I was pretty tense about interviewing Larry Clark over the phone, but I kept my composure and I’m frankly grateful that I actually got to meet him.  Here’s the interview:

Alex: I just want to start off by saying that I watched Wassup Rockers and I really enjoyed it.

Larry: Oh good, I’m glad.

Alex: I just really related to it very much and being Latino, growing up in Chicago’s Westside, I was surrounded by gangs and violence and all I wanted to do was skate and go to punk shows. I’ve lost family members and friends to the gang violence, so you’re film hit really close to me in a personal level.

Larry: Well, thank you, that’s good. I really wanted for you to see this film.

Alex: I’ve been waiting for someone to make this film and I’m glad someone stepped up to it. You’ve covered skateboarding culture in the past, so what was it about these skater kids in Wassup Rockers that compelled you to make this film?

Larry: I met Porky and Kiko at this skate park in Venice beach. Porky was 13 and Kiko was 14 and they had this style and were all punk rocked out. Their shoes were falling apart but they spray painted their shoes which then dried and cracked into a million little cracks, but they were interesting and I was with Tiffany Limos, an actress from my last film Ken Park, we started talking to them and they took us out to South Central and I photographed them with Tiffany for a few days and then we got to know them. The pictures were in a magazine and I took it back to them and they wanted to go skating. We went skating again and again until it became our thing like every Saturday we went skating. I then had this idea for the film and I started sketching it out and it was all based on their stories, the stories they told me about their lives in South Central because I was interested. When I first went back to the magazine after I met them a couple of months earlier I did that little interview with Jonathan when he’s just 14 talking about his friends which became a big idea for the film. Then when the movie starts about 14 months later, Jonathan is a year older and we recreate some of the stories he tells and halfway through the film I change everything up. I take them to interact with white people in Beverly Hills and Hollywood. So we’re mixing all these different kinds of genres in film.

Alex: Where you familiar with the Latino punk scene prior to meeting Kiko and Porky?

Larry: Not at all and I found a big resurgence of punk rock in the Latino community. There’s all these little Latino punkers out there and all these backyard gigs. In Compton, I would go Saturday nights and all these little local bands play and have so much fun until the Cops come. I found it fascinating because I always liked punk rock, I was always a big fan and it’s great music for that age.

Alex: How was it working with these kids, especially since they are not actors? What was your approach in directing them?

Larry: Well it was difficult. Before we made the film, I knew them for about a year in a half. I really studied them. I knew what they could do. I was stunned at how good they are. They’re really natural actors and amazing. They did a great job. Their process was to be themselves the whole time. Which I let them do. I let them run wild because that’s what I needed, but it was a difficult way to make a film.

Alex: I heard it was tough on the crew.

Larry: It was very tough on the crew. The crew wanted to be finished with it somewhere else. The crew has now seen the film and they said, ‘Larry, we had no idea. It’s really good.’ I’m thinking you motherfuckers (laughing), you should’ve said that a little earlier, but everyone really tried and it all worked out well.

Alex: You have this really great scene between Kiko and Nicky and I’m just curious what was your approach to get Kiko to open so much to a person he basically doesn’t know and keep that going?

Larry: Kiko was very young when I met him and shy. It took awhile for Kiko to open up to me and I had probably known him for eight months before he was able to really talk to me that way. I think Kiko twisted his ankle. He wasn’t skating which was unusual for one afternoon and his mother was out and his brothers were outside and the kids were out on the streets skating. Kiko and I started having this conversation. I was asking him about the gangs and about his life and what it meant to him. He had a family member in a gang and all that. He really opened up to me. It was a very personal conversation that I had with him and it happened a couple of times and I realized I really wanted that to be in the film. Then how do I get Kiko in a situation where he is comfortable enough to tell these stories. So when we shot the scene, in the screenplay it says Kiko and Nicky sit on the bed and talk. I knew what I wanted him and her to talk about. On the day actually as we’re getting ready to do the scene I took her aside and told her certain questions to ask him and then I just made them lock eyes and look at each other. The first time we did it they were looking all over the place. Then I had them lock eyes. They really got into it because Kiko doesn’t know this girl. She’s fourteen. She’s from a whole other experience than him. Terrific little actress. She really got interested. She really was going, Wow, wow”.

Alex: So she was helping guide him through this?

Larry: Exactly. She was great and he’s really telling her his story from the heart. It’s just a magical scene and I was tearing up watching it just saying “this is my film, this is my movie, this is what I have been working so hard trying to get, this right here”. I knew as it was happening that it was amazing.

Alex: That’s the scene that I really saw myself relating to. I’ve been in that situation with someone you just met and you’re opening up all these wounds and you’re definitely showing and expressing this world that this person has no clue about. You’re almost excited to share it, but it’s hurtful.

Larry: It’s such honesty. It’s startling in it’s honesty. I could never do anything better than that. Everytime I see that scene I’m riveted.

Alex: I heard that you screened the film at the school these kids attend. What was the reaction?

Larry: I didn’t screen it at Locke in South Central. I actually screened it at Venice High. Which is Latino and Black mainly. It was a very good experience.

Alex: Have the kids’ other friends seen the film and reacted to it?

Larry: Yeah, people are really liking the film and I can’t really imagine what it’s like for them to see it. They liked it, but I think about what’s going on inside them (the actors) when they see it. I know that they’re happy and amazed and satisfied and have a feeling they’ve really done something.

Alex: A lot of critics are saying this is your most accessible film to a mainstream audience. Do you agree with that?

Larry: I think so. We’ve screened it a few times and the audience has been so positive.

Alex: Well that’s great. You really tapped into a world that nobody has had a chance to see. It’s very admirable.

Larry: Well, thank you.

Wassup Rockers is now in limited release throughout the country.

Alex Rojas is a writer and filmmaker living in Chicago.

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