Only Brewer’s not a rap|)er,
he’s a writer and director And
he’s not black, he’s wliite. But
he knows what it is to be poor
ami struggling in the South,
clinging to a longshot dream
tliat looks like the only way
out
like DJay, Brewer foimd
success by following that
dream At his father’s
deathlx*d urging, Brewer
made a movie in 2000; "Tlie
Poor and Hungry" Tliat got
him an {igent, which eventu-
ally got liim to producers
Stephanie Allain and Jolm
Singleton, who took an inter
est in his screenplay for
“Hustle & Flow"
After years of shopjnng the
idea around to studioe and
hearing notliing but no, the
trio decided to make the
movie themselves
It opened to critical acclaim,
won the 2005 Simdance Film
Festival Audience Award and
earned star Tbrrence Howard
a (Golden Globe nomination
for best actor.
With fihning wrapped on his
latest project “Black Snake
Moan.” which is set in tlie
rural South and stars Samuel
L Jackson and Christina
Ricci, and the Hustle &
Flow" DVD coming out Jan.
10. Brewer, 34, sat down with
the Associated Press m Ixe
Angeles to talk about how the
“misplaced hope” he sees in
the South inspires his work.
AP; What role does
Memphis play in your
movies?
Brewer: It's incredibly
important. We have a history
of sin and salvation, and one
really can’t exist without the
otlier There’s this really raw,
primal cycle that happens in
Brewer
the South with seasons and
sex and family and religion.
You do get a little more spiri
tual during the
holidays. You
also drink and
you smoke and
you sleep
around a little
bit and you feel
really bad about
it and you pray
But we really mean it. With
“Hustle," I’ve been accused of
being sentimental. I can’t
help it. I live in a sentimental
place, at least as far as I’m
concerned.
I don’t feel like I was trying
to make a quote-unquote
black movie, even thou^ it
had a jnedominantly black
cast and it dealt with rap, the
iconograj^y of pimping and
the blaxploitation-type of
theme. I really feel like I was
making a Southern movie.
AP: Why do you say
Memphis is a site of mis
placed hope?
Brewer. Tb the world, we
seem like this place that
killed Martin Luther King,
when really, we were a city
that needed Martin Luther
King. And then he was killed
and everybody got really sad
after that. So we’re a dty that
has a little bit of a scar on us.
Now, a lot of us, especially in
the rap community we’re feel
ing less and less apologetic for
being who we are. We want to
claim our heritage and at the
same time we want to build
something new. So there are a
bit of misplaced dreams, but I
tliink the younger generation
is picking up the ball and Tm
very proud to be one of the
leaders of that generation.
AP: You wrote "Hustle &
Flow" five years ago. How
hard was it to get this movie
made?
Brewer ... I got an agent
fix)m “Poor and Hungry’ and
he read “Hustle." He got it to
Stephanie Allain, who is my
producing partner now We
went around town every
where and it was hell for like
two years There was never
this moment where somebody
said yes. We then started
looking for our lead and real
ly got hooked on Tferrence.
There were a few studios that
looked Stephanie right in the
eye and said that’s a problem.
You need to get a rapper You
need to get someone more
famous. Then Stephanie
draded she wanted to make
it herself She was going to
put $200,000 into it and she
wanted to see if John
Sin^eton would come in and
do the other half. We went
back to all the studios and
they still didn’t want to do it.
. So John just said he was
going to finance it himself and
he did.
AP; Where did you get the
idea for this story?
Brewer "Hustle & Flow "
is actually about me and my
wife making that first movie.
I had my father, at the age of
49, die rather unexpectedly of
a heart attack and literally
his last words to me were you
should do this script you
wrote, this “Poor and
Hunkry" script, and don’t
shoott it on film. Don’t spend
all ydir money Just celebrate
the fact that you don’t have
that much money So my wife
and I would build these sets
inside our house and we’d
have to quiet down the neigh
bors and it was a very difficult
time for us. My wife was
woridng as a seamstress and
then she started working as a
stripper. I was writing in this
bar and working in receiving
at a bookstore. And really this
movie changed us and saved
us fix>m this crazy life we were
living in Memphis. We
became filmmakers. That’s
really what “Hustle & Flow"
was about, we just changed it
to rap and made the character
a pimp.
