INT: Craig Brewer

In
2005, writer/director Craig Brewer set the movie world abuzz with
HUSTLE & FLOW, a heartfelt story about a pimp turned aspiring
hip-hop star. In addition to launching the career of actor Terrence
Howard, the film provided the us with one of the more surreal
moments in Academy Awards history, when the Three 6 Mafia won the
Best Song Oscar for “It’s Hard Out There for a Pimp.”
Brewer recently stopped by the
Hyatt

Century

Plaza
in

Los Angeles

to talk about his latest film, BLACK
SNAKE MOAN, which opens this week.
Check it out.

Craig
Brewer

What
was the inspiration for Black Snake Moan?

Well,
I guess at least in this case the idea was more therapeutic, more
than anything. I was going through a difficult time trying to get
Hustle & Flow going, and I was on a plane actually when Russell
Simmons was interested in doing Hustle & Flow and they were
flying me out. But I didn’t have any money, and my wife and I had
just had a baby, and we had just applied for state health insurance
so we could have the baby. We were not doing too well. My dad died
of a heart attack at 49 so that was always on my mind. I had this
really intense anxiety attack on a plane, and the stewardess came by
and I told her, “You may want to get the defibrillator ready
because I think I’m having a heart attack.”

She
asked me if I had any anxiety about flying or anything like that,
and I said, “No ma’am, but my dad did die at 49. Get the
defibrillator out.” So she talked me down and it went away. I
didn’t know really what it was, but as soon as I got back on that
plane heading home, it hit again. It was a good month where I kept
that from my wife and finally I confided with her that it was
happening to me, and that’s when she told me that it was happening
to her, and that it happened on freeways near big semis that she
would just feel like she would come out of her skin, so we named it.
We called it “Black Snake Moan.”

So,
if we would be somewhere and they would begin to hit, we would mouth
that to each other and we would have certain ways that we could get
rid of the anxiety attacks through each other. If we were apart, I
would call her and all she would do is just talk as if nothing bad
was happening, like “Here’s what we did with your son
today.” But when we’re together and they would really hit me,
she would lay on my back and I would lay on the floor and she would
put her arms underneath my chest and really push down and that
pressure would take away some of that anxiety.

For
a confident person like myself, it really messed with me that
something could drop me to my knees and have me think that I am
about to die. I think there’s a very unique time where you begin
to question your own mortality, and the first thing that she
recommended I do is write about it; and there was a night where I
needed to tune out a little bit and I went to my room and lit a
bunch of candles and I started playing Skip James. I am a big blues
fan and Skip James had this song called “Hard Times Killing
Floor Blues” and “Washington D.C. Hospital Room
Blues.”

What
made Christina Ricci right for the lead role?

The
cool thing about Hustle & Flow is that the script kind of went
out into the Hollywood pool and really, everybody was responding to
it. Everybody wanted to be a part of it. But the problem with Rae,
the character Rae, I felt like I’d know it when I saw it. I mean,
you all saw the movie. I met her half way on that, that was like on
the script but otherwise that’s Ricci. Because lot of people that
I had met with thought that it was just about being sexual and
that’s not what the whole story is. Ricci demanded to audition and
I said absolutely. I’m a fan of her work.

I’m
trying to embrace all these Southern archetypes and the whole
iconography of Southern culture and that includes drive-in movie,
the horny farmer’s daughter, “Don’t go over there she’ll
get you,” that type of Lil’ Abner, Sadie Hawkins daydream, and
I didn’t really see Ricci in that particular style, necessarily,
even though I’m a huge fan of Christina’s. But
she was my first audition and I’m coming up the stairs of the
casting department, and there on the steps is this little girl with
a jean skirt on and a teeny little tank and she had bought some eye
shadow, some blue eye shadow from Walgreen’s, and she called up a
friend in Mississippi and had her repeat all the lines to her on
tape.

So
we rolled the videotape and just recently I saw it, and it’s like
a teeny stone’s throw away from her final performance. Where
everybody else had tried to be sexual or provocative, her character
was like a 13-year-old immature daughter yelling at her mother, and
then suddenly she’d be like very wise beyond her years and very
seductive, and then she’d be vengeful, screaming and yelling at
you, and then she would just drop to the floor weeping like a little
toddler, and that’s when I realized like that’s what I’ve been
missing. I couldn’t see anybody else but Christina and she
transformed herself. We spent about 45 minutes a day putting
freckles on her.

