MONDAY
E-mail a friendRosario Dawson
airdate December 12, 2008
Rosario Dawson has worked with some of the industry's hottest directors and actors, in films ranging from indies to big budget blockbusters. Discovered sitting on a front porch in her native NY, she got her start with a role in the controversial film Kids. She's a multi-faceted talent, who also produces films, co-created the acclaimed comic book "Occult Crimes Taskforce" and stars in and exec produces the Web series, Gemini Division. The politically active Dawson co-founded the non-partisan Voto Latino.
Actress tells how her family squatted and built their home on Manhatttan's Lower East Side. (2:39)
Full interview. (10:32)
Rosario Dawson
Tavis: Rosario Dawson is a talented actress whose film résumé includes "Men in Black II," "Sin City" and "Grindhouse." In her latest role, she stars opposite some guy named Will Smith (laughter) in "Seven Pounds."
Rosario Dawson: He's gonna be a star (laughter).
Tavis: Yeah, yeah. That boy might make some money and stuff one day. She stars opposite Will in the film, "Seven Pounds." The film opens around the country December 19. Here now a scene from "Seven Pounds."
[Clip]
Tavis: So I saw you glancing at yourself. You didn't stare, but you glanced at yourself on the monitor while that trailer was running. Easy to watch yourself or hard to watch yourself?
Dawson: Uh, different. I mean, this I was just making sure the hair - I was trying to balance the hair not being on the mike actually. It was sort of like, "Okay, good. I'm not on the mike."
But actually having to produce a - I produced a film and for a year we were editing it. It's a film called "Descent" and it is a very heavy film exploring a young woman going through college being date-raped and dealing with the repercussions of it, falling into promiscuity, drug abuse, then coming back to school and seeing her rapist and deciding to exact revenge on him. It's a very heavy film.
So we were watching all of these scenes that we're doing and my character changes so much over all of this span of time. To watch myself so often and just seeing like, "That scene's not working," "Take this out," "Help this," I felt really grateful actually because I've read about other actors who are like they never watch themselves in movies, which I always think is a little strange like, "Why are they asking me to pay ten bucks to see this movie if you won't even watch it?"
Tavis: (Laughter) Right.
Dawson: But I am grateful that, for whatever - when I see my characters on screen, I'm just looking at Emily. Like when I'm watching, I'm going, "Okay, Emily came across this way," you know, well or not well in this scene. It's not like I'm watching myself. If I was, I think, maybe doing something like a music video or doing something where I'm - I have a hard time watching me in interviews, I have to say, like to see myself.
Tavis: So you're not gonna watch this?
Dawson: I will watch it, I will watch it. I said I have a hard time. I didn't say I didn't do it. I try, I try to like, you know, because it's also again - I mean, this is part of the job. You know, I want to make sure I'm coming off well talking about these things that I care about so well, so it's important, I guess, to look at it. I've never been trained in it.
Tavis: So far, so good.
Dawson: All right, cool. Good, good.
Tavis: I don't know that you get this and I sometimes wonder what stars actually get, what they hear, what they don't hear, given how insulated - I say this respectfully - how insulated their worlds are oftentimes from average moviegoers. But I've heard one thing about this film, I've heard it a million times, and this is in my own circle. You see the billboards everywhere. You see Will's face, you see Rosario, and everybody's asking the same question. What is this movie about?
And that may very well be the studio's strategy this time around to not give us the shoot 'em up, bang-bang, not give you the romantic, not give you too much of what Will and Rosario are going to give us. Maybe that's the strategy to entice you to come in to see it and, if it is, it's working awfully well for the studio. But I keep getting that question. What is this movie about? So can I just ask you a question?
Dawson: Yeah, go ahead.
Tavis: What is this movie about?
Dawson: (Laughter) That's actually the hardest question for this film. I think, you know, "Seven Pounds" being a title that used to have an answer or sort of understanding, you know, it had a whole speech in the film that is now out that used to explain the title, so now even the title is really sort of cryptic. I remember when I was reading this script, it took me 80 pages before I really figured out what was going on. It's so often -
Tavis: - so you didn't know either. I don't feel so bad now (laughter).
Dawson: The mystery is part of the film. You know, so often you watch these trailers and they're either giving you way too much and you're like, "This is probably the best bits. I don't even need to see the movie" or you're watching the exact opposite where it's so cryptic and it's so mysterious that you're going, "This movie really bad and they just don't want us to know?"
It's like this one actually; the mystery is a part of the character of the film. Even when you're watching it, you're gonna be three-quarters of the film and still kind of trying to put it all together.
Believe me, you will be engaged all the way through because it was even funny watching one of the last screenings with Will. We're looking at it and going, "These people are crazy." Like the things that they're saying and doing and how they're behaving with each other, it's kind of insane, but it's because they're completely speaking from the heart.
When you really connect to people and you're just really honest and going, you know, "You ever think about dying?" and really mean it because you're blue in the face and you're in the hospital and you're dying? Those conversations, when you come from the heart, come so strong and that's what's gonna carry through this movie. The ending is definitely worth waiting for. It's not gonna be like M. Night Shyamalan like, "Oh, man. I saw that coming." It's not that, it's not that. We are much more precious with this.
Tavis: Without giving away too much, then, I'll let you navigate this terrain so that I don't give too much away. Without giving too much away, tell me about your character.
