Rosario Dawson Interview, Explicit Ills

MoviesOnline sat down with Rosario Dawson (“Sin City 2”) to talk about her new film, “Explicit Ills,” directed by actor Mark Webber (“Broken Flowers”) in his feature directorial debut. “Explicit Ills” follows four inter-connecting stories revolving around love, drugs and poverty in Philadelphia. The film also stars Paul Dano, Naomie Harris (“Pirates of the Caribbean”), Lou Taylor Pucci (“Thumbsucker”), Frankie Shaw, Tariq Trotter of The Roots, and introduces Francisco Burgos.

In this lyrical and moving drama, disparate individuals find connection with one another as they draw together as a community. Babo (Burgos), an asthmatic seven-year-old lives with his mother (Dawson) in the badlands of North Philly. His neighbor Demetri transforms himself into a well-read "smart" boy in order to get the girl. Michelle (Shaw), a well-off art student is quick to fall into a drug induced love-affair with her dealer Jacob (Pucci). Kaleef (Trotter) and Jill's (Harris) marriage is strained as they pursue their dreams of bringing "produce to the people" as their teenage son Heslin focuses on competing in the World's Strongest Man competition.

Rosario Dawson has garnered praise for her numerous leading roles with today’s hottest film actors and directors, making her one of Hollywood’s most sought after leading ladies. The Sin City star was recently seen in “Seven Pounds” starring opposite Will Smith. Her moving performance gained her acclaim and praise from critics and fans alike and earned her a 2009 NAACP nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture. She was also seen last year in “Eagle Eye” opposite Billy Bob Thornton and Shia LaBeouf. Dawson will be teaming up again with directors Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez to reprise her role as Gail in the highly anticipated sequel “Sin City 2.”

We really appreciated Rosario’s time. Here’s what she had to tell us about “Explicit Ills”:

Q: Where does your personal taste lay between indie films and the more mainstream studio movies?

Rosario Dawson: It’s hard because obviously I love “Batman.” I love the big studio fare when you can get full on like that. One of my favorite independent films is “Reservoir Dogs.” I loved the storytelling in that. I loved that it wasn’t the whole gimmick of big explosions. It was much more intimate and focused on the actors. The story kept revealing itself all along the way—going backwards and forwards -- and it makes you think and keep with it. I love anything that makes you feel like you forget you’re in a room with a bunch of strangers in the dark listening to sound come out of speakers with light flickering in front of you. When you get caught up in movie magic, that’s a great, great thing. There’s many different ways to do that, but I think that’s one of the reasons why people will always go out and see a movie together because there’s an energy that comes to it when you’re surprised, shocked, laughing at the same time, scared at the same time—finding yourself crying and you know nothing is actually happening to you, but you feel in love with these people. I think that’s really magical.

I feel independent film in particular has a really great way of doing that specifically because they don’t necessarily have all the resources so they just have to be as raw as possible. When that sticks with you and makes a big impact, that’s always something I’m blown away by. I’m happy to try to do it every time with a first time director who convinces me that’s what the experience is going to be. I’m always like, “Yeah let’s go for it!” It’s well worth attempting. It’s what keeps me sane and honest. It’s where I started with “Kids” so I’ll always go back there, but it’s good to have the explosions when you can do them too. It’s hard to pick which is the best.

Q: Can you talk about the title of the film and what it means to you?

Rosario Dawson: For me, it’s very Philly. It’s very graffiti. To me, it’s very hip hop. It’s full on. It’s what we love about the whole history of graffiti coming out was it was this opportunity for people who normally don’t have a voice in our public to be able to express themselves. It’s definitely altered a lot over the years but it kind of feels old school to me. I love that because we’re going into Philadelphia and we’re seeing all of these dilapidated buildings—these people whose stories normally don’t get told. I thought it was a really brilliant way to let people know—especially people who may not normally see this movie that this was for them, that this is their actual story and that it wasn’t going to be compromised in any way, shape or form.

