{"id":63927,"date":"2012-09-13T12:29:27","date_gmt":"2012-09-13T12:29:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/0de2709a84.nxcli.net\/0-kjasnb\/2012\/09\/13\/flashback-from-2002-tim-story-george-tillman-jr-robert-teitel-talk-barbershop\/"},"modified":"2018-12-18T10:30:10","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T10:30:10","slug":"flashback-from-2002-tim-story-george-tillman-jr-robert-teitel-talk-barbershop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/flashback-from-2002-tim-story-george-tillman-jr-robert-teitel-talk-barbershop\/","title":{"rendered":"Flashback from 2002: Tim Story, George Tillman Jr., Robert Teitel talk Barbershop"},"content":{"rendered":"

Flashback: Barbershop’s Bob Teitel, George Tillman, Don Scott, Tim Story<\/strong> interview from 2002<\/strong>Posted by Wilson Morales<\/p>\n

September 13, 2012<\/p>\n

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Today marks the 10th Anniversary of Barbershop<\/a><\/strong>‘s release date. Made on a budget of $12M, the film did very well at the box office, grossing $77M. Produced by State Street Pictures George Tillman, Jr. <\/strong>and Robert Teitel<\/strong>, along with screenwriter Mark Brown<\/strong>, the story revolved on a day in the life of a South Side Chicago barbershop<\/p>\n

Led by Ice Cube, Cedric the Entertainer<\/strong>, and Keith David<\/strong>, the film also introduced a number of actors to the film community, mainly Eve<\/strong> and Michael Ealy<\/strong>. While it wasn’t Ealy’s first role on the big screen, Barbershop gave him a bigger spotlight than his previous work. Also included in the film were Sean Patrick Thomas, Troy Garity<\/strong> (Jane Fonda’s son), Leonard Earl Howze, Jazsmin Lewis, Lahmard Tate, Jason George,<\/strong> and DeRay Davis<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The film’s success spawned off a sequel, 2004’s Barbershop 2: Back in Business<\/strong>, a spin-off film, 2004’s Beauty Shop<\/strong> with Queen Latifah<\/strong>, and Barbershop: The Series<\/strong> on the Showtime cable network, with Omar Gooding<\/strong> taking over Ice Cube’s role of Calvin.<\/p>\n

While audiences flocked to the theaters to see to the film, it did cause some controversy when jokes were made on Rosa Parks that sparked uproar within the Black community.<\/p>\n

Here’s a repost interview Blackfilm.com writer Monikka Stallworth had producers Bob Teitel & George Tillman (Producers), Don Scott (Writer) and Tim Story (Director) from 2002<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/div>\n

\n<\/em><\/div>\n
\"\"Barbershop Group Interviews<\/strong><\/em> : Bob Teitel & George Tillman (Producers), Don Scott (Writer) and Tim Story (Director)<\/strong><\/div>\n

First there was the \u201cRat Pack\u201d, then there was the \u201cBrat Pack\u201d and \twhen these four young men stepped into the room, it was all about \tthe \u201cBlack Pack\u201d. Refreshingly laid back, the Producers, Writer \tand Director of Barbershop seem to be taking in the excitement of \ttheir upcoming sure-fire hit with such candor that anyone in their \tpresence can\u2019t help but delight in their accomplishment. Jovial and \tpersonable, they seem more like (in the words of Cedric the \tEntertainer) \u201cplay cousins\u201d than super-creative achievers. But, \tmake no mistake, creative trailblazers they are. With Soul Food \tand Men of Honor to their short, yet profound list of film credits, \tBob Teitel and George Tillman served as producers on their latest \tfilm Barbershop. And they enlisted new writer Don Scott along with \tvideo director turned first-time feature director Tim Story to \trealize this slice of life \u201cdramedy\u201d. Fresh off the winds of their \tfilmmaking excursion, we sat down to chat about the upcoming \trelease of Barbershop:<\/p>\n

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MS: How did you come across the script? Who conceived it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

George Tillman: Bob found it first.\tWe were in post-production \ton Men of Honor and he came in and said \u201cI found a script and we \tcan go back to Chicago\u201d. We hadn\u2019t been to Chicago since Soul \tFood. So, I read the script and thought it would be great for us \tto do.\tSo, we brought Tim on board. We had met with a lot of \tother directors, but Tim just caught us. He was prepared. He had \tthe vision. He came in with some still photos like the stills at \tthe beginning of the Barbershop. He pretty much had every thing \tdrawn out and we liked his taste. Then, after one writer, Don got \tinvolved and we really focused the movie. We didn\u2019t want to do a \tstraight comedy. We wanted to do a dramedy and it worked out.<\/p>\n

