Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 25, 1994 TAG: 9402250356
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By CLIFFORD TERRY CHICAGO TRIBUNE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
``That's right,'' says Wesley Snipes, whose latest movie, ``Sugar Hill,'' opens today. ``I even talked about it back then. I said, `Hey, this could be a fad. This could be like the '70s, which came in like gangbusters with black actors working all over the place.' Two years ago, everybody jumped on the bandwagon. But just because you can hold a camera in your hand, that doesn't make you a good director or a good cinematographer. Just because you can write some words on a paper doesn't make you a good screenwriter.
``And that's the real testament - the longevity - that will prove there really is a new rise in African-American filmmaking talent in this industry. But I'm not going to be a part of it. You know, I won't direct until I'm good at it, until I can come in with the same skills that I come in with as an actor. Otherwise, it's defeating. The work is mediocre. A lot of these people don't know the first thing about how to make a good film. They have no clue. But, you know, you do a `New Jack City' for Warners and then Columbia wants a `New Jack City' and Universal and Paramount, so you have to have someone to direct them, and oh, it's a black movie, so you have to have a black director. It's a joke.
``I mean, `The Boyz N the Hood' series has run its course. People are not going to run to the movies to see any more of that - you know, black males shooting each other and killing each other all over the place. It was something that was rooted in cathartic emotion, and once you've had your catharsis, then what? Once you've yelled and screamed, then what?''
In the last two years, Snipes' career has taken off. With his offbeat looks and style, he has become an unlikely leading man in films as diverse as ``Jungle Fever,'' ``White Men Can't Jump,'' ``The Waterdance,'' ``Passenger 57'' and ``Rising Sun.''
In ``Sugar Hill,'' he is cast as Roemello Skuggs, one of two brothers - the other is played by Michael Wright - who run a drug empire in what was once a highly prestigious area of Harlem.
Snipes describes his character, who is trying to walk away from his destructive business, as the ``gentler'' of the brothers (whose aging father happens to be a burned-out junkie). ``He's more visionary; Mike's character is more reactionary. Roemello sees something that his brother doesn't - a future. His brother doesn't think there's a future; he's living for the moment, which is the psyche of many of those cats who live in that world.''
``Wesley's an extraordinary talent, and he's a daring talent,'' says ``Sugar Hill'' co-producer Rudy Langlais. ``In this film, for example, he did something that I think a lot of actors don't understand. Jazz musicians have a saying that it's hard to play slow. I think the equivalent among actors is it's hard to play quiet - and understand that you can still project power and presence.
``He has something innate. The camera and he do something together that turns people on. And when you see Wesley on the screen, you're also seeing Wesley, which is a very rare thing. You're seeing a guy who is complex, very likable and charismatic, and those things, together with craft, create a star.''
One of Snipes' most popular performances was as the ruthless Harlem crack-cocaine lord, Nino Brown, in Mario Van Peebles' ``New Jack City'' (1991), and he insists that he had no reluctance to again play someone on the same career track.
``To me, `Sugar Hill' has a much more intense, appealing story. You know, I like to see relationships between fathers and sons, and to examine a guy who's looking for love, a guy who's looking for a better life. He's completely different from Nino, who was very flamboyant and boisterous, arrogant and cocky and all of those things. Roemello is a much kinder man. He doesn't want the limelight; in fact, he's trying to get out of it.
``In a way, I relate to my character,'' he adds, enigmatically. ``All of us at some time want to change the circumstances in which we're living. We want to find a better life. Sometimes we find ourselves in situations that aren't the best for us - spiritually, healthwise, across the board. And it takes a great deal of courage to acknowledge it and step away from it.''
Snipes is 31 and the divorced father of a 5-year-old son. He was reared in a poor, single-parent household in Florida and the South Bronx. He attended Manhattan's High School for the Performing Arts, intending to become a dancer, but instead enrolled in the intense theater arts program at the State University of New York at Purchase. His first film, in 1986, was the Goldie Hawn football comedy ``Wildcats.'' Later, there were ``Major League'' (in a classic turn as speedy, no-hit Cleveland outfielder Willie Mays Hayes), ``King of New York'' and Spike Lee's ``Mo' Better Blues.''
Producer Langlais believes audiences haven't seen Snipes at his broadest comic best. ``I mean, I would put him in Robin Williams' class. He's fast, he's outrageous, he's daring. I've seen him in just playful situations. `White Men Can't Jump' shows a bit of that, but that's just a tip of the iceberg.''
``I'd like to do a straight-out comedy,'' Snipes confirms. ``Yeah. I would dig that. You know, I'm a big fan of, like, Jerry Lewis. I like slapstick. (Laughter.) I like a guy stepping on a rake and getting knocked upside the head.
``But I like both comedy and drama. In March, I start `Drop Zone,' which is about skydiving. I play a federal marshal, chasing a bandit. Then I do a movie about three transvestites driving from New York to California.''
by CNB