I
was watching TV in a hotel and I saw Britney Spears doing a concert,
and I called her up and I said, “Look at her hair.” She said,
“I get it.” We’re crafting this — no offense to Britney
— but kind of like this white trash dream. She even went out to
Dillard’s in the South and insisted on getting the right white
cotton panties. It had to be just right. She chose her own chain. I
had about five different chains laid out for her and, wouldn’t you
know it, she picked up the biggest, heaviest, gnarliest chain, the
biggest padlock, the kind of thing that you put on the back of a
trailer, and she just owned it like from that day on. I couldn’t
see anybody else.

And
now when I watch the movie it’s on so many levels because I am
embracing this kind of tone which is a lot like a Tennessee Williams
play or a short story by Flannery O’Connor. These are authors and
the particular type of performance that I don’t think is really
seen in cinema these days, because I think people usually need
categories and I like people to laugh at the outrageousness of it
and also be moved.

What
did Samuel L. Jackson bring to the movie that you hadn’t seen in
his other films?

Two
things, really. There is a subtlety that I feel in this movie.
There’s one shot that I can watch over and over and over again.
It’s when she first stands up to reveal the chain and he looks
embarrassed. He looks a little awkward, and it’s great to see
someone as towering and powerful as Sam do something that
restrained, and you see how much he suffers in his eyes like when
his woman tells him “I don’t love you no more.” Sam’s
known for being the big action guy. There’s certain things we love
Sam to do.

That’s
why we can do iconic impersonations of Samuel Jackson because he’s
our American actor. We like seeing him do the Sam thing. But in this
movie, he really worked to create a character from some of these
blues men that we put him in touch with in Mississippi and northern
Mississippi. If you watch, he actually even holds his posture a
little bit differently. I’ve just watched him change where he kind
of pushes his gut out just a little bit more than usual and his
posture would just change.

But
the thing that I find most – other than the obvious which is like
he plays the blues and really like people probably have been waiting
for Sam to play blues and he’s so perfect for it — but more so I
really like seeing him in a romantic situation with S. Epatha
Merkerson. When you see it with a full house, they’re rooting for
him and that’s a respect that someone like Jackson has basically
earned over the years. I think that we never get to see him be
romantic and it’s really great. An audience really responds to
that, you know, they have to do that. They want him to be happy.
They want him to find love.

Can
you talk about the decision to cast
Justin Timberlake?

Even
before Hustle & Flow happened, when I was just making movies in
Memphis on my video camera, I remember seeing him in interviews back
when he was just about to leave N Sync. It was right before he
started to record Justified, and I remember turning to my wife and
saying, “I think I’m supposed to work with Justin
Timberlake” and she’s like, “Really, why?” And I
was like, “He’s up in Millington and I think I really want to
try to rep my region.” That’s why David Banner is in my
movie. How many LA movies are there with LA rappers? There’s no
Southern movies with Southern rappers until I came around.

And
so I believe in just pulling all the artists together from my
region. And the more that I talked with Justin, the more I realized
that he was the only person that I could really go to on this. You
know, we both have really thick Southern families, and we’ve
always been kind of like dealing with the fact of how far do you run
away from your own heritage and your own Southern
background…Justin’s a very confident young man, almost wise
beyond his years in a spooky way. I think it’s a testament to
Justin that he’s taking this route with his career.

You
really could do kind of like a big tent pole production with him
singing and dancing as the lead above the title, but he’s choosing
these roles where he’s a supporting character and surrounding
himself with really good actors. Also, he’s made three movies;
I’ve made three movies. We’re starting off, and I like that
we’re young and fresh and trying something knew. I guarantee you
there’s going to be a time, like five to ten years from now,
Justin’s going to be a movie star.

So
you were impressed with his acting?

I
was. This is not an easy supporting role to play, especially to be
that vulnerable.

Are
you concerned at all about being typecast as a Southern director?

