Mario & Mandela Van Peebles
Mario & Mandela Van Peebles
The “We the Party” Interview
with Kam Williams
Father and Son Discuss Coming-of-Age Comedy
Mario Van Peebles was born in Mexico City on January
15, 1957 to Maria Marx and the legendary actor/director/composer/scriptwriter Melvin
Van Peebles. Heo made his acting debut as a teenager in his father’s film Sweet
Sweetback’s Badasssss Song (1971), before embarking on an enduring career as a
thespian marked by memorable outings in everything from New Jack City (1991) to playing Stokely
Carmichael in Panther (1995) to impersonating Malcolm X in Ali (2001).
Mario has also stepped behind the
camera to direct a number of films, most notably, New Jack City, Panther, Badasssss! (2003) and
Posse (1993). His latest offering, We the Party, is a bit of a family affair,
in that it stars his 18 year-old son, Mandela, and features his father and four
other children, Makaylo, Maya, Morgana and Marley, in supporting roles.
Here, Mario and Mandela talk about
the movie, a coming-of-age comedy which might be best thought of as an
African-American variation on American Pie (1999).
Kam
Williams: Hi Mario and Mandela, thanks for the
interview. You know, back in ’79, I had
the honor of running part of the Boston Marathon alongside Melvin Van Peebles.
Your father’s one of my idols.
Mario:
Cool, man. When you met him did you go, “Come on feet! Do your Thing!” like his
character did in Sweet Sweetback? [LOL]
KW:
I’m sure I did. What interested you in making We the Party?
Mario:
Half of it came from just witnessing the party all around me. I had this cool
constituency of five teenagers growing up, listening to all this new music and
dealing with all the “isms” that are still alive. They’re trying to climb
through: lookism… classism… sexism… racism. Then they literally threw a huge
party at the house for one of their birthdays.
Mandela:
Yeah, one of my brothers and I have our birthdays around the same time, and my
father wasn’t giving us as big an allowance as others in our age group. So, we
figured we should pool our money, hire a DJ, hire security, order some pizza
and refreshments, and charge $10 a head. It was amazing! We had at least 500 people
show up.
KW:
Wow!
Mario:
But it never got out of control like Project X because “dad” was there. I
patrolled the premises with my video camera, and tried to keep the hormones from
raging out of control. The way these kids behave, it sort of looks like safe
sex out there on the floor. The last time I danced liked that I had a baby 9
months Iater. So, inspired by real events, I started piecing the story together
piece by piece.
KW:
How true to life is the movie?
Mandela:
A lot of the movie was inspired by real life, but some of it is fiction. For
instance, I would get so mad, if my brother really got a car and I didn’t.
KW:
How similar are you to your character, Hendrix?
Mandela:
He’s the same kind of kid as me. He’s stylish, but he’s not the coolest kid or
the weirdest kid. He’s kind of in his own world.
KW:
Mandela, Harriet Pakula Teweles asks: Was it weird being
directed by your dad?
Mandela:
No, it wasn’t, because I’ve been directed by him almost my whole life. That’s 18
years. However, it was important to know the difference between my dad and
Mario Van Peebles, the director. You gotta show up early… you gotta know your
lines… and I had to set an example for the other actors, so they could see that
even the director’s son was always prepared and very professional.
KW:
Mario, was it hard keeping egos in check when you have stars
like Snoop Dogg, Salli Richardson, Michael Jai White and Tony Lister in support
roles.
MVP:
One of the cool things about the adults in the movie is we’ve all been doing it
for a minute. Salli, Tiny and I have been working together since Posse. And
Snoop’s been The Doggfather for awhile. So, we’re all pretty secure within
ourselves. On top of that, it wasn’t just my badass crew in the movie, it was
Snoop’s son [Corde Broadus], P. Diddy’s son [Quincy Brown], a Wayan’s kid [Gregg], and a
lot of talented youngsters from That’s So Raven and Hannah Montana, plus some
professional music and dance crews. So, the adults were happy to be a part of a
cool movie being made that had some nutritional value. And I think they also
knew that when you make an independent movie like We the Party, you really have
to put the money on the screen. That’s why I only paid myself ten dollars to
write it and one dollar to direct it. No one was there for the money in the
first place. That was the wrong reason to be on the set. Understand that Hollywood tends to be a
little reductive in its portrayals of people of color. It might get behind a
couple filmmakers who are doing goofy comedies, which is fine, but I also want
kids of all colors to have an alternative. I want our kids to be able to go to
the movies to see something that is relevant to them that also has something to
say. There’s no reason to be afraid to continue a conversation that society has
already started with a young audience. So, if they’ve already been hit with
hyper-sexuality and hyper materialism, it’s okay to let them know in the
context of a movie that they might not be able to buy their sense of self at
the mall. Like I say in the classroom scene, the people we really respect
aren’t the big shoppers like the Kardashians, but the people who stand for
something. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X weren’t big consumers. You couldn’t
sell Mother Teresa breast implants. You couldn’t sell Gandhi a new car. That’s
a long answer, but once my cast saw that level of consciousness in a script
aimed at young adults, they jumped at the chance to be a part of delivering a positive
message. They were attracted to the project for content reasons, not for ego
reasons.
KW:
That reminds me of how your dad’s film, Sweet Sweetback, was
taught in one of my black studies courses when I went to Cornell.
Mario:
Kam, you’re hitting on a real important point that’s often lost in the
conversation when we talk about Blaxploitation Era cinema. What Melvin Van
Peebles really created was Black Power Cinema. He made the first definitive
film where a brother transforms from a hustler into a revolutionary and goes up
against the system. Hollywood saw that movie make money, and made Shaft, a
private eye who was working with The Man, instead of against The Man. And Superfly came
later, which was about a guy who was dealing drugs to his own people for The Man. So, although the
films after Sweetback still featured empowered black leads, they were only icing
on the cake, because the revolutionary core had been drained from the cake.
Consequently, black people are today still trying to recover from the
Blaxploitation Era’s drug dealer as a hip guy mentality. The Hollywood
industry prefers to support cinema that doesn’t threaten the status quo as
opposed to promoting material that might raise consciousness. Even reality-TV
shows dupe viewers into believing they’re exercising an important choice when
they’re given a chance to vote for this or that next Pop Idol. But the truth is,
they’re really only exercising distraction. Do you understand what I’m saying?
KW:
Yep. Is there any question no one ever asks you, that you wish someone would?
Mario:
Well, it’s fun talking to you, Kam since you saw the movie and you’re touching
on some good points.
KW: When you look in the mirror, what
do you see?
Mario:
I see a brother who’s been blessed in many ways. One, in that I was raised by a
guy who had a good sense of humor about life. He gets the joke of life, has
great people skills, and knows how to make things happen. He not only taught me
how to play basketball but how to own the team. Secondly, my mother was able to
show me the mountain by taking me to auditions, and my father was then able to
teach me how to climb it. I also see a person who has arrived at a point in
life where I’m learning from my children, my homegrown, teenage think tank. And
now I’m functioning as the connective tissue between them and my parents, which
is a really cool place to be.
KW:
Thanks again for the time, Mario and Mandela, and best of
luck with the film.
Mandela:
Thanks, Kam.
Mario:
Cool, man, we’ll talk to you next time, brother.
To see a trailer for We
the Party, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0W9i6GvfPE
To order a copy of We
the Party on DVD, visit:
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