INTERVIEW
SOUNDBITES – BE COOL
By Rebecca Murray  The
Secret to Playing Chili Palmer: John Travolta
“Well, he’s kind of an American version of James
Bond in a way - street James Bond. Cool is an interpretive
thing but I think in the case of Chili being cool, is that
he’s fearless. He’s smart. Smart enough to handle
any given situation and perceptive enough to handle a more
sensitive situation. So he’s cool in that he’s
got it made.
We put him in these situations where he can be the ultimate
non-responder or the ultimate clever mover. So when we have
a set up like that, as long as you’re convinced of how
to portray it, it’s quite fun. And it’s funny
you say that because Dustin Hoffman and Sean Connery are completely
fascinated with this character. And Dustin in particular was
like, “Well, what’s the secret? What do you do?”
And my answer to that was, “Don’t forget Chili
loves movies. And he loves iconic figures in movies.”
In other words, he’s a complete romantic about music,
about movies, about the arts. Even though he’s this
tough shylock maybe hit man type guy, he’s also fascinated
with the arts. So you’ve got a guy who might have illusions
of what Cary Grant might do in a situation, or what James
Bond might do. He’s set up to be the ultimate cinematic
character within a cinematic concept.”
Parallels Between Uma Thurman and Her “Be Cool”
Character:
"You know, I think I identify with all my characters.
That never even occurred to me, the idea of there being a
parallel. But I guess…I don’t know. I guess there
is a certain kind of vulnerability mixed with a kind of toughness
and her swagger, which I guess I could relate to.
She tries to keep it under wraps, keep it hidden that she
is actually a softie. But I don’t know. I don’t
really think about characters in any way of them being parallel
to me."
Parallels
Between Her Character’s Career and Her Own: Christina
Milian
"First, the way that I connected with Linda, her personality
and where comes from, she’s a very humble girl. She’s
very sweet. She has a dream. She has a passion for music and
she’s just like a lot of us that move to Hollywood for
music. It’s like, 'Where does it come from? What do
I do?' She’s willing to do anything. Unfortunately,
she ends up stuck in a really bad record deal and eventually
she meets Chili [Travolta].
For me, I moved here for a dream. I moved from Maryland to
California to pursue my acting and music career. I met a lot
of the Nick Carrs, the Rajis, the Sin LaSalles, all the way
until I got over here. Each character in this movie, Elmore
Leonard did a great job of writing. He did his homework because
I have met each of these characters. And, I’ve been
offered the bad record deals that basically sign away my life,
sign away my publishing. But, luckily, I didn’t sign
them.
My Chili Palmer was my mother. Her name is Carmen Milian and
she’s my manager. Before getting into music we actually
educated ourselves and I went to college for music as a business,
and learned the business side. And she read a lot of books.
I think my climb right now is similar to the climb of stardom
that Linda Moon is having. Linda Moon already reached it.
I’m trying to get where she’s getting."
Andre Benjamin on Playing 'Dabu' in "Be Cool"
Honestly
I guess I can go back to the back story. I’ve known
F. Gary Gray, the director since the first album
‘Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik.’ If you know
the history of OutKast, we going through a lot of changes.
So early on I was a knucklehead just like everybody else.
Fresh out of high school, doing the dastardly deeds. Gary
directed that video and next time we worked together was on
the ‘Ms. Jackson’ video and I was doing a close
up scene and he was looking at the playback monitor. He said,
‘I think you’re going to have a great career in
film if you ever go in that direction, so if something comes
up I’ll look out for you.’
He calls me with the ‘Be Cool’ script and I read
it and I thought the story was great. I didn’t like
my character so I told him I really had to turn it down. I
really don’t want to play it because I knew I wanted
to get into film, but I knew I didn’t want to play a
rapper. You know, it’s the obvious thing to do. He said,
‘Well, let’s have a meeting, man. Let’s
talk about it.’ And I thought, ‘Alright, cool.’
We went to a hotel and we sat down and talked about it and
he said, ‘You gotta think about it. It’s not really
playing a rapper. Well, you’re playing a rapper, but
you’re playing against type. People don’t see
you as that and you’re really playing a parody of what
people think rap is. So it’s way over the top. It’s
baggy pants down to your knees, pagers, and two-ways and all
these platinum chains. Try it out. And on top of that how
in the hell can you turn down being in a movie with these
people? That would be great for your career.’ ‘You’re
right, so let me try it.’”
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