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MS: The writing in Barbershop is so clever, so on point. Was it \tderived from real experiences?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Don Scott:: My barbershop experience is from when I was a little \tyounger (tugs on his dreadlocks) seeing as I haven\u2019t been into a \tbarbershop in many years. But I\u2019m from Cleveland, Ohio originally \tand one of the things that Bob, George, Tim and I agreed on was \tthat the black barbershop experience is pretty universal across the \tcountry. George and Bob are from Chicago. Tim\u2019s from Los Angeles \tand I\u2019m from Cleveland, Ohio. And everything that we talked about \twas the same- what they saw in the barbershop, what I saw. The \tcharacters are the same, you know, the politics, the girls, the \tjoblessness, I mean all the topics are universal and I just brought \twhat I thought were certain nuances that I experienced, you know, \tseeing people come in with problems, issues. People would come in \tafter a good day and just want somebody to pat them on the back, \tall that\u2019s real.<\/p>\n

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\"\"MS: You guys (Bob & George) seem to have an interest in films that are drawn from real life scenarios. Is that intentional? Is that what you would consider your style?<\/strong><\/p>\n

George Tillman: After Soul Food happened, we were able to \trealize our style. Sometimes it gets kind of frustrating because \tboth of our movies did very well and you look at Hollywood and its \tstill a struggle to get a movie made no matter how successful you \tare. So it\u2019s good to see that people are acknowledging and \tfiguring out that \u2018okay, nobody\u2019s quite doing this\u2019.<\/p>\n

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MS: How did you muster up the balls to do the Rosa Parks and \tJesse Jackson jokes? I mean these are civil rights\u2019 icons\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tim Story: I know, when I first read it, I read it again, like \t\u2018did he really say that?\u2019 But that\u2019s actually what made it cool. I \tthink that\u2019s one of the things we wanted to do with this movie, is \tkind of push the edge, and kind of like tempt people to have \tconversations about it cause at the end of the day, it\u2019s just \topinions. And in the barbershop you can say what you wanna say and \ttalk about who you wanna talk about and once you leave, its not \tgonna be in the paper the next day, your mom\u2019s not gonna hear about \tit. This is a place where any man, and any woman for that matter, \tcan state their opinion. We just wanted to stay true to what the \tbarbershop was and is about \u2013 no censorship.<\/p>\n

Don Scott:: We wanted to show that black people don\u2019t have this \tmonolithic point of view which is what mainstream America seems to \tput on us. We wanted to make sure that in the barbershop \tconversations, there were opposing views. We had one person that \tthought, you know, Rosa Parks was the greatest civil rights moniker \tever and we had another person say, no, she didn\u2019t really do \tanything special. We wanted that back and forth in the whole film \tso that we could show that, you know what, black people got \tdifferent opinions, we don\u2019t all agree, but at the end of the day, \twe\u2019re all gonna love each other and we\u2019re gonna agree to disagree. \tThat\u2019s part of what we wanted to do.<\/p>\n

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MS: There are a lot of interesting shots and shot compositions \tlike the tilted close-ups in one sequence. How much of your shots \twere story boarded?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tim Story: Early on, I did a lot of story boarding, but at some \tpoint, there\u2019s also a rhythm that the characters start to create \tand there\u2019s things that you can\u2019t story board.\tYou can\u2019t story \tboard how Cedric is gonna walk from here to there. And at some \tpoint we started to find that story boarding would help you to get \tstarted, but it would never really help you through the entire \tscene.\tAnd a lot of times, I remember coming to Bob and George and \tsaying \u2018hey man, I wanna shoot this scene real-real tight and \thand-held and tilt the camera \u2013 what do you think?\u2019 And they were \tlike \u2018go for it.\u2019 And I went for it. I started to think how could \tI make it visually interesting? And in each scene, that\u2019s what \tyou\u2019re forced to deal with. How do you make this different? \tThat\u2019s the creative challenge.<\/p>\n

Bob Teitel: It was challenging, I mean you\u2019ve got the young \taudience, that MTV style audience and you want to keep it fast \tmoving but you\u2019re in this claustrophobic shop, that was Tim\u2019s \tbiggest obstacle and George dealt with that a lot in Soul Food at \tthe dinner table.<\/p>\n

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MS: Tim, say one of your actor\u2019s has an idea for how they want \tto do a scene, are you open to that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tim Story: Absolutely, I think with a cast like this, when \tyou\u2019ve got actors of this caliber, you want them to come up with \tideas.\tI\u2019d just want them to share their ideas early on cause once \tyou\u2019ve got the blocking, and the camera starts going, you need to \tgo. So I would make it a point to keep my conversations open with \tall the actors. We were in the same hotel, so if I\u2019d pass them in \tthe hallway, I\u2019d say, \u2018hey, are you cool for tomorrow?\u2019 And they \tstarted to understand that it\u2019s kind of a respectful thing because \tif you stop all the sudden on set and say \u2018hey, what if I did this \tor that\u2019 in the middle of shooting that it is sometimes hard to \taccommodate. But I\u2019m very open to actors because sometimes they\u2019re \tright.<\/p>\n

