“I’M NOT THAT GUY TO BE DOWN WITH THE ’HOOD, AND THAT KIND OF CINEMA DOESN’T EXCITE ME, AT ALL.”
70
scene mag a zine
sc.SEPT13.leedaniels.indd 6
my son, at 15, said, ‘Dad, why are these people looking at me when I go into stores?’ I didn’t know how to answer.” Compared to raising a black male teenager, making films is easy. Daniels is more surefooted when he’s sitting in the director’s chair than he is when talking race with his son. Never one to play to the crowd, Daniels makes the film equivalent of Jackson Pollock paintings: They splatter and smear onto the screen yet nonetheless have a kind of rigor and precision. His stories are deeply intimate, visually rich and racially nuanced. After producing Monster’s Ball, which earned Halle Berry an Oscar, making her the first black actress to win for best actress, he went on to direct Shadowboxer, starring Helen Mirren and Cuba Gooding Jr. Daniels then produced The Woodsman and, after directing Precious (which earned him an Oscar nomination for best director), directed The Paperboy, starring Zac Effron and Nicole Kidman, which was roundly panned by critics. “Julian Schnabel or someone said to me after The Paperboy that if I were European or if I were Pedro [Almodovar] and had done the film, then it would have been hailed.” This makes Daniels a minority within a minority—a black filmmaker whose films look little like other black mainstream filmmakers. “I’m not that guy to be down with the ‘hood, and that kind of cinema doesn’t excite me, at all. And it’s sad, because you’re ostracized by that African-American, Tyler Perry following.” Does he feel ostracized by Perry personally? “No, not by Tyler. Well, who knows? I don’t know. And who cares?” In the past, Daniels has trusted both his son and daughter to watch his film dailies, weigh in on casting choices, scenes and dialog. This film marks the first project his son declined to help with. Daniels was sure his son would be especially critical when he saw it for the first time. “So I asked him, ‘What’d you think?’ And he said, ‘Well, I have a problem with some of the archival footage that you chose, because I’ve seen it before. But I think that the movie, I think it’s your greatest work.’” You can practically see Daniels’ heart swell from inside his chest.
tktktktk
two teenagers (twins, a boy and a girl), Daniels has found it not only difficult to explain race and racism to his kids, but increasingly hard to find common ground with his son. “He and I are disconnecting. I understood what the butler was going through with his son—a lot of those words in there are words that I have with my own son,” Daniels says, referring to the fiercely heated arguments between the butler (Forest Whitaker) and his activist son (David Oyelowo) throughout the film. “It’s a universal story. He’s bucking me. It’s part of growing up and becoming a man.” Stakes get a little higher when it means growing up and becoming a black man. “I remember when the kids were 13, and this taxi literally went right by us to pick up a white dad and his two kids. Like from here to there.” Daniels draws a short line in the air between us. “I couldn’t deal with the uncomfortableness that it made me have with my kids. It’s like having that sex conversation—it’s worse than having that sex conversation.” In fact, the sex conversation with Daniels’ kids, whom he is raising with his ex-partner, casting director Billy Hopkins, is a nonissue. “My kids are so evolved. They’ve got two dads, so the concept of sex and their idea of parenting. ... They’re a new breed. They don’t get it that you don’t get it. And fuck you if you don’t get it. I mean, it goes there.” Sadly, it also ends there. “I assume the world is like that now, until I can’t get a frickin’ taxi.” The main point of contention between Cecil Gaines, the title character in The Butler, and his son, Louis, is Cecil’s passivity. It’s Cecil’s firm opinion that he should have exactly no opinions when it comes to racial politics— or, indeed, any politics. His job is to be entirely subservient and stay quiet. To say nothing at all. His son, on the other hand, believes it is a crucial time for black Americans to make their voices heard—loudly. This drama makes an interesting personal backdrop for Daniels, who argues regularly with his son over how to navigate the world as a young black man. “There’s always a reason why I’m doing a film. Why did I want to do The Butler? I kept asking myself, and I realized that it was because
—
s e p t e m b e r 2 013
8/29/13 6:46 PM