Lenny Kravitz
The "Precious" Interview
with Kam Williams
Precious
Click to order
DVD via Amazon
Kam
Williams:
Hey,
Lenny, thanks for the time. What interested you in playing John?
Lenny
Kravitz:
Well,
first of all, I thought it was a great story. Then the fact that Lee's a
great director and I'm a fan of his movies. He makes dynamic films. And the
script was great. I also liked Nurse John, who was really the only positive
male character in the film, concerning Precious. Even though it's only a
short visit they have together, she sort of starts to come alive at that
point.
KW:
Did you
enjoy making the film?
LK:
It was a
great experience. Obviously it was my first film, but you never know when
you read a script, what it's going to be like, even if you know who's been
cast. And I can say that it's the same for making music videos or doing
other projects.
KW:
What did
you think of the finished product?
LK:
It came
out so amazing! It was far more than I had imagined.
KW:
How was
it working with such a talented cast, Mo'Nique,
Gabby Sidibe, Mariah Carey,
Paula Patton, Sherri Shepherd, etcetera?
LK:
Well, my
scenes were primarily with Gabby and the young girls, so I really didn't see
anybody else. But working with Gabby, I realized immediately that she was
amazingly talented. I could tell just by the way she'd get into the role.
We'd be sitting around talking and laughing, but when Lee would say, "Okay,
it's time to get ready to shoot the scene," she would transform at the snap
of a finger as soon as Lee said, "Action!" She'd suddenly be in agony, or
crying or in some deep, emotional state." And I'd be thinking, "Wow! This
girl is really incredible." You never know where you're going to find a
great actor. Just yesterday, I was watching an interview with Martin
Scorcese concerning Raging Bull, which is one of my favorite films, and he
was talking about how he'd worked with a lot of guys who weren't
quote-unquote "actors," like Joe Pesce and Frank Vincent. Scorcese was very
smart in the way that he cast, because you don't know where you're going to
find the right person who can carry a role and summon that emotion you're
looking for.
KW:
Would
you describe Lee as a hands-on director?
LK:
Extremely! And I enjoyed that, because when I'm making my music, I'm writing
it, I'm producing it, I'm playing all the instruments, I'm performing. It's
my own world where I do what I feel, and nobody tells me anything. So, I
found it a really refreshing change of pace to suddenly be completely
directed. It was a type of collaboration that I don't normally have. He told
me how to walk, how to do this, how to do that. Yet, at the same time, he'll
give you room to breathe, once he's established what he wants from you. For
instance, take the scene in the hospital where I'm initially sitting with
Precious, smacking my lips while I'm eating that fruit salad, and her
girlfriends are all talking trash. That whole scene was improvised. At
first, we followed our dialogue, but we weren't feeling it. Lee came into
the room, and ripped those pages out of the script. He said, "This is what I
want. I need for you to take me from A to B to C, but just make it up. Now,
just go!" We did, and he loved it. But then the 7 of us had to remember what
we'd just made up in order to repeat it 4 or 5 more times from different
camera angles. For me, it was a lot of fun. It still was like making music,
the way I interpreted it. It's all rhythm, it's all musical, so it was
intense, but really great working with Lee.
KW:
Laz
Lyles noticed that you're slated to make a movie with Ash Baron-Cohen
[cousin of Sacha] called Novella.
LK:
I don't
know what's going on with that, actually. But the next film I'll be doing is
another one with Lee called Selma, in which I'll be playing Andrew Young.
KW::
Laz wants to know if you intend to pursue more acting roles, or if you'll
just be playing it by ear?
LK:
I'm
playing it by ear although, although it's a good time for me to pursue
acting, I suppose since I'm enjoying having another medium in which to
express myself. I've been getting a great response to my work. I'm sure
great scripts are hard to find, but I'm definitely open, and waiting to see
what comes my way.
KW:
Children's book author Irene Smalls asks, what musical heights do you still
want to reach? What motivates the music you create and governs it
development?
LK:
What
motivates it is life. Life is everything. Life influences my music and
brings it forth. Life is always changing, so I'm always hearing new music.
It's the way I document my life. I feel like my best work is in front of me.
I'm in the studio now, and I'm having an amazing time making this new album.
It's something I can't help.
KW:
The new
album is called "Negrophilia." Is there some sort of theme running through
all the songs?
LK:
It's not
written as a concept album, and the whole album isn't finished yet, but I'm
sure there will be some kind of thread, because it just works out that way.
I liked the title and what the word means. I was living in Paris last year,
where there's a great appreciation of many different aspects of African
culture and of black culture. The music… the art… whatever… And I kind of
went with that.
KW:
This
wasn't your first time living in Paris, though.
LK: No, I went to Paris in 1989 when the Americans didn't quite know what to do with me at first. Now, all those years later, it's kind of the same story. Not the same scenario, but kind of the same story.
KW:
Larry
Greenberg says, he would love to love to see a movie about Romeo Blue. Is
there any chance of that happening?
