It was both a blessing and a curse for Vondie Curtis Hall to have rapper/actor Tupac Shakur star in his first film, "GRIDLOCK'd."
The dark comedy, which tells the story of two aspiring musicians (Shakur and Tim Roth) who are continually frustrated in their attempts to get into a drug-rehabilitation program, opened in theaters nationwide last week and has been getting much of its attention because of the slain rapper's superb performance."It's OK. All the attention it's getting is actually good," Hall said in a telephone interview from the set of his television series "Chicago Hope." "A lot more people will probably go see it now just to see how good (Shakur) was in it."
According to Hall, Shakur may have gotten a bad rap (no pun intended) from his bad-boy reputation - and he was definitely underappreciated as an actor.
"He was definitely much more like the guy in the movie than the one you see in his videos. Tupac was very open and friendly - and very likable," he said. "But because of the carefully constructed image, it was hard to see where the real Tupac began and where it ended."
Of course, all of Hall's praise for Shakur isn't meant to slight his co-star, Roth, without whom the film might never have been made. Originally written in 1993, "GRIDLOCK'd" was actually conceived as a low-budget, independent acting vehicle (with a budget around $100,000) for Hall (who would also write and direct).
"To a certain degree, Spoon (Shakur's character) is me 20 years ago, and the other characters are people I knew at the time. We (Hall and two friends) really were trying to get into rehab at the time," he said. "But let's just say that the other situations are highly dramatized and embellished."
Hall's agent convinced him that the script was good enough for a major motion picture and that all it needed was a star attached. But the project stalled until Roth, who was in Scotland filming "Rob Roy" at the time, took an interest in it.
"It took (Roth) three months to get back to me, but he read the script and really wanted to do it. And when we got Tupac to come in for a screen test, it really got scary. It finally felt like we were making a real movie."
Hall resigned himself to writing, directing and taking a smaller role in the film, as well as co-writing two of the songs in the soundtrack!
"Oh, I'm sure I could have done more, like writing all the music alone," he joked.
In retrospect, Hall now can't imagine anyone else besides Shakur and Roth - as well as Thandie Newton, who plays Cookie, a friend who overdoses as "GRIDLOCK'd" begins - starring in his film. And he said its message, about how bureaucratic red tape can hold up vitally needed services, is even more timely.
"It was difficult to get into rehab 20 years ago, but now it's much worse, what with budget cuts and all," he said.
Hall shot the movie during production breaks for "Chicago Hope," which he also hopes to do for an as-yet-untitled project he's currently writing. He did say the film will be similar in tone and pacing to "GRIDLOCK'd" but that it won't be about drug addicts.
"GRIDLOCK'd" had its premiere at last month's Sundance Film Festival, where it received positive word-of-mouth and generated some "buzz" from the movie industry. "I was just honored to have my film there, but things really got steamrolling during and after the festival. It was very positive and very exciting, seeing it gain momentum."
In fact, Hall is hoping to get his next feature into Sundance, which he said became a "home" for his first film.
"There's the `sophomore jinx' to worry about, so it would be nice to take it somewhere that's open-minded and somewhere I've already been well-received."