He left Detroit to study voice at prestigious Juilliard in New York. He found a supportive mentor in his vocal coach Ned Wright. Eventually they'll get their names called, they'll get taken up, they'll kick."Īs Curtis Hall did. "It's my sense that Stretch and Spoon ultimately do get into rehab. Still, Gridlock'd seems to hold a happier end for Spoon than life did for Tupac. He was on his way to rehab in Northern California where you go to work on a farm and breathe fresh air. Ultimately my friend, who Stretch is based on, O.D.'d and died in Salt Lake City. "Drugs were cool until they weren't cool anymore. "You knew drugs were cool, drugs helped you be a better musician," Curtis Hall recalled. You'll also see Curtis Hall, who plays Superfly-styled drug lord D-Reper.
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In Gridlock'd (which opened Wednesday) that hassle includes callous civil servants, catch-22s, a vicious emergency room nurse played by Elizabeth Pena (Lone Star), plus cameos by filmmaker John Sayles Curtis Hall's wife, writer/director/actress Kasi Lemmons and their son Henry.
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I could have thrown that into the movie and the guys wouldn't have had to go through so much hassle." An attorney who recently saw Gridlock'd said now they have forged Medicaid cards. I couldn't give an address my friend didn't have a Social Security card. I wanted to show what obstacles actually face you when you want to change your life. Hopefully no one will see this as glorifying drugs.
"I wanted to direct, and I knew no one would hand me a movie as a first-time director. "I wanted to bring something real and specific to the screen, so no one could question the validity of it," Curtis Hall said of Gridlock'd, which he likens to Midnight Cowboy with Roth as Dustin Hoffman's scruffy low-life Ratso Rizzo. His two-day struggle to get through the frustrating social services system and into rehab is rehashed in harrowing, twistedly funny style in Gridlock'd. In real life, rebellious middle-class teenager Curtis Hall decided to kick the habit after a friend overdosed in his family's house while his parents were at work. Stuck in drugs, double bass player Spoon and keyboard man Stretch get scared into going straight in Gridlock'd after singer Cookie overdoses. Curtis Hall also scribed two songs, including the movie's theme-in-a-nutshell, "Life is a Traffic Jam." Tupac wrote two tunes for the soundtrack album, performing one. Stretch and Spoon slouch into withdrawal backed by Gridlock'd's cool jazz and trip-hop soundtrack.