Monday, August 31, 1998
Bizarre love triangle
FILM: Writer Tina Andrews and director Gregory Nava try to
answer the question
‘Why Do Fools
Fall in Love?’"
By Stephanie Sheh
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The year was 1983. Actress and aspiring writer Tina Andrews was
sitting in front of the television watching MTV. Michael Jackson
was doing "Billy Jean" and suddenly something caught her attention.
Jackson slung his jacket over his shoulder. It was a pose that
she’d seen many years earlier, struck by. Frankie Lymon.
And that was the start of a screenplay that took almost 15 years
to bring to fruition.
"It’s like Barbara Streisand’s ‘Yentil.’ This is my ‘Yentil,’"
said "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?" screenwriter Andrews, sitting in
the ballroom of the Four Seasons Hotel. The film, starring Larenz
Tate, Halle Berry, Vivica A. Fox and Lela Rochon, tells the rise
and fall of doo-wop star Frankie Lymon through the fight for the
right to his estate. Three women, who weren’t aware of each others’
existences – glamorous Platters’ singer Zola Taylor (Berry), sassy
shoplifter Elizabeth Waters (Fox) and demure school teacher Emira
Eagle (Rochon) – all claim to be the real Mrs. Frankie Lymon.
Though Andrews has worked in the industry for years as both an
actress and a writer "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?" is her credited
writing debut after her work as an uncredited contributor to 1997’s
"Soul Food." When she first thought to write the script, Andrews
envisioned the Gloved One himself in the lead role.
"I’m thinking this would be a good vehicle because I thought he
was so visual," Andrews said. "He had such a great presence that I
thought, ‘Wow, this guy should be doing movies.’ What would be
great if he could do a role that would do for him in terms of a
film career what ‘Lady Sings the Blues’ had done for Diana
Ross."
Jackson ended up turning down the role, but Andrews continued
with her project. At the time there was very little information
about Lymon, so Andrews had to go to the library and really dig.
Then around 1986, something occurred that changed Andrews’ entire
structure for her film. By then, Diana Ross had sung a cover of
Lymon’s hit "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?" The song had also been
used in a Hallmark commercial and in the film "American
Graffiti."
And also in 1986 all three of Lymon’s wives started a bitter
fight over who deserved his money. Andrews then refocused her
script on the three women learning to understand and love Lymon
again.
With the script complete, Andrews faced difficulties getting the
rights to the songs, and by the time the film was ready to be made
director Gregory Nava was on board. Nava, who had just finished
"Selena," had some worries and did not want to do another music
movie.
"But when I read her script I just adored it. And everybody was
offering me every musical movie," Nava said, shaking his head of
gray curls. "People liked the way the concert scenes were done in
‘Selena,’ and those are a hard thing to pull off. They felt that
they had a lot of vitality. So I was getting everything. I got one
script about the birth and origins of rap."
To portray the teen heartthrob, the filmmakers always wanted
Tate for the part, who jumped right on the chance. But casting for
the three wives wasn’t always so clear cut.
"I always wanted Vivica to be in the movie because I just think
she’s absolutely the coolest," Nava said. "And I kind of wanted her
from the very beginning to play Elizabeth. But she didn’t want to
play Elizabeth, she wanted to play Zola."
Nava also wanted Berry to be in the movie and since Zola’s part
was already taken by Fox, they discussed having her play the quiet
Emira. After a while, Fox realized that she was more suited for the
part of Elizabeth, and Berry moved into Zola’s role.
The next hurdle for Nava was re-creating the television footage
of the ’50s and ’60s. There was no archival footage of "The Big
Beat," the show that Lymon first appeared on. The filmmakers looked
toward similar shows like "American Bandstand," but not much
existed because television was live in those days. In the midst of
their research, Nava came across an old Alan Freid movie called
"Rock, Rock, Rock." Freid had been the host of the Big Beat.
"We looked at the movie, and I said, ‘You know what I’m going to
do? I’m going to take the real Frankie Lymon out and put a
recreation of Larenz Tate in the same set. But the rest of the
movie is going to be the old movie,’" Nava said. "That’s really
Alan Freid introducing him and those audience sets, that’s the real
footage from the 1956 movie ‘Rock, Rock, Rock.’ So we shot Larenz
lip syncing ‘Why Do Fools Fall in Love?’ and we then had all those
chicks be-bopping from ’56. And we threw the whole thing into a
computer. We had the computer match the grain and scratches from
the old movie in the new footage. And you have all those kids with
the haircuts. You can’t make anybody do that. Off rhythm and
snapping on the wrong beat. It’s hysterical."
In addition, television studios were made differently. The glass
in the control booth looks directly out onto the set of the
show.
"We looked looked and looked," Nava said. "And finally we found
an old TV studio in downtown Los Angeles that was being used for
educational television, but it was a real TV studio from that era
and they still had the old lights up and the old accordion fixtures
that they would bring the lights up and down on. It was an
incredible find with the glass and the whole thing and it was like
‘This is it! We’ve got our TV studio for "The Big Beat!’" I was so
happy."
Watching the bubbly director talk about overcoming problems
while filmmaking, the sense of passion for his craft becomes
apparent. And it is that passion that this UCLA School of Theater,
Film and Television alumnus advised aspiring filmmakers to keep a
firm hold on.
"I think that the most important thing is to stick to who you
are, because when I was a film student everybody was like, ‘Forget
Hollywood. We hate Hollywood. We’re going to do art and do things
that have social relevance, things like that.’ I think in a way
that was good mentality because nowadays people have kind of been
Reaganized and are so into making it and what’s the studio going to
buy and how are we going to sell it to the studio that they lose
their passion for who they are.
"The films that I’ve made like ‘El Norte’ and ‘Mi Familia’
certainly haven’t been films that people would think that Hollywood
would buy and they didn’t want to buy it," Nava said. "And look
where I am now. So I really think you have to find out who you are
and be passionate and follow a dream. And those are the people who
become successful in the film business, and I think that when
you’re a student it is a good time to experiment and find out what
you’ve got to say. Because if you have something, this burden on
you to say, it will come out and you’ll be successful."
FILM: "Why do Fools Fall in Love?" opens Friday.(Left) Larenz
Tate, left, stars as Frankie Lymon while Lela Rochon plays Emira,
one of Frankie’s three wives, in "Why Do Fools Fall in Love." (Far
left) Halle Berry plays the glamorous singer Zola Taylor and wife
to Frankie (Tate). (Below) Vivica Fox is the vivacious Elizabeth,
another one of Frankie’s (Tate’s) wives, in the new Warner Bros.
release.