Columbus Short Interview, Stomp the Yard

Movies Online recently caught up with Columbus Short at the Los Angeles Press Day for Stomp the Yard directed by award-winning music video and commercial director Sylvain White who brings his innovative visual style and explosive energy to the production. Stomp the Yard is a compelling drama about the quest for individuality and the power of fraternity. It features some of the most original and exhilarating dance performances ever filmed.

When an urban dance battle ends in violence, champion street dancer DJ Williams (Columbus Short) travels from the underground clubs of inner city Los Angeles to the moneyed precincts of Atlanta’s prestigious, historically black Truth University. Although his athleticism and ambition have made him a top competitor in the gritty world of street dancing, DJ feels out of place at Truth, with its elite fraternities and expectations of professional success.

It is in this alien environment that DJ discovers the world of stepping. An African-American tradition that has evolved form the centuries-old African Boot Dance, it combines precise dance steps with chants and percussive hand and foot movements. At Truth, it also plays a pivotal role in the longstanding rivalry between two campus fraternities.

When DJ shows off his dance skills at a local club, he attracts the attention of Truth’s top fraternities and campus beauty April (Meagan Good), setting off a vicious feud with April’s boyfriend Grant (Darrin Henson) – who also happens to be a star stepper for Mu Gamma Xi.

Born in Kansas City, Columbus Short relocated to Los Angeles when he was five years old and began working in youth theater, including a production of "The Wizard of Oz.” Short attended the Orange County School of the Arts before joining the Broadway tour of "Stomp.” When he returned to Los Angeles, he became an in-demand choreographer and tour director for pop superstars such as Britney Spears, Ashanti and Brandy before returning to acting. Short’s previous film credits include Steven Spielberg’s "War of the Worlds” and "Accepted” opposite Justin Long. On television, Short has appeared on "ER,” "Judging Amy,” and "That’s So Raven,” as well as in a recurring arc on the NBC series "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.” He currently resides in Los Angeles.

Columbus is a sensational artist and a fabulous guy and we really appreciated his time. Here’s what he had to tell us about his new movie, Stomp the Yard, the language of stepping, and his love of musicals:

Q: How did you sprain your ankle?

CS: Playing basketball, practicing; I play in this entertainment league, so I was at the gym working out this week and I rolled over on it. It’s the worst, worst ever; but it’s all good.

Q: No break dancing for you right now.

CS: Nothing for me right now; this.

Q: Had you done any step dancing before this movie?

CS: Yeah, I toured with the show Stomp for a while.

Q: Is that step?

CS: It’s the same; the language is the same. We did stuff with our bodies and the same thing; it was more individual than this. Stepping is more unified; it’s the same, direct derivative from African boot dancing that got brought over to the US in 1906. That’s when they kind of adopted the form, the dance form.

Q: Is this your screen debut?

CS: No, no, I’ve done a couple films that probably none of you know about; I did Save the Last Dance 2 and I did Accepted, the college comedy.

Q: Who did you play in Accepted?

CS: Hands.

Q: Were you at Comic-con?

CS: Yeah, I met you at Comic-con.

Q: At any given point you’re going to meet somebody who’s stepped. Were you concerned about coming correctly?

CS: It’s funny you should ask that, because I felt like because I understood the language, that was the least of my concerns. I felt like I’m going to take what I know from Stomp, I’m going to take what I know as a musician, and my musicality, and I’m going to apply it to the stepping; and I felt I was going to do some stuff people hadn’t seen before. My main concern was making sure that the artistic credibility of the character was there, and the authenticity of the project was there. So I did a lot of character development and a lot of thought about who DJ was. I know he’s some guy, Anywhere USA, but I wanted to really delve into that. That was the most important thing to me because at this point the dancing is kind of in my DNA.

Q: When you were preparing for this and you were doing the stomping, did you feel the weight of this 100-year-old art form fall upon your shoulders?

