ATL's Director Chris Robinson Speaks on T.I. and Making Movies
Chris Robinson, the super music video director who gave us the unforgettable images for Amerie's "1 Thing", Snoop's "Beautiful", and Jay-Z's "Change Clothes" finally gets his chance to wow us on the big screen with ATL. And you thought T.I. was the only talented newcomer with something to prove.
SOHH sat down with Chris to talk shop about T.I. and how the movie was made. Peep...
Chris Robinson on working with T.I.:
“Tip Harris! That’s my boy. He’s really the truth. When I first made this movie I said no rappers to myself. I mean I had worked with rappers before but I wanted my feature film debut to be different. I looked at actors in LA, New York, Atlanta. I saw every black actor that you’ve seen on every TV show and movie, but Tip came in and he killed it. He was always in the back of my mind because I did his video [I’m Serious] five years earlier.”
“And you know Dallas Austin always mentioned Tip like “What do you think about T.I.?” He was a young man, already from Atlanta. He had an old soul, and when I met him at 18 he was grown then. And that’s what Rashad’s character is. So T.I. brought his experiences to the room and if he hadn’t experienced it he at least knew what I was trying to communicate. He brought so much authenticity to the role because if we were doing something that wasn’t what happened in that neighborhood he would be like ‘nah it wouldn’t go down like this’. And he’s the expert. He’s from Atlanta. He is ATL.
I think he’s going to surprise people because he was brave enough not to be T.I., but to be Rashad. And we purposely didn’t put his music in the movie until the end because of the detachment it makes, you start feeling like its T.I. but its Rashad. I think that you’re going to see a lot more of that cat.”
Chris Robinson on making an authentic movie about Atlanta:
“The movie is called ATL and we wanted to make the city an actual character in the film. We couldn’t go to Toronto for that. To film in Atlanta was so important because we needed to get an accurate feel of the people, the vehicles, the attitudes, the accents, and just the overall culture of the city. We needed all that to really make the movie feel authentic.”
“From the initial script we’ve changed it a lot. When me and T.I. got together we wanted to make sure everything was authentic. I didn’t want anything in the film to be typical. I don’t know why any film maker would want to do anything that’s typical. So for me, once we got together collectively and thought about every facet of the movie, I just wanted to tell the truth and be authentic. This movie is not about skating. This movie really isn’t about drug dealing or anything like that. It's about choices people make and knowing how precious life is and that it can be gone in an instant. It's about the different paths that people take, and I think that the ending suited the movie. It pushed you all the way to the edge, and I think at the end I want people to realize ‘wow it coulda done this or it coulda done that’.”
Chris Robinson on his upcoming projects:
“I’m definitely going to have some fun this summer and do some videos, come back to the music scene. Well I hear a lot of my friends like Busta, Puff and Mary J., I’ve been so out of the mix doing my movie that you know I’m hearing all this good new music so I’m jumping back in to have some fun.”
“I’m also looking at scripts, I’m just going to take my time. It took me this long to do my first one, they say that the hardest thing to do is to make your second film, and to make it good. I want to make sure that whatever I take, I take it because I love it not just because I can.”
Know something about the Atlanta hip-hop scene that I haven't covered? Hook me up with your tips- atl @ sohh.com
