Dreamgirls - Anika Noni Rose and Danny Glover interview
Interview by Rob Carnevale
ACCLAIMED stage actress Anika Noni Rose and Danny Glover discuss some of the issues concerning Dreamgirls and why they are delighted to be a part of its success…
Q. You have a tremendous track record, particularly on stage where you’ve won many awards, was there a different kind of preparation for plunging yourself into movies with people who sometimes make them three or four times a year?
Anika Noni Rose: I actually didn’t approach it any differently than I approach stage. I think that as an actor you find your way to that character and you create that character from the inside out. This script was written so well and Bill [Condon] made such a comfortable environment that the oddest thing for me was dealing with the fact that things are not happening chronologically in film. So, you get there at 5am at 17-years-old, you have lunch at 25, you have a snack you’re 93 [laughs]...
So I made sure that on my script above each year I wrote the year and the age that I was so that I wasn’t a schizo basically.
Q. You’re unique in this film because you’re the only one who doesn’t get to show their singing chops or dancing chops. Was this a source of much regret? Are you a secret singer and dancer?
Danny Glover: I’ve always been a closet introvert. There’s a part of me that resides there, there’s a part of me that still thinks he’s Smokey Robinson and that he has the moves of The Temptations. I’ve had those moments but it’s alright…
Q. Of the many things to admire in the film one is Eddie Murphy’s performance. Who had to persuade who that he could be so good in a dramatic role? And what was it like for his cast mates to work with someone who clearly had to suppress, on camera at least, his wild sense of humour?
Anika Noni Rose: I can say that one thing about Eddie is that he really is a beautiful person with a wonderful spirit. I think that what people don’t know is that he is very still and very subdued and shy. So, working with him you’re not working with somebody who is constantly on. You’re working with somebody who, when they say “action” is giving the most amazing performance ever and is so totally open to whatever it is that you’re giving him. You have an amazing give and take and a wonderful electricity working between you and that is brilliant and phenomenal and constant with him.
He’s not the type of person that you’re like: “Oh please, don’t make me laugh again.” He’s just not that. The work he has done in this film I think has opened up a brand new venue of performance for himself. I don’t think that people were really prepared to see him do something like this – the singing and dancing is great but the still moments, those quiet moments and poignant moments are absolutely breathtaking and beautiful. He is amazing.
Q. The movie is very much about manipulation and people who were being pushed into various directions by Jamie Foxx’s character. That was then but does it still happen now? Have either of you found any of that in your careers?
Anika Noni Rose: I think absolutely so if you allow yourself to become susceptible to that. I think that it’s up to you to decide how far you go and it’s up to you to know yourself and to know what it is that steps out of your moral comfort zone. You have to decide how far you’re going to go for what it is that you want and what it means to you. I’ve gone into auditions and you audition for an agent basically when you get out of school and decide that you want to be an actor.
I had somebody tell me: “Well, what type do you think you are?” I said: “Well, I don’t really know; it depends on the script…” And they said: “Oh no, no, no we really need you to pick a type because that’s how we put you out there.” But I said: “I don’t think that’s something that I do, or want to do.” I think it’s important to make those choices. For some people it works, to be a type, to be in that box. For me, I truly think make my own path and I’ve been lucky enough to have some great people that have helped me walk it very well.
Q. I was reading through the production notes and saw that you have another film coming out soon, called Shooter. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Danny Glover: I’m having such a great time listening to these extraordinary women talk about their lives and what’s brought them to this moment – I think we can pay a little bit of attention to that and learn a lot. I mean this is the first time that I’ve really had an opportunity to listen to Anika knowing that she’s done extraordinary work on stage and continues to work.
I’ve always said that one of the beautiful things about working in this cast is not only to see this re-energising or revitalization of Eddie Murphy and working with Jamie Foxx, who’s one of the very special and great actors in the world today, but watching this extraordinary cast of young performers; Anika, Jennifer, Beyonce and Keith Robinson. To watch them just beginning to shape their career and to have an opportunity just to really shine. And to listen to them now and to listen to their stories makes what’s happening to them all the more extraordinary and all the more beautiful for us to fight for.
One of the reasons why we’re here is that they say that black films don’t sell in Europe, that black films don’t sell or do this in Asia, and we want to use this as a platform to prove that wrong. We’re going to use this extraordinary film and extraordinary talent that you’re going to see for years and years and years from now to show that they do sell. And what’s key and what’s important is that we have a story that touches people’s heart, that moves people, and a story that you find a level of universality to, that people are going to come and see that. Maybe we can change that and shift a little paradigm and really tell the truth about what we need to see and what we should see.
Q. It’s been said that there’s not been many strong, positive African-American black movies in America, especially with strong female role models or actresses in the film. Do you find that you’re really proud to be part of such a historic cinematic moment – that you’re a part of that and maybe that you’re looking forward to it opening more doors?
Anika Noni Rose: I absolutely am so very proud and honoured and grateful to be a part of this project and to be a part of something so positive and yet honest. Not positive in such a sense that you’re walking out with a cavity, you know. It’s true, it’s honest, there’s ugliness in it but it’s not taking you to that stereotypical place that says all we can do is shoot each other and shoot up drugs and do stuff like that. it’s the other story. It’s showing us in glamour mode because we do that too.
It’s a really, really wonderful feeling to have young people come up to me and be excited about this and to send me messages on MySpace telling me: “My God, I want to do what you do; you thrilled me so much. You have touched me. The movie that you did has made such a difference in my life.” That’s not really why you do it when you’re doing it, but when that type of thing comes to you and you realise that you’ve touched somebody in that way and made a difference and allowed them to see something different of themselves, that is the most fulfilling and amazing feeling ever.
Q. Has Dreamgirls already opened doors for you?
Anika Noni Rose: Actually, I wrapped another film a few weekends after Dreamgirls closed. Closed… I’m still on stage. I’m working on a mini-series in Australia right now. And I have a movie that Mr Glover and I will hopefully be working on this spring. I don’t know if Dreamgirls opened those doors or not but definitely more people are aware of my name. It will allow me to be in a different pile in the headshot package.
Q. Can you tell us what research you undertook for your character and was there anyone who perhaps influenced your early career that fed into the role?
Danny Glover: Not really. I think that Marty is an amalgamation of many of these guys that you know and get a sense of. Bill in the narrative gave you some clear outlines and places to go. I was telling Bill that one of the things I found interesting was because of my size – I’m like 6ft 3ins or something like that – I was physically overwhelming the other two guys on that set.
So I think there was something that I found in the juxtaposition of size and where the internalization of the whole process and the way of being that Marty had to be, which worked for me. So, there’s little games that you often play with yourself as an artist. You try to find some sort of way where you can understand your presence within the whole scenario that’s being drawn out.
If you place Marty in some sort of historical context in terms of the outline of where the music was going then certainly, the rides he would have managed were people like Little Richard or Chuck Berry or the other people who preceded that. Remember the wonderful scene that I had with Ken Page and also Jennifer where they talked about Billie; they mentioned Billie and all those little points help you to get an idea of what kind of culture he comes out of, and what kind of sub-culture and what he’s had to endure and who he’s had to be to make sure that his main person, his client, his Jimmy, didn’t have to endure them in the same way.
So in that sense, he was a part of this passage, of this space – yes, there were many who had done it before him and there were many who continue to do it and yet they were themselves becoming a dinosaur within this fast moving business which has become commercialized and commodified, and which now because of technology has changed the whole nature in which we look at culture and art.