CS: It didn’t hit me until I got there. At first, I had a bit of ignorance to the whole history behind the fraternal order and the stepping. But, once I got there and started understanding, I’m like ‘I’m going to rep you guys’ because I met a lot of the Divine Nine, from Alpha’s, Sigma’s, Delta’s, Kappa’s, AKA’s, Q’s. So I met these all guys and really got to chomp it up with them and get the history.

Q: What were their concerns?

CS: ‘Man, you gotta come correct.’ That’s all they kept saying; ‘You gotta come correct, you gotta represent us.’ And I said, ‘Don’t worry, I’m going to do it.’ And they saw; they were on set on the day we shot the finale number. After we came off stage, because a lot of the extras were from HBCU’s and sorority and fraternity members. They said, ‘Man, that was killing, you guys were killing it.’ So it meant a lot that we did them justice, and I hope that the people who weren’t on set and will get to see this film on the 12^th or after feel the same way.

Q: Do you think shooting in Atlanta helped compared to shooting it in LA?

CS: Yeah, because LA’s a different beast. Art reflected life in a big sense when I went to Atlanta from LA. When I touched down, I was like, ‘Wow.’ Atlanta’s a completely different moment, and a completely different culture out there, especially on the campuses. We were on Spellman, Clark, Morehouse campus. So getting out there and being around that environment really put you in the mode and the mindset to do the film.

Q: What was the main campus you shot on?

CS: Morris Brown College which is shut down now unfortunately. It’s sad, it’s sad. You’ve got this whole college campus that’s empty, and you have a lot of kids who want to go to college, don’t have the money to go to college, and there’s a college campus that’s shut down. So that’s sad. But we shot there the majority of the time.

Q: And that’s where Heritage Hall was?

CS: Yeah, actually that’s my favorite scene in the movie. I didn’t go in to see it. They wanted to show me the set before. I said, ‘Let’s not rehearse it, let’s just shoot it, Sylvain.’ I wanted to go in and I wanted to experience it with DJ. I wanted to experience it at that moment right there on the spot. So I said, ‘I don’t want to go in there. Let me just go in there when I go in there as DJ.’ That whole scene was really genuine; I was really surprised. I didn’t know Martin Luther King was in a fraternity, I didn’t know Betty Shabazz, I didn’t know these people, Coretta Scott King, I didn’t know these people were at sororities – and that’s how far back it’s dated. It blew me away. Michael Jordan was a Q, I didn’t know that. So it was a compelling scene for me.

Q: Do you learn anything personally from being a part of the project?

CS: As an actor I learned at some point you have to stop acting, at some point you just let it possess you. Whatever the being is, let it possess you, and you want to become what you’re representing and because it’s such a fragile and delicate group of an organization that we are trying to emulate and depict, it was really important to me that we represented that to the utmost and fullest. So when I came off that, it really helped me. It took my acting to the next level, because it’s not about what’s written on the lines, it’s what you deliver. Coming off that and going into Studio 60, it helped me a lot -- just trusting what the writer wrote - that you can live it and not just say it and have anybody believe you.

Q: So can you choose between South Harmon or Truth?

CS: Whoo, it’s funny because I’m a mix of a lot of different things. I went to Orange County High School for the Arts which is a predominantly white high school. I was one of a few African Americans who attended it, so I have that, and I love that, and that’s what South Harmon was, so I was comfortable there. But I think Truth, it’s something about your roots, there’s nothing like it; when I went to Atlanta, that’s what that was. There are affluent African Americans, there’s a lot of wealthy African Americans in Atlanta, and well to do, and educated. It’s different than LA because everyone out here, a lot of people out here aren’t – they moved here from there. And they’re educated, and they own businesses, and they’re running corporations, and they’re CEO’s, and it blew me away. There’s something about that just really touched my heart and really put me more in touch with my African American [roots] – so I’d have to say Truth.

Q: Are you ready to pledge Grad Chapter now?

CS: I want to pledge Alpha Phi Alpha.

Q: Why?

