He didn’t make the third-year cut, but was asked back. “I would never do nothin’ to hurt black colleges,” said Lee.Īfter graduating from Morehouse with a degree in mass communications, Lee went to the New York University Film School. Bill Lee composed the music for the sound track of “School Daze” and “She’s Gotta Have It.” Spike Lee’s mother and grandmother went to Spelman. Lee, his father Bill, and his grandfather went to Morehouse, which counts among its alumni Martin Luther King Jr. “They never tried to Don Corleone me.” “School Daze” is budgeted at $6.1 million. “School Daze” was originally to havebeen released by Island Pictures, which distributed “She’s Gotta Have.” But, after Island executives said Lee’s budget couldn’t exceed $4 million, he struck a deal with David Puttnam, then head of Columbia Pictures, and David Picker. “That’s one of my functions, to give people opportunities.” “I think there’s more black actors working in this film than the entire output of Hollywood will be for the year of ’88 and probably behind the camera, too,” said Lee. Also, two-thirds of its crew was composed of minorities and women.
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“School Daze” is the first contemporary movie to employ more than 60 black actors and actresses in prominent roles. “Not to make the analogy, because I hate anybody saying I’m the black Woody Allen, but Woody Allen does not move back the release of his film two weeks because of the release of a Chuck Norris film or a Sylvester Stallone film.” There’s only one type of black film-goer and that’s it.
“To me, it is really a, sort of a way, racist thinking, because it’s like saying black folks only go to one type of film. That’s why it’s ironic, or perhaps not so ironic, that during Black History Month, three movies with black actors are opening today, Lincoln’s Birthday: Spike Lee in “School Daze,” Sidney Poitier in “Shoot to Kill” and Carl Weathers in “Action Jackson.” The scheduling takes advantage of President’s Day, Monday, when schools are closed and students might head for the movies.ĭoes Lee think the scheduling will blunt his movie’s impact? “I think the audience is large enough and diverse enough to support all three films. There aren’t that many black movie roles, or movies aimed at black movie-goers. (Robert Townsend’s “Hollywood Shuffle” was last year’s other black-directed hit.) Lee won the best young director award at the Cannes Film Festival and from the Los Angeles Film Critics in 1986. There aren’t many black directors in Hollywood, much less successful black directors. In “School Daze,” Lee plays another humoroustimid type named Half- Pint.
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Lee can be seen in his Mars Blackmon attire in those Nike sneaker TV commercials featuring basketball stars. Lee starred as Mars Blackmon, whose plea, “Please baby, please baby, please baby, baby, baby, please” became a catch-phrase. Lee, 30, might be small in stature, but he loomed large in Hollywood studio chief’s eyes after “She’s Gotta Have It,” which was budgeted at $175,000, shot in 12 days and grossed about $8 million in the United States. His answers tend to be short and not so sweet.
Answering questions from a half-dozen reporters, he speaks softly and deliberately. Lee, wearing a Navy blue Adidas jogging outfit, Nike Air Jordan sneakers, black pork pie hat, gold-frame glasses, and sporting a goatee, looks diminutive seated at the large table in the hotel conference room. “They were slow in doin’ it, so we just said, ‘We’re going to shoot here ’til they sign it or they kick us off.’ After three weeks, we got the boot.”
Lee tried to obtain from Morehouse a location agreement so that filming could proceed. So, it wasn’t such a great homecoming for Lee at Morehouse? “Well, we had the support of the students, for the most part,” he said.
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