Desmond Nakano knew he had something when he came up with the idea for "White Man's Burden," which flips the class structure of America to explore racism. But convincing Hollywood to make the movie was not easy - even after he landed the dream casting of John Travolta and Harry Belafonte in the leads.
"I wanted to do a film that dealt with the issue of race, but I didn't want to do it in the traditional way," Nakano said during a telephone interview. "The reversing idea came first, with black characters as the dominant class and white characters as the underclass.But the story that ends up in the movie is the simplest possible story, about two men - one white, one black; one rich, one poor. And I hope that it works almost like a fairy tale, subconsciously, and makes you think of larger issues.
"But it is important to note that the American studios initially turned it down. It was financed by a French company and it is very much a low-budget, independent production."
Nakano called from a car Friday morning as he rode to a Washington, D.C., airport to fly home to Los Angeles. In between crackling blips from his cell phone, the screenwriter and first-time director explained that it was Quentin Tarantino who passed the script along to Travolta, who had just come off of Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction."
"John read it and flipped for it," Nakano said. "After `Pulp Fiction,' John was offered everything. But even though this was a low-budget film and not a big payday, he took it. As an actor, it was a real stretch for him. It's an intense dramatic role, basically with a tragic feel, and we've never seen him like this before."
"White Man's Burden" casts Travolta as an oppressed blue-collar worker who is fired from his job because wealthy, sophisticated Belafonte files a complaint about him. In this upside-down world, Travolta's character watches his life crumble before finally deciding to kidnap Belafonte in a misguided attempt to rectify his situation.
"John believed in what the movie was trying to accomplish," Nakano said, "and once we had him involved, we couldn't just hire any actor to play opposite him." So, they approached Belafonte, despite the fact that he had not accepted a movie role in nearly 20 years.
"He said he's been offered a lot of movies in the past and turned them all down because he wasn't interested. He was interested in this, but he was wary because it deals with issues that are very close to him as a man, not just as an actor. His work as a human-rights activist and as one of the foremost civil-rights activists in the world is very well known and he has a great deal of integrity on that level."
Nakano said Belafonte became involved in shaping the script, but not just for his own character. "He's very intelligent, very creative and he wanted to make sure the overall movie worked. Harry brought a lot to the role, he elevated the role - and then the whole movie."
Though his movie is about black and white relations, Nakano, a Japanese-American, said he hopes it reaches out on a broader level. "It's also very much about rich and poor but it could be about Asians and Latinos, straights and gays - anything that keeps people apart. It's about how we look at other people, other groups of people."
The film is basically a melodrama, but Nakano said it is also meant to be somewhat satirical. "It is consciously exaggerated and simplified, and it is satire, of course, since this is not the way things really are. I think it's pretty funny, though sometimes the audience is not sure whether they think it's funny or whether they are uncomfortable with it - and that's fine with me."
Nakano, who is also an accomplished musician, has been writing screenplays for some years. Among his produced films are "Boulevard Nights" (1979), "Last Exit to Brooklyn" (1989) and "American Me" (1992). But "White Man's Burden" marks his directing debut.
"It's very difficult - almost overwhelming at times. I enjoyed the creative part of it. And working with the actors, there were a lot of spontaneous things that happened.
"The soul of the movie is simply watching these two actors who are so different. There's a real chemistry there that came out of real life, because when John and Harry met each other, they immediately really hit it off. And that went through the entire shoot. They're very close now still, and you feel the connection between these characters.
"The two of them got along so well. They were always helping each other, working with each other - there was not a single instance of friction or any problems. And if the lead guys are like that, nobody else is about to cause trouble.
"They're both at the point where they don't need to prove anything to anybody. They're genuine stars, and they didn't have egos. They just wanted to do the best possible work they could do.
"On that level it was very easy dealing with them."
Nakano says he is working on another script right now but he doesn't plan to direct again for awhile. "I want to find something else with real passion, something that I really believe in, before I direct again."