CS: Hanging out with all of them, not only the producers – the producers were Alphas – but hanging out with all of them, I kind of got the feel of where you would fit, where one would fit. The Q’s are big guys, they’re like football players, huge; the Kappa’s are the pretty boys with the canes. But the Kappa’s are just smooth, man.

Q: We are.

CS: See, Kappa’s are smooth; but the Alpha’s, I feel I would fit right there.

Q: How did you educate yourself on the traditions?

CS: The significance of this, for those who don’t know, we don’t really hit on it in the movie, and I’m kind of irritated that we didn’t because it’s a pertinent part of what sororities and fraternities do. They do so much community service, they do a lot in the community, they do a lot of stuff for the youth, and outreaching and community betterment. I wish we touched on that a little in the movie, but those are huge important things about the tradition. And then for example, the things that long live after you graduate form college. Let’s say I graduate and I move to LA, I’m a Kappa and I go to get a job at Pacific BMW and the manager of Pacific BMW is a Kappa and out of five applicants, I’m the only Kappa, I’m probably going to get that job. That’s the type of loyalty and brotherhood. My mom’s an AKA, and when I moved to San Francisco at 17, I had no place to live yet. I moved there to do Stomp, and they didn’t pay for our room and board. It was a sit down company. So she called a sorority sister she hadn’t talked to in ten years – I had never met her and didn’t know who the woman was – and she took me in like her son. That’s the type of life long brotherhood and sisterhood that these fraternities hold, so it’s huge.

Q: What about the stepping traditions?

CS: The stepping, what that rivalry is, it comes from the African Boot Dance, but when they step, they’re representing their fraternity and their rivalry. So they’re battling the opposing fraternity; the Kappa’s are battling the Q’s, the Q’s are going after the Alpha’s. And you start to see, each fraternity has different styles – the Q’s stomp hard, they’re like ‘Hu, Ha;’ they’re not as intricate, but they’re -. The Sigma’s are fast and swifty, and the Alpha’s are like ‘(does twirling noise);’ the Kappa’s have tricks, they’re throwing their canes, they’re twirling their canes, so you get to see that each fraternity has taken their own style and adapted it. And what was a daunting task doing the movie -- and Dave Scott did a phenomenal job, the choreographer -- we saw all these and we couldn’t emulate any of them; we had to come up with our own signs. I actually came up with this (snake motion) for the Theta’s because we’re the pythons – ‘What can we do?’ because pretty much all the signs were taken, and the Mu Gamma’s held up the ‘M.’ So we had to find, even though these were fictitious fraternities, we couldn’t emulate the Alpha’s. We’re not trying to pretend to be the Alpha’s, we’re not pretending to be the Kappa’s or the Q’s. We’re our own fraternities at that point in the film.

Q: What about working with Meagan?

CS: Oh man, Meagan; Meagan is one of my closest friends. We grew up together, and I’ve known Meagan since I was eight years old, and our families are close. Her mother is my ‘aunt;’ I call her Aunt Tyra. We said, I remember we were riding our bikes, and we had a little crew in Canyon country where we lived. I remember we said, ‘We’re going to do a movie together one day.’ And, you know, we’re kids, so when I signed on – I was the first one signed on to this project – and I remember, I called Meagan, and I said, ‘Megan, please, here’s the opportunity. They agree. They want you to do the movie. Will you do the movie?’ And she was like, ‘I don’t know.’ And I was like, ‘Meagan, please.’ I convinced her and she signed on to do the movie. And I think she was the perfect fit because I knew that our chemistry would be natural. It wouldn’t be forced because she’s one of my best friends. Not to mention that she’s freakin’ gorgeous and beautiful, so that wasn’t hard at all.

Q: Why was she a little apprehensive to sign on?

