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Published on: 10/17/2006
Last Visited: 11/28/2007
Lee DanielsMahogany Cafe
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The first film Lee Daniels produced, "Monster's Ball," told the story of a young black woman, who unwittingly falls in love with the white middle-aged prison guard who executed her husband.
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Far more Todd Solondz than Tyler Perry, Mr. Daniels makes no apologies for the ambition of his films.
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Mr. Daniels, 47, has made a name for himself tackling the type of dramas that few are willing to touch.So far it has paid off.
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Still, Mr. Daniels's work has its detractors.
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Even members of Mr. Daniels's family had reservations, he said."They told me that they felt that the only reason she won is because she took her clothes off," he said, referring to a much talked about sex scene between Ms. Berry's character and the prison guard played by Billy Bob Thornton.
With it's disturbing plot "The Woodsman" was far from a box-office favorite, and again Mr. Daniels's family was not pleased."My mother was, like, whatever you do please do not cast a black man as a pedophile," said Mr. Daniels, who considered Samuel L. Jackson for the part.
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Damon Dash, the hip-hop mogul who has invested in some of Mr. Daniels's films, agreed.
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Landing Dame Helen was a coup, Mr. Daniels said: "I wanted somebody who would be as daring as the material required, and she gave me her soul.She threw down fearlessly."
A-list actors are attracted to his small films (budgets are usually under $5 million) because, he said, they know the experience of making them will be an "adventure.""It's a little Euro, a little homo and a little ghetto, and they love being in that world," the openly gay Mr. Daniels said, adding: "They work for nothing and some potato chips.And I demand that everybody check all egos at the door, and they dare not defy me because they know I'm a little off myself."
On a recent afternoon Mr. Daniels lounged on a couch on the top floor of his company's headquarters, a well-appointed brownstone in East Harlem, and talked candidly about himself and his work.While he spoke, he often tugged at his hair, a riotous mass of curls.Born and raised in Philadelphia, he said he preferred the East Coast to Los Angeles, where he lived for more than two decades."Hollywood makes me nervous," he said.
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Mr. Daniels remained unrepentant."My sister was an obese crack addict," he said."She had a chicken wing in one hand and crack pipe in the other, and she had the finest white men lined up waiting for her.This is a real person to me."
Playing both director and producer took a toll on Mr. Daniels.Shortly after the film wrapped, he had a heart attack.Mo'Nique said the cast was not surprised."He didn't eat," she said."He didn't sleep.Sometimes I'd take him away and we had to pray because I was, like: ‘Lord, I can't lose him.I'm enjoying this film too much.Give this man strength.' "
One of the recurring themes in Mr. Daniels's films is troubled father-son relationships.In "Monster's Ball" a son, unable to deal with his father's constant rejection, commits suicide.In "Shadowboxer" the father physically abuses both his son and his wife.
It's a reality Mr. Daniels, a single father of two adopted children, knows all too well.His father, a police officer killed in the line of duty when he the director was 13, regularly hit him."I was his oldest son and he really wanted me to be perfect," Mr. Daniels said, "so I was beaten quite a bit for no reason.Through ‘Shadowboxer' I was able to give up any sort of hatred I had for him, because I held on to so much anger for so many years."
After dropping out of Lindenwood University, a liberal arts college in St. Charles, Mo., Mr. Daniels moved to Los Angeles to become a script writer.He couldn't write, he said, "but I could read and I knew good scripts."To pay the bills, he worked at a nursing agency as a receptionist.He quickly learned the health-care business and eventually opened his own company, which catered to AIDS patients.By the time he sold his business, for $3 million in the late 80's, he said he was overseeing a staff of more than 500.He then worked as a casting director before moving on to managing actors like Wes Bentley, Morgan Freeman, Loretta Devine and Nastassja Kinski."It was 25 years of my life spent on sets, catering to actors, making sure that I was holding purses while walking down the red carpet," he said.
He turned to producing after becoming frustrated with the mediocre material being sent to his clients."I had to find and create work that was good enough for them," he said.After "Monster's Ball," he said his phone was ringing off the hook with offers from Hollywood executives."As an African-American filmmaker they were expecting a very specific type of film from me: ‘Who's my baby's cousin's daddy movies,' " he said laughing."I think Hollywood underestimates the intelligence of the African-American audience."
He decided to direct because he wanted to exert more control over his projects.His filmmaking style, he said, is more European than American."Here we like everything wrapped in a neat bow: boy meets girl, boy gets girl, explosion, explosion, clap, clap, clap."
He returns to producing with his next film, "Tennessee," about two brothers who escape an abusive father, only to find out that one is dying of cancer.
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"It's messy," Mr. Daniels said, "and I'll leave it at that."
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