cannabisnews.com: 'Paradise' was Anything but, Griffith Says! 





'Paradise' was Anything but, Griffith Says! 
Posted by FoM on February 21, 1999 at 08:03:51 PT

Usually, when Melanie Griffith finishes a movie, she says she feels an elation, a sense of accomplishment and anticipation: She can't wait to see what the effort will bring forth. But when she walked off the set of "Another Day in Paradise" she felt only one thing: relief.
"I was relieved it was over because it was so hellish," says Griffith of the film's shoot. "And I felt sorry about all the effort that everyone had put into it.... I figured no one would see it anyway."Oh, irony: Not only are people seeing "Another Day in Paradise," which opens Friday in metro Detroit, but the drama about junkies who form a kind of ad hoc family on a crime spree has also received some very good reviews. Griffith and costar James Woods have been singled out for their intense performances. "We're two thumbs up," says Griffith, who had just been tipped off that critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert would be waxing positive on their syndicated television show. "Not bad for a film I was sure was going right down the toilet."When Griffith was given the script for "Another Day in Paradise" in 1997, she saw the potential of both the story and her character, Sid, the heroin-addicted girlfriend of Mel (Woods), a sleazy career criminal. When Mel recruits a teenage meth addict and his heroin-snorting girlfriend for a road trip of break-ins and burglaries, Sid assumes the role of mother, making sure the kids eat well, dress warmly and take their medicine."The script was so beautiful, so real," says Griffith. "And I just loved Sid because she had such a big heart. I was really excited until I showed up for the first day of rehearsal. Then I was just like, 'Oh God, what have I got myself into?' "What she had gotten herself into was Larry Clark, the acclaimed photographer hired to direct "Another Day" on the basis of his first film, "Kids," the controversial 1995 work about New York teens indulging in drugs and loveless sex. "Another Day" required a similar matter-of-factness and nonjudgmental tone, but it also required someone who wasn't nodding out in the middle of takes."He was a mess," says Griffith of Clark. (A representative for Clark said the filmmaker had no comment, but confirmed he had entered a drug rehab program after filming ended.) "He just clearly wasn't all there. I tried to quit after the first day of rehearsal, but Jimmy (Woods) convinced me we could get through it."Griffith says Woods, whom no one has ever accused of lacking self-confidence, became a kind of surrogate director-cheerleader for her and their young costars, Vincent Kartheiser and Natasha Gregson Wagner, energizing everyone and keeping sagging spirits up."Jimmy was fantastic," says Griffith, who worked with Woods on her first film, "Night Moves," shot when Griffith was just 17. "On one hand, he's this guy who thinks every scene is all about him, you know. But He really instills this fight in you. He never lets the energy lag, and on a set like this, that was even more crucial than usual." "I thought this role could do for Melanie what 'Carnal Knowledge' did for Ann-Margret," says Woods, who also takes a producer's credit on the film."They both have that sex kitten quality, and it's usually very hard for people who perceive them like that to let go of that image. It takes a lot of courage for an actor to want to play something different. Instead of shying away from it, she jumped right into the lion's den. And that's why she gave such an extraordinary performance."Griffith, 41, does at least credit Clark with instructing her on the fine points of heroin use, something she says she had managed to stay totally naive about."I had never been near heroin," says Griffith, who has had well-publicized drug and alcohol problems and who was a heavy cocaine user for more than a decade before quitting 10 years ago. "I really thought all junkies just shot up in their arms."In the film, Griffith shoots up somewhat more indelicately, taking one fix in her neck and another in her crotch."Retractable needles," Griffith confesses. "I'm all for authenticity, but I draw the line at that."Griffith says she was encouraged to take the role by her husband, Antonio Banderas, who, before becoming a Hollywood leading man, played his share of unsavory characters in the sex- and drug-drenched satires of Spanish director Pedro Almodovar. "Antonio thought it was very cool; he got it right away. He's really instinctual about stuff like that. It's one of the reasons he'll make such a great director."Banderas is making his directing debut this year with "Crazy in Alabama," based on the novel by Mark Childress and starring Griffith as a Southern mother who murders her husband, abandons her children, moves to Los Angeles and becomes a television star."I know he's my husband -- and what else am I going to say -- but Antonio was great," says Griffith proudly. "Even Rod Steiger (who co-stars in the film) told him he was the best director he had ever worked with, and considering all the people he's worked with over the years, that had to be a great compliment."Griffith wants it understood that her character is not as coldhearted in the movie as she is in the book. In the film, which was adapted by Childress, the mother returns to Alabama to stand trial and reclaim her kids."We made her more sympathetic," says Griffith. "Things that you laugh at in a book sometimes don't seem as funny when you see them on screen."The great thing about being married to the director is that you get to come home and talk that stuff over. He can't just tell you to mind your own business."
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