Marques Houston talks ‘Battlefield America’ DVDPosted by Wilson Morales
September 21, 2012
Out on home video on DVD and Blu-ray is the dance film, ‘Battlefield America,’ starring Marques Houston in a film directed by Chris Stokes.
Also in the film are Mekia Cox, Tracey Heggins, Christopher Michael Jones and Lynn Whitfield.
Battlefield America takes a steady look at the underbelly of the youth battle dance culture in Long Beach, California. Sean Lewis, a young, charismatic, successful businessman finds himself in the mix with a bunch of disheveled misfits Bad Boys, who have virtually no dance talent. Realizing his dilemma, Sean brings aboard a professional dance instructor to ease his responsibilities to these kids. Meanwhile, he finds himself falling for Sara, who runs the community center where the kids hangout and practice their moves. With Sean motivating them, The Bad Boys find the confidence to be contenders.
For Houston, who appeared in the box office dance hit ‘You Got Served’ back in 2004, the film gives him the opportunity to be a leader to kids and take a back seat to the central story, which is about the kids and the dancing.
Having started off as an actor nearly 20 years ago before he was a founding member of the R&B group Immature, Houston has acted and sang on many projects and he continues to do with this film and an upcoming album on the way.
Blackfilm.com recently caught up with Houston as he spoke about ‘Battlefield’ and other projects.
What role do you play in the film?
Marques Houston: I play a character named Sean Lewis, who is a marketing director who’s about to be a partner in his firm. He’s cocky, arrogant, and really full of himself. It doesn’t exist in his world and he’s all about Sean Lewis. He gets thrown into a situation because of his lack of irresponsibility. He has to do some community service with some really bad kids because of some parking tickets. He meets this girl and he has no clue how to handle the kids because he doesn’t like kids. For the first time in his life he doesn’t have all the answers and it’s not clear to him what he needs to do. At the same time these kids are looking up to him to help them. They end helping each other at the end.
What was the attraction to doing this film?
MH: What attracted me to the script was the real-life situation. We have these community centers around the world where they are part of non-profit organizations. These kids come from broken homes and don’t have any role models. All they have is the center they go to where they dance and learn. This film reflects the inner city programs where most don’t have the opportunities that a lot of us have. My character tries to teach them to have a goal in life. That was the message in the film, being a winner.
Having been in a dance film years ago with ‘You Got Served,’ what was the joy in working on this film?
MH: I think the joy on this film was playing a different character. In ‘You Got Served,’ I was in the mix. I was one of the dancers. My character in this film has nothing to do with dancing. He’s a marketing exec and he teaches people to become better. That’s what made it great for me. Naturally, I am a dancer and I had to play as if I wasn’t.
How’s working with Chris Stokes?
MH: I like working with Chris because I think we make a good team. I think our ideas go hand in hand and he’s an exceptional director. He has an overall vision for the entire film. He’s one of those directors that can see the film done before it’s even started. It’s good to work with someone who’s in tune on what they want because it helps the actors as well. We work well together. We have a company together, and we’re going to continue to make good films, family fun films. Even if I’m not in the film, I’m part of the production team.
What’s on the DVD that fans should look forward to?
MH: There’s a featurette, special features, and some behind-the-scenes stuff. You’ll also see some interviews with some of the cast. I think kids are going to love it because they can see themselves dancing. That’s what separates this film from other dance films because the kids are young, from ages 8-12.
What’s going on with your music career?
MH: Well, I do have an album that I’m working on. It will be coming out soon. There’s no title or date set yet, but I do have a video that will be premiering soon. I’m doing this album for the fans. I think it’s going great and I’m really excited about it.
You and Omari (Grandberry) have worked on numerous projects together. Do you plan on working with him again on another project?
MH: I think Omari is doing his thing with the Maybach Music Group. I support him. That’s my brother. I’m going to always support everything he does. We’ll always be brothers. We may work again in the future. We have that relationship were we work together and we do our separate things, but we’re always going to be family at the end of the day. That’s what it is all about. I commend him on his achievements and I think he’s doing great.
What’s a good reason to pick ‘Battlefield America?’
MH: It’s a great family film. We put a lot of hard work into it. We traveled around the world trying to get the best kid dancers; and also because I’m in it.