Dawson: I play Emily Posa who is one of the seven strangers that Will Smith's character meets and tries to change.
Tavis: Aha, a clue to what seven means, at least in one form.
Dawson: (Laughter) A little bit.
Tavis: A little bit. All right, seven characters.
Dawson: I'm one of the seven strangers that he meets and tries to, through his - his story line is a story of redemption. He's trying to make up for something and is reaching out to these strangers to do so. I'm one of those people that he meets that, in the process, changes him.
She's a really incredible woman. She's, you know, very young, she's been diagnosed she has congenital heart disease and, with that mortality so close to her, she's one of those beautiful spirits who takes it and goes, "Okay, I'm not gonna be morbid, I'm not gonna listen to dark music and wear black clothes all the time and feel sorry for myself. I'm gonna walk out of the hospital and go 'It's a good day and it's beautiful and I'm gonna enjoy it'." Everything about that is so precious to her.
She's such an amazing, remarkable character for that reason. I really enjoyed getting to know her and having myself be affected by her because I think, you know, the elements of the story are talking about life and death, loss and love. These are all things that are true for real lives all the time. You know, so often you're working on these films and it's entertaining or this or that.
You know, it's hard to kind of glean anything off of it for your own personal life, but this movie really hits close to home, so much to the point where my mom was like, "I don't know that I can watch this. You're in a hospital gown in most of the film."
You know, it's like this is scary thinking about her daughter being sick, and it's like, "Well, that's for me too. I'm doing these lines and a woman's telling me I have six weeks to live." What would I feel like looking in and being exactly who I am? What would that feel like? That's just a reality. There's no way to avoid death. We're all gonna see it at some point in our lives.
To have that character dealing with it with such dignity was something really moving for me as an experience, but also I think it's really beautiful to see these two characters meet because they're coming from such different places. Hers is the journey is the destination. He is kind of more coming from that place where the destination is the destination. He's got this goal. He's to meet it. And to see these two people kind of come and touch each other is, I think, really remarkable and very beautiful.
Tavis: You referenced your mother a moment ago. I've come to believe over the course of my life, Rosario, that I think we are who we are because somebody loved us. So I'm always fascinated by people with regard to their relationship between them and their parents, particularly if I have any sense of what the story line is.
So I've been reading about your parents, about your mother and your father, and I'm sure you've been asked this more than once. But for those who don't know, tell me about your parents growing up and what they did. Just give me a snippet for those who've never heard this story about your parents.
Dawson: Snippet is hard, but yeah, my -
Tavis: - it's a remarkable story, though.
Dawson: Yeah. My mom got pregnant with me when she was 16, gave birth to me at 17, met my dad and they got married when she was 18. We moved into a squat when I think she was 21 or 22 with my little brother.
Tavis: You'd better explain that for those who don't -
Dawson: - a squat is an abandoned building in the lower east side of Manhattan. We did that because they felt that the rundown railroad apartment that we were living in with the slumlord and all was not a great place and that, at least, even though we were moving into this place with no water, no heat, no electricity, no windows - we had plywood with a chain for a door - even having that was better because they could make something for it.
My dad did construction, so he built up the home around us. My mom helped him out. She'd learned electrical. She became a plumber and sewage lines came in. Water, we didn't have to take the ten-pound bucket of water from, you know, the hydrant downstairs up four flights anymore, and we had a home.
Most of the stuff within my home was off of - I had stuff from the World Trade Center. I had stuff from any job that my dad did. When they were like, "Okay, we're clearing out this office," he'd say, "Can we keep the floors?" My dad would be there in the middle of the night and pulling up the floors, doing whatever he possibly could.
So I grew up with very tenacious parents and, you know, that idea that you can be anything that you want to be was something that was really drilled in at home. I really believed it, you know. It was a really different environment. It was an interesting little world. You know, looking at "Rent" as a film really encapsulates my upbringing, you know. It was interesting because, you know, we were surrounded by the Projects, we were surrounded by all these other experiences.
All my other friends had a very different home life, but in my little building was all artists and all these people who had just come together poor and said, "We're gonna build this home around ourselves." It's amazing to have had that in New York, to have grown up in New York City with all that New York is, but in such a strange sort of artistic, beautiful way.
You couldn't do it now. It doesn't exist anymore in New York. It was such a moment in time and I'm so grateful for it because it definitely sort of paved the way for me to be very accepting, I think, of other people. I just grew up with so much around me. You have to get away from judgment when you're in a place where you just need each other, and that need and that survival, I think, of the community around me was what really raised me and I'm so grateful for that.
Tavis: That latter part is a profound revelation and formulation, I should add. I wanted to ask that question. Thanks for indulging me because I know the holiday season is a time of family and friends and that's just a remarkable story about the power of family and dreams.
Dawson: Yeah. The family you're born to and the family you choose as well. That's a beautiful thing to explore as well.
Tavis: So thanks for indulging that question. So the movie, as if you didn't know, the billboards are everywhere (laughter). Billboards, commercials. Will knows how to do this thing. So it's Will Smith and Rosario Dawson. The movie, of course, "Seven Pounds" in a theater near you and I'm sure Rosario would appreciate you going to check it out.
Dawson: Yes.
Tavis: There you go. Nice to have you on the program.
Dawson: Thank you.
Tavis: It's good to see you.
Dawson: Good to see you.
Back to December 12, 2008