AP; Why do you think the
movie has such broad appeal?
Brewer: I think everybody
has related to DJay.
Everybody has thought, “Tve
been moving away fiom that
dream that I had when I was
a younger person, like an inch
every day and now Tm on the
other side of the room and I
don’t know if it’s even possible
for me to return to that time
ever again. Tm clever to the
end than I am to the begin
ning and is it OK for me to
reboot?” Of course it’s OK for
you to reboot. Of course it’s
within your ri^t to try and
change your life. ... "Hustle &
Flow” is for everybody who
wants to reboot and I think
Women cheaters
Continued from page 1B
She experienced such a
change herself and when she
talked to her mother about it,
she found she wasn’t the only
one going through it.
“She gave me a wink and a
smile, but we never went into
detail with it,” she said.
Then Langley found out two
women that she’d known for
years were both having
afiairs.
‘T thought is this just some-
Sunday, January 15
CottitmiMKy CoavocatioM
1:30 p.m.
Duke Family Performance Hall
Rev. Dr. Otis Moss Jr., Speaker
Cm! Rights leader and pastor of the Olivet Institutional Baptist
Church in Oeveland, Ohio, who served as copastor with
Or Martin Luther King Sr. at Ebenezer Baptist Church in
Atlanta, Georgia
MLK Gospel Extravagaeza
6:00 p.m.
Duke Family Performance Hall
featuring the Davidson College Gospel Choir
Ihe Gethsemane Gospel Singers
Rev Fred Thomas & the Voices of Faith
The Mallard Creek House of Prayer Shout Band
The Mills Family S Triple Dipped
Monday, January 16
Dr. Martla Luther Kiug Jr. Bnileflug
the Dream Fau Vtfolk
9:00 a.m.
Richardson Field track
Sponsored by the Tau Omiemo Chrfpter of
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc
for information call 704S9rl-2iHrtnd register via email to
fabammondcSdavKlson.edu
Kiug Day for Kkfe
10:30 a.m. to Noon
C. Shaw Smith 900 Room Alvarez College Union
ConunuuKy Luuch
Noon to 1:00 p.m.
Brown Atrium, Alvarez Coflege Union
Entertainment provided by Davniep College students
"Eyes ou the Prize: The
Awakeuiug"
1:00 pjn. to 3:00 p.m.
C. Shaw Smith 900 Room Alvarez College Union
Film anddiscuscon with Dr. DarnelAhtidge. associate
piolessor ol history, and student Ctehe Rosa
MLK Semluar Series
3:15 pLmto4:30 p.m.
Alvarez College Union
The Wethig Rights Act !■ North
CaroHaa
Room 303
Dr. John Wertheimer, associate professor of history
Women of the Civil Rights
Movement
C. Shaw Smith 900 Room
Dr. Sally McMillen, Mary Reynolds Babcock Professor
and Chair of History
MnRicaltmal rUm Festival
Room 313
Davidson College student filmmakers
"Anywhere the BaR
Takes You"
A thirty-minute him that takes a look at
the important role pickup basketball plays
in creating community
"&Aor Latino"
A thirty-minute film exploring how latino
culture, through dance, brings torfether
different ethnic groups and is beginning to
shape the cultural scene in Charlotte
Wednesday, January 18
Civil Rights Today: Where are
the Leaders?
7:00 pm
Duke Family Performance Hall
Rev. Nelson B. Rivers, chief epetatng officer of the NAACP
DAVIDSON
AH events are free and ogen to the pahNc.
For more Informntton.caR 704-S94.2Z2S
Davidson College
that’s why people ccamected
with it.
AP: How vindicating was
the Sundance response to the
film?
Brewer It was very inter
esting to be standing up in
fix)nt of the audience at
Sundance and there are all
the people who said no - two
or three times. There was this
wonderful line of people to
shake my hand and say “egg
on our face.” Tliat felt good.
thing that women do and keep
it a secret,” she said.
Langley’s study shows that
many marriEiges proceed to
divorce without the wife ever
having explained or even
identified sexual restlessness
as the root of the problem.
Women’s Infidelity-Living in
Limbo: What Women Really
Mean When They Say ‘Tm
Not Happy” by MicheUe
Langley (McCarlan
Publishing).
If