By Catzie Vilayphonh  |  Send to Friend

When I first went to see American Violet, I was unsure of what I was going to see. I knew the premise of the film -- young black woman who gets caught up in an racially-based illegal drug raid in the South decides to fight the white DA who lead it -- but that's a story that has been happening for years. What I was wondering with this film was what made this story unique. Well, for starters, the plot was based on a real case (although all the names have been changed) so it's more than just an optimistic see-what-happens-when-you-have-the-courage-to-stand-up-for-yourself ABC afterschool special, kinda. For another thing, I wasn't prepared for the outstanding work of the lead actress, Nicole Beharie, so when I got the opportunity to speak with both her and the film's writer, Bill Haney, I jumped at the chance.

Catzie: Bill, why did you decide to write and produce this film?

Bill Haney (writer/producer): I found it so moving, it affected me in so many different ways. I found the courage and heroism of the young woman who decides to fight the government inspiring. The systemic approach, just the environment in our country that allows these things to take place, you know, touched me. And actually, the preying upon a mother and her children in this way touched me in some place where intellect never goes. So, I thought if it was moving to me and affected me on so many levels, maybe it would be to other people.

Catzie: And then, Nicole, what drew you to this role?

Nicole Beharie (Actress, "Dee Roberts"): I read the script and I was moved by it. It worked. [Laughs] It moved me right away and I knew I wanted to go in for the part. I just knew that it was something that I had to have some kind of part in it. I was just kind of fighting for it and hoping that they saw something in me. And even if they weren’t willing to cast me as the main character, just having any part in it would have been fine because I feel like it’s an important story to tell and I liked the way it was put together.

Catzie: What takes place in the story is pretty atypical, at this point, in this country, no?

Bill: The system is mechanistic at best and oppressive at worst. I’ve seen the movie with thousands of people and I think they’re surprised by the way the system operates, the kind of almost casual cruelty. I think, for those Americans who have not been part of the criminal justice system I think that the combination of the facts of this case, that it takes place in the year 2000, brought emotionally to life by the amazing performance of the cast, I think is stunning to people. I think that most people, if you ask them, ‘Did you know that 95% of people who get accused of a crime will have to take a plea?’ I don’t think most people know that. If I asked you, ‘Did you know that America has 50% more people in prison than China and more people in prison than any country in the world?' You know that it’s really a consequence of the war on drugs? In 1971, we had 200,000 people in prison; now we have 2.4 million people in prison because Richard Nixon decided to declare war on drugs. Did he ask you? Did you know we were in a war on drugs? Did you ever vote on that? The Jim Crow laws that basically stripped African Americans in the South of the right to vote were fundamentally overturned in the Voting Rights Act in the mid-60s, and very shortly thereafter we got the war on drugs. Very shortly. And the consequence is, in the 2008 election, five million Americans could not vote because they’d been caught up in the war on drugs. They were convicted of something -- simple possession of marijuana -- that stops them from being able to vote. Did you know that by state law, it’s almost entirely in the South. It’s curiously in the same place that they had the Jim Crow laws. So while we have this kind of farcical debate about hanging chad in Florida for 250 people, 250,000 African Americans couldn’t vote in the 2000 election. Maybe you knew all that or maybe you didn’t but, my sense is that for many Americans, that the entire envelope of the way the system’s been operating, how that actually ends up leaning on one family. And what it means to the children, what kind of courage is required for one mother to get her way through that. I think that there is still something for us to discover there.

Catzie: Were you hoping to change things?

Bill: Absolutely! Absolutely. I think most of us wake up and we’d like to see the world as we imagine it can be. And then the trick is, as we get a little bit older, not to give up on that. So, we didn’t make a movie that’s supposed to be a lecture. There is an aspect of this asking, 'Is this the America you want to have?'

Catzie: Right.

Bill: And I think that if you think it isn’t, it’s reminding you that if this young mother, with absolutely no money and no tools had the guts to get up and do something about it, maybe while you’re sitting in the chair you should think whether you could do something, too.

Catzie: So, if the movie was based on a true story, then why change it around? Why not keep the character the same, the location the same, everything the same?

Bill: Well, first of all, it’s inspired by a number of true stories. Sadly, this isn’t a one-off event. This story is enriched by all of those. The second thing is drama is life with the gory parts taken out. You are kind of compelled to distill things in ways. And frankly, we wanted to be fair-minded to some of the characters that we are distilling -- the cops as an example, we didn’t really want to be suggesting it was particularly this town, these cops. So, I think it’s also kind of to protect the innocent.

Catzie: There’s a part in the film where the DA being sued is also presiding over her character’s child support. Did that really happen?

Bill: That’s basically how it goes. It’s a small town and one of the consequences, among many other things in mandatory sentencing, is that in rural America the DA’s have all the power. The judges have no choice. The consequence being whatever the DA wants is gonna happen.

Catzie: Nicole, how did you prepare for your role as a young mother who’s sort of overworked?

Nicole: Well, I was raised by a single mother so I kind of have an idea [laughter] of what it’d be like and my sister was a single mother, so I’ve seen that. I also lived in a rural, small town in South Carolina where there really weren’t projects -- there were trailer parks. And, as far as the changes that happened -- I guess that’s where the imagination and the art and the compassion and the sympathy comes in. I don’t necessarily know anybody that had that particular thing happen to them but that was a part of it. And then Bill did footage of the people in the actual town. He had actual DVDs of the real Dee and her family members and other people that had a part in the case. And I had like 3 or 4 weeks where I had them and looked at them constantly. Specifically, my character, but I listened to everyone, her mother especially, and I started to get a feel for what they were actually going through.

Catzie: So, the original title was supposed to be American Inquisition but it was changed?

Bill: What struck me when I initially heard the story and kind of began plumbing it was how our system cornered people and gave them no choice, like the Inquisition. But as I spent more time with the real woman and then watched as the story developed, I began to find the story more of a hopeful story. In other words, it became less about the system and more about the heroine. And more about, you know, her spirit, her indomitable spirit.

Catzie: Why "Violet" as opposed to like a rose, or a daffodil or tulip?

Bill: I think the violets you commonly think of are African violets and they happen to be flowers that grow in the climate that she’s from. And roses, you would think of probably not in a housing project. So some of it was just this limitation and, frankly, part of my flower knowledge [laughter]…

Nicole: And I actually had an African violet.

Bill: That plant you see in the movie is an African violet.