CS: Just like I was apprehensive, because when you read anything about a dance movie, you’re like, ‘Oh no, oh no, here we go again.’ And I didn’t want to be a part of that because I’ve been acting since I stopped doing the choreography for the past three or four years. I was like, ‘I don’t want to do anything dance.’ I was refusing to do anything dance. I wasn’t going to dance. I wasn’t going to do anything. I read the script, and I was like, ‘Hmm, this has the potential to have some depth to it.’ And the script of the movie you saw isn’t the script that I read initially. There was a lot of development and creative [contributions] that even I got to put in to making it more authentic. So I felt this was the chance for me…this could be, on a much smaller scale, my Ray because of the fact that I had the tools, I had the experience that led up to it -- acting, dancing, and being in Stomp. So I was like, ‘This could be the movie for me so maybe I should do it.’ And [after] long meetings with my team, we decided I should do it.

Q: Did you and Darren get together, being that you both you guys are choreographers, to discuss moves?

CS: Man, me and Darren, that was rough on set. Let me give you guys a little juicy juice. You’ve got to understand that even though we’re acting, there’s a lot of pride on the line. Nobody wants to lose, nobody wants to look bad, nobody wants to get out-danced, and so he had that. And he’s a method actor so he’s very much like that, off camera, off set, he’s still Grant; he’s still like, ‘I’m the man, I’m the man around here.’ And I’m still very much my own individual, and so we butted heads; and sometimes I like to improv in scenes. I feel if you do a take nine times, by the eighth time it’s becoming a little contrived. So you want to shake it up a bit, so I liked to shake him up. I did it with Meagan, I did it with everybody. But Darren, I did it with Darren one day and he was pissed. The director said cut and he said, ‘Columbus, come over here. I’m not getting what I need from Darren. I want you to call him a faggot, ‘that’s something a faggot would say’ or something like that. And I was like, ‘I can’t do that, Sylvain.’ And he was like, ‘Do it.’ So I did it, and Darren’s reaction…You know, I think they cut it out of the movie, but his reaction was me saying that, that’s in the film. It was the club scene where he came up to me and Meagan, and was like, ‘Stop talking to my girl.’ And I said that to him, and he was furious; and he was like, ‘If he said that to me in real life, it wouldn’t be like that.’ It was a battle, but it made for good, constructive competiveness, so it was cool.

Q: What was it like having Chris Brown and Ne-Yo on set?

CS: Ne-Yo is a close friend of mine as well. I do music as well, so being in the studio together – we did Save the Last Dance 2 together. That was his first role, so I was with Ne-Yo before he turned into this superstar. So we’ve kind of been coming up together, so he was a close friend. I begged them to let Neo do the movie as well. And then Chris, Chris Brown – he’s just a talent. He’s such a raw talent. We’re calling ourselves…we’re trying to be the new little Rat Pack. We want to bring... my inspirations are Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Donald O’Connor, Burt Lahr; looking at those people – Gene Kelly is the most movie star icon to me in the world. He’s a movie star. He could do it all, he could sing, he was charming, he could dance, he could act, he had it all. And I feel like we’re trying to bring that back to Hollywood. People that are not just a pretty face, but they can act, they can dance, they can sing, and they can do it all; and that’s what made Hollywood so special back then.

Q: What kind of music was played on set?

CS: They played a lot of music. I mean we stepped a lot, so the stepping was the music because stepping is the rhythmic personification of music and dance. So it was a lot of our own stuff. They played a lot of stuff, so many songs, like Jay-Z, Roots, Tribe Called Quest. They had a lot of good, historic hip hop.

Q: You mentioned Gene Kelly who in his day was considered avant garde. Is that something that you aspire to be, to kind of change the way dance looks?

CS: Yeah, you think about it, back in the day you had, if you look at some of the old musical movies, you had Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra in Guys and Dolls, Gene Kelly in New York, New York. These guys danced like men, but they were so graceful; Gene Kelly is so graceful, it’s ridiculous. Singin’ in the Rain, Donald O’Connor – these men were so graceful, but they were men, and they still kept that prestige. They weren’t ballerinas, but they had that class and that grace about them. And yeah, I want to bring that back, but I don’t know if I’m going to be doing anymore dance films anytime soon. If I could do a Nicholas Brothers movie, I would love to do that, something a little more period to go back. Or I might want to go back to Broadway and do that because that’s what I went to school for.