I
hope so. As a matter of fact, I’m very proud about that. I would
really like to represent my region. It seems to me that the one
thing that we’re missing right now in films is a regionalism. I look
at some of my favorite directors. Let’s look at Spike Lee’s
films. Even from his small films to The Inside Man, there is an
intense inspiration from jazz. He is a jazz filmmaker, I feel.
There’s times that you’ll be watching something and it’s
obviously part of the narrative strain and then it just gets almost
like a little improv-y. Suddenly it’s like somebody just came in
with a new instrument and they’re kind of riffing on the clarinet.
I think that comes from Brooklyn. I think that comes from his dad.

I
think it comes from living where he’s living. I think the same
thing can be said about Alexander Payne from where he is. I think
the same thing about Robert Rodriguez. I think the same thing about
John Singleton and South Central…So I want to be considered a
Memphis filmmaker even if I do something that takes place in
Alabama. It’s why I continue to live there; it’s why I continue
to be inspired there.

A
while ago you mentioned a movie that you were considering, about
Southern musicians meeting at the crossroads.

Oh
you’re talking about a long time ago — Devil Music. That’s my
rock and roll movie.

Is
that still in the pipeline?

Oh
yeah. It’s written and I’ve even got people that want to be in
it, but it’s pretty expensive so I’m holding off on that.
The next one’s Maggie Lynn. The next one’s the country
music movie, and that’s all written and the studio loves it and
we’re just going to be getting into that and then the soul movie.
I really want to tell the story of that time in Memphis between
December of 1967 when Otis Redding went down in the plane crash with
the bar case through the sanitation strike and when Dr. King is
assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968.

What
was it about the song, “Black Snake Moan,” that lent
itself to the title of the film?

The
fear of the unknown. Blind Lemon Jefferson born in Texas, died a
horrible death in Chicago when, after a gig, he got lost in a
snowstorm and froze to death, which really is sad considering like
that’s how he always thought he was going to go out. He was always
singing about scorpions or snakes or bugs being in his room and not
being able to see it and could some pretty mama please come get this
black snake. It’s also a very wicked old song. There’s something
even about the scratches and pops in the album and the simplistic
guitar playing and that howl just sends chills down your spine. The
most powerful thing about the blues that I’ve found is I think
it’s like rap. I think it’s exorcism music.

Rap
artists dance between reality and fantasy, and I think it’s a very
important thing to articulate those things. Mississippi Fred
McDowell in North Mississippi would have a line, ‘Well I’m going
to buy me a bulldog and chain it in my front yard and that’ll keep
my woman from sneaking off at night.’ Now I don’t think
Mississippi Fred really bought a bulldog and chained it in his front
yard, but I think he felt that way and I think that blues music,
just like rap, is taking those fears, taking those anxieties, and
articulating them over and over again, sometimes three times in a
verse, and then you somehow get control over it instead of it
controlling you.

And
if you just have a bad week and you go into the weekend and you’re
hell bent on some personal destruction and you go to a juke and you
drink and you’re listening to the music and everybody’s up and
dancing, you feel better, you feel exhausted. You drop into your bed
and you wake up the next morning and now it’s time for church, and
it’s kind of the same thing but now it’s like switched. It’s
no longer about screwing and fighting and drinking and now it’s
more about Jesus and God, that everybody’s still sweating and
dancing and singing.

With
the success of Hustle & Flow, what kind of screenplays are
people sending you?

I
always write my own scripts. I’ve not read any scripts for me to
consider directing, but I now have a company called Southern Cross
the Dog at Paramount and we’re trying to produce things. I want to
see more working class movies. Even Purple Rain was a working class
movie, though that’s a big entertaining musical, raw, but those
people didn’t have any money. They were still struggling from gig
to gig and movies like Urban Cowboy and Officer and a Gentleman.
There used to be a time where the only goal was… Richard Gere just
needed to graduate. We got into the 80s and it was like you need to
graduate and then shoot down some Migs. That’s the Top Gun
version.

Why
weren’t there any deleted scenes in the Hustle & Flow DVD?

I
shot that movie in 24 days. Whatever I chopped up went into that
stew. I didn’t have much that I could really let fall by the
wayside, but Black Snake Moan has a lot of really good deleted
scenes.

Questions?
Comments? Manifestos? Send them to me at [email protected].