“Explicit Ills” may be kind of a strange thing for people. What is that? But it actually really made sense for the movie. It’s provocative. It’s sexy and smart. It’s what’s going on in our times right now. I think it’s amazing because it’s changed that title. It’s gotten even more profound I think because of the economic crisis that we’re going through.

Mark [Webber] is someone who grew up being homeless and at a certain point lived in a car with his mom. He’s walked in marches and been an advocate for anti-poverty. When he wrote this, it’s one of the reasons I really wanted to do it. We connected on this on a personal level. Having grown up in a squat on the lower east side, I got how powerful our mothers were in our lives. Being activists was an inherent part of our beings. The fact that he wrote that as his first script and was going to direct that as his first story and got Jim Jarmusch and all these people to be a part of that vision is so brilliant to me.

The understanding that we’ve always grown up with that most people are a paycheck away from being homeless is now a reality that a lot of people understand, much bigger than they ever have before, and that makes this movie even more important to be out right now more than ever which is shocking. Even from when it played at CineVegas and South by Southwest, people are already saying they think about the movie differently just because the key words now are so much more in our vernacular and in our news. It’s such more of a present issue than people had thought before, but he knew that and that’s what’s so great because that’s been a present issue for a lot of people for a long time. It’s just now finally become popular for people to talk about.

Q: How was it working with Francisco Burgos, the young actor who played your son, Babo?

Rosario Dawson: Amazing. We called him the little Bobby DeNiro on set. He was remarkable. He just turned 9 but he’d been telling everyone he’d been 9 for a year. He’s really precocious. He’s such a remarkable young man. There was a lot that was asked from him for this movie. It was really hard for his mom to even be in the room. She wasn’t there a lot of the time so it was just him and us and he brought it. I have definitely worked with fussy actors before and I have to say it was remarkable working with him. He was very professional and really talented and I think we’re going to be seeing more of him in the future.

Q: Mark Webber’s background is as an actor, so what was it like to work with him as a director and being directed by someone who knows acting?

Rosario Dawson: It was wonderful. The first movie that Mark and I actually worked on is called “Chelsea Walls” and we acted together in that. That was Ethan Hawke’s directorial debut. It was amazing working with Ethan on that because he was an actor and he had a real sort of sense about emotionally where all of us needed to be and getting all of the stuff out because it was independent and it was digital. We had a lot more time to play and do these 15 minute long takes because it was digital and we didn’t have to worry about it.

This was different because the time frames that we had and we weren’t on this one location—we didn’t have that much time to play with it in the same way that Ethan did. We found the time because he is very sensitive in that way – how Mark would talk to Francisco about what he needed to do to make the scene happen. It’s hard stuff and he gets that. Mark would sit there and say, “I know it’s horrifying what I’m asking you to do over and over again, Rosario. Thank you so much for being here, but I’m going to make you scream and cry and experience probably one of the most awful things you can possibly imagine experiencing.”

It was very profound for me because my mom is asthmatic and diabetic and she lives far away from me. I think about that all the time. I’ve seen her in situations where she couldn’t breathe. We’d get out of a car and we’re in a neighborhood that has really bad smog and she suddenly cannot breathe. It’s such a helpless feeling to be in front of.

This is such a personal story for Mark who is a very sensitive actor. It’s just really great to see how he nurtured everybody through their performances, and also made sure to be tough on them too to bring it not just from a personal place, but also this is fictional. This is about putting a nameless face out there and making people understand it, that it’s based on true issues, but it’s not a true story to a certain degree.  Don’t get too caught up in being emotional. I’m not going to give you that much leverage. You still have to be professional. I thought he had it balanced really well with that. You wanted to get it right for Mark. I’m so proud of him wanting to make this film, and pushing to make this film and getting it done. We were grateful to be there.

Q: Did you model your character after someone you personally know?