LK:
Hmmm…
That's interesting, you know. I haven't thought about that, but it's
interesting, because it was a different persona, a different person, as far
as I'm concerned. I haven't thought about making a music film, but if I did,
that would be a very interesting idea.
KW:
Romeo
Blue was an important phase you went through in getting you back to
yourself.
LK:
Yes, I
was being somebody else. It was a part of me. I had an emotional attachment
to this character, but it wasn't me. I didn't know whether being this
half-black, half-white guy named Lenny Kravitz could work. That may sound
really strange, but in essence, that's how I felt. But then I woke up one
day, and realized Romeo Blue wasn't me. It was a part of me, but it wasn't
me. At that point, I accepted myself, my name and my background for who I
am, and then everything began to flow.
KW:
Do you
ever feel pressure to identify yourself as black or white, or Jewish or
Christian?
LK:
No, my
mother always told me to embrace both sides of my background. And she also
taught me one very useful thing when I was going to first grade. She said,
"You're Bahamian and African-American on one side, and Russian-Jewish on the
other. You're no more one than the other, and it's beautiful that you have
all this. It makes your life all the more rich. But society will see you
only as black." I can't remember how I felt at the time that she told me
that, but later on in life I was like, "Wow!" because that's exactly how it
was. They don't care that you're mixed. They see you as one color.
KW:
And
although you understood that the world saw you that way, you didn't allow
yourself to be pigeonholed and marginalized.
LK:
I've
lived my life dealing with everybody. And that's how it's always been for
me.
KW:
Tommy
Russell asks, do you think Obama will end up having a very successful
Presidency like Reagan, bad at the beginning, revered by the end, or will he
lack enough of an economic rebound to earn a second term?
LK:
I think
it's too early to say, but I certainly hope that he will win re-election.
Beyond his having made history as the first African-American president, I
hope that he gets re-elected for what he does while in office, not for his
skin color. I certainly believe he has the capacity.
KW:
The
Columbus Short question: Are you happy?
LK:
Very!
Extremely!
KW:
The
Tasha Smith question: Are you ever afraid?
LK:
Yes, but
I'm working on canceling that out completely.
KW:
The Teri Emerson question: When was the last time you had a good laugh?
LK:
Last
night.
KW:
The
bookworm Troy Johnson question: What was the last book you read?
 Black Poets of the United States: From Paul Laurence Dunbar to Langston Hughes Click to order via Amazon Paperback: 584 pages Publisher: University of Illinois Press Pub Date: (March 1, 1973) Language: English Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.4 inches |
KW:
The music maven Heather Covington question: What's the last song you
listened to?
LK:
One of
mine I'm working on called "Love Casino."
KW:
When you
look in the mirror, what do you see?
LK:
Oh, wow…
Wow! Honestly, today, I saw my mother.
KW:
I know
you're related to Al Roker. We grew up in the same neighborhood and went to
the same grammar school.
LK:
Oh, you
grew up in St. Albans? I used to go there almost every weekend. In fact,
after I was born at St. John's hospital in Bed-Stuy, I went straight to my
godmother's house in St. Albans. Yeah man, I know St. Albans real well.
KW:
What's your favorite dish to cook?
LK:
I have a
lot of them I guess right now it's lamb chops. I been eating a little meat
lately.
KW:
The Ling-Ju Yen question: What is your earliest childhood memory?
LK:
Me being
in my grandmother's yard in Brooklyn. I must have been about 3. I had this
red balloon. I let go of it, and it went up into the sky and just kept going
and going. I completely flipped out, because I didn't understand why.
KW: Thanks again for the interview,
Lenny, and best of luck with the new album and the acting career.
LK:
Thank
you.
___________________________________
Watch the trailer for Precious:
PUSH
(a novel)Click to order via Amazon
by Sapphire
ISBN: 0679766758
Format: Paperback, 140pp
Pub. Date: April 1997
Publisher: Random House, Incorporated
In an electrifying novel, a black street girl, sixteen years old and pregnant, again, with her father's child, speaks. In a voice that shakes us by its language, its story, and its unflinching honesty, Precious Jones records her journey up from Harlem's lowest depths... For Precious, miraculously, hope appears and the world begins to open up when a courageous black woman - a teacher hellbent to teach - bullies, cajoles, and inspires her to learn to read, to define her own feelings and set them down in a diary: to discover the truth of her life.
Day after day they go over the pages, translating the illiterate but developing language of Precious' journals. The learning process itself, as vividly revealed as the most brutal aspects of Precious' daily existence, is the heartbeat of a novel that will disturb, galvanize, and stay in the mind.
Related Links
Precious (2009) - Film Review
http://reviews.aalbc.com/precious.htm
Lee Daniels Interview, Producer of the motion
picture Precious
http://reviews.aalbc.com/lee_daniels.htm
Gabby Sidibe - The 'Precious' Interview
http://reviews.aalbc.com/gabby_sidibe.htm
Mariah Carey The 'Precious' Interview
http://reviews.aalbc.com/mariah_carey.htm