Q: Would you like to go behind the scenes and do choreography for a film?

CS: No, I’ve kind of hung up my choreography; the next thing I want to do later down the line is direct. I creative directed Britney’s tour and did all that so I love being able to be creative visually and doing these last few movies has been my film school. I’ve studied with Tom Shadyac showing me the ropes, Steve Pink showing me the ropes, talking to Spielberg when I did War of the Worlds, and then really hands on when I did Stomp the Yard. They were really giving me a crash course with the cinematographer, Scott Kevan, and so that’s what I really want to eventually end up doing.

Q: Where did the name Columbus come from?

CS: It’s my dad’s name, it’s my grandfather’s name; I’m a junior, but my grandfather’s name was Columbus. His middle name wasn’t Keith – my dad is Columbus Keith Short, and I’m Columbus Keith Short Jr. So it’s just been passed down.

Q: Nobody’s from Columbus?

CS: Nope, even though Meagan calls me Ohio. She doesn’t call me Columbus. She calls me Ohio. That’s my name.

Q: Do you have a name for the final move in the film where you backslide into a hand stand on your elbow?

CS: It was named in the script ‘The D Blaze’ and in the script, it starts off, ‘Chris does this phenomenal move in the opening,’ and then they were going to do this whole flashback sequence and then at the end, I do that move. But I was like, and at that point when we do that scene, we were almost done with the movie, I said, ‘We don’t need to live and die by this move. If you take the dancing out of this movie, I think we still have a movie.’ So I practiced the move for about two weeks, and then I didn’t do it for two weeks; and the studio came to rehearsal, and they said, ‘You’re not doing that, the insurance, if you get hurt, no way.’ So I didn’t practice it and we got to set, and we came up with a few other moves that were just watered down, and I was like, ‘We gotta do it.’ And so Sylvain was like, ‘If you get it on this take, we’re going to go, they’ll buy it.’ First take out the gate, I hit it, and everybody went crazy, and the studio was like, ‘Yes!’ So that move was trying. I hurt myself a lot, but it paid off.

Q: Have you seen Dreamgirls and what did you think of that dancing?

CS: Yes, Dreamgirls. I loved Dreamgirls. I love musicals. I think Jennifer Hudson is a breakout without a doubt. I would have loved to have been in Dreamgirls. I tested for Keith Robinson’s role, CC, but everybody has their time. And I think Keith did a great job, Jamie Foxx did, Eddie is freaking amazing, he’s freaking out of this world. And I think Beyonce gets underrated because I think she did a great job; I think she’s in the public eye a lot and her public persona gets taken into the film and you can’t see her as Deena, but she really was Diana Ross. If you look, she lost the weight, and the way she danced, she was very right on. And Beyonce hasn’t always been the most graceful dancer, from back in Destiny’s Child days. But she just embodied it, she did her homework, and you can’t get rid of that.

Q: You and Keith are going to be working together in This Christmas?

CS: Yes, Keith plays my sister’s boyfriend, which is being played by Lauren London. It’s Nia Long, Idris Elba, Loretta Devine, Regina King, Mekhi Phifer – we’ve got an outstanding cast, and we did the table read here last night, and it’s going to be good.

Q: What’s it about?

CS: It’s like Family Stone meets Waiting to Exhale. It’s like all her kids. Loretta Devine is our mother. All of her kids come home for Christmas. I’m a Marine, and all of us have different occupations, but we come home every Christmas and all the drama with our lives. And Laz (Alonso) is in it as well, the movie, so it’s going to be great.

Q: Favorite musical?

CS: By far, hands down Guys and Dolls. That’s my favorite musical right now.

Q: Are you doing more Studio 60?

CS: Yeah, I have about four more episodes that are going to air.

Q: You’re the writer, but you’re headed out the door.

CS: I’m the junior writer, and the only reason I’m headed out the door is because I’m doing other films; I would love to stay around and do the show as long as I could.

"Stomp the Yard” opens in theaters on January 12^th. I invite you to read my interviews with the other members of the cast.