Rosario Dawson: A few people actually. My mom was 17 when she had me. My character doesn’t have a name. I’m Babo’s mom. So much of who she is is dependent on who he is. He was the center of my whole world. To look at that and be like I’m this young mother—I’m uneducated, I’m inexperienced and I have zero resources. I’m looking at this marvelous child who I somehow gave birth to, miraculously and I’m not the person who should be raising him. He deserves better than me. The frustration of that and the helplessness of it and the anger and just the shock of it all and seeing her trying to cope with this young man who just seems to be able to have the right answer more than her. She’s sitting there arguing with this woman behind the counter and he’s like I’m cool. Here’s this young man who works so he can buy sneakers for the kid who punched him in the face. He’s such an angel. Had he not been that person maybe he could have saved up that money for himself. He could have used that money the next day.

It’s interesting that’s not the course of the actions, but it takes a loss of someone as great as him to really provoke other people to step forward including her. To use that frustration and passion and anger that she had trying to figure out how to help him and how to get out of her own way and maybe help other people. It was a fascinating thing getting into that. I grew up in an area where I know so many women who are like that and that was a lot of the story that I wanted to tell. I understand the stigma against poor people. I understand the stigma against people who are not healthy and that’s not fair and it’s not right. They’re good people and they’re decent people. They’re willing to work hard to get themselves out of where they are. They just need help. That’s just the reality.

All of us need help in some capacity and this system and how this country works is not forgiving to people who are poor. And if you are unhealthy, you’re really screwed in a lot of ways and that’s for people who have money as well. That’s just the way this country runs and it was about trying to be nurturing I think to all the people I know who will really recognize themselves in this woman and hopefully tell their story as well. You’re trying to help a child you love but you’re helpless in the face of it.  The point of the movie is to be caught up in that and hopefully that will trigger something in you. That’s what we hope we do – you fall in love with these characters and recognize maybe just enough of yourself or someone that you know that can make [you realize] these numbers or statistics actually mean people and that it’s important for us to do something about these issues before they get worse.

Q: Jamie King said she’s read the “Sin City 2” script. Have you?

Rosario Dawson: No, I have not. She’s working with Frank [Miller] to possibly produce something together. I just talked to Frank about it though and said he finished it a couple of months ago so I’m really excited to get it going. Supposedly it’s going to happen in 2009.

Q: Did he tell you anything specifically about the script?

Rosario Dawson: I get to wear a mask in this one. (laughs) Is that specific enough?

Q: Where you would like to see your character, Gail, go in the next film?

Rosario Dawson: Gail? I think Gail is pretty much Gail. What you see is what you get. I don’t think she’s going to be poppin’ out any babies and singing any cherubic songs or anything like that. What’s actually really fun about it is that we get to investigate it a little bit more into the storyline that was actually in “Sin City 2”—that middle chapter which is where Gail mostly was, investigate a little more as to who is this man and what are they talking about when they say he’s got a different face.

Q: What’s going on with your comic book?

Rosario Dawson: O.C.T.? We’re in the process of ascertaining the rights back from Dimension and taking it possibly someplace else.

Q: But what about the series?

Rosario Dawson: Oh, the book. We have a miniseries that we wrote over a year ago that we’re still getting things done. Our artist does all the art from cover to cover. It’s not something we’re obviously getting paid to do. It’s a real love passion kind of project. I think we’re going to have a preview book that we’re going to put out at San Diego Comic Con and that will have some stuff from the miniseries. Eventually we’ll be able to put that out hopefully by next year.

Q: Would you ever like to make a movie based on your comic book?

Rosario Dawson: Yeah, that’s what I’m saying. We’re developing it. We had it with Dimension and we’re starting to see about taking it someplace else. We’ve got writers that we really like and it’s about green lighting a picture. The more you all talk about it the more possible that will be, so help me out a little bit.

“Explicit Ills” opens in Los Angeles on March 20.