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\"\"MS: Why\u2019d you want Ice Cube as the center role and what was he like to work with?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tim Story: Originally the script was written for an older guy \tand at some point, just through talking to people and deciding what \twe were trying to say, we decided to make him younger.\tAnd Cube\u2026 I \tdon\u2019t know if we could\u2019ve picked a better talent. He just embodies \tthe \u2013 he represents the streets, but at the same time, he\u2019s a \tfamily man and we knew from looking at his projects that he had \tsome depth to explore and when we got to him, he was open. For \tinstance, we went in with a whole speech as to why he should wear \thard shoes as opposed to sneakers and he told us \u2018I wanna wear hard \tshoes.\u2019 At one point, he wanted to wear glasses through the whole \tfilm. I mean, he just got into it. And I know it was important \tfor Bob, George and myself that he play a Chicago guy and not Ice \tCube in Chicago and he got into that whole idea.<\/p>\n

Don Scott:: He was so good, from my point of view, from what I \twrote down. That\u2019s what I wanted Calvin to be. When I\u2019m watching \tCube do these scenes, I mean, he was doing everything that I wrote \tdown and more.<\/p>\n

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MS: Did you get to go to set?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Don Scott: Yes.<\/p>\n

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MS: It\u2019s not standard for writers to be on set, how\u2019d you swing \tthat?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Don Scott:: These guys have love for writers.<\/p>\n

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MS: Movie making is so competitive and there are so many \tvariables as producers, what are your priorities, what are you \thard-nosed about?<\/strong><\/p>\n

George and Bob (in unison): Story \u2013 the script.<\/p>\n

George Tillman: I heard somebody make a comment about black film \t– that we spend 8 weeks on the script and 8 months on the \tsoundtrack. Story is the most important thing.<\/p>\n

Bob Teitel: And we\u2019re our toughest critics.\tWe beat each other \tup. The studio was ready to shoot this film like 6 months before \twe were and we were like \u201cno, no, no, no\u201d, we have to make it \tperfect. Our attitude is like, \u201cthis is it, this is our last \tchance, if this doesn\u2019t work, we\u2019re not getting another one\u201d and I \tlike that. I like keeping that vibe and kind of pushing one \tanother. And for us, (another priority) is to have fun. The four \tof us get along so well. What you see now is how it was on set.<\/p>\n

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MS: Did you happen to see Project Greenlight on HBO?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tim Story: The Greenlight show was going on while we were \tfilming and literally, Bob would call me and say, \u2018do not watch \tit.\u2019<\/p>\n

Bob Teitel: I would not let him watch that show.<\/p>\n

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MS: Were there any overwhelming days on the set?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tim Story: The most overwhelming stuff was shooting at night \twhen it was cold. I remember when it finally got below zero and \tthey were telling me it\u2019s negative two degrees, and I\u2019m going, you \tknow, I\u2019m from LA, what do you mean \u201cnegative\u201d? The weather was \tjust brutal.<\/p>\n

Don Scott: You should have scene the clothes that Tim had on. He had some boots from Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

Tim Story: It was funny, I had on so many clothes, that \tsometimes I\u2019d just stay outside.<\/p>\n

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\"\"MS: What about the marketing for Barbershop? Who handles it and are you happy with the marketing efforts to date?<\/strong><\/p>\n

George Tillman: Bob\u2019s on the phone everyday. He takes care of \tbusiness<\/p>\n

Bob Teitel: I think what they\u2019re doing so far, is like you see \tbillboards up five weeks before the release date and that\u2019s great. \tWhat we brought to the table from our past experiences with Soul \tFood and Men of Honor is to say \u2018lets screen at the NAB (National \tAssociation of Barbers), lets go to the hair shows in Atlanta.\u2019 \tYou have to spread it out, let people see it and let them be the \tjudge.\tMy hardest thing with them (the studio) right now, is to \tconvince them that this is not just an African-American film, it\u2019s \tfor everybody. What I need to do is convince them that this film is \tfor everybody.\tAnd that\u2019s the kind of films we set out to do \u2013 \tthey\u2019re African-American characters and African-American stories, \tbut they are so universal. It\u2019s hard to get them to see that.\tAnd \tyou look at that cast, I mean Cube, come on, he\u2019s the Sir Anthony \tHopkins of the Hip-Hop world, you know what I mean. You look at \tSean Patrick Thomas who made, Save the Last Dance – one of the \tbiggest films and Eve, whose audience is everybody. Cedric who\u2019s \tdoing these Budweiser commercials that are geared to like everybody \t\u2013 I mean come on, I\u2019m trying to tell them this film is for \teverybody. So for me, they are hitting our target audience and I \tthink they\u2019re doing a great job, but I have to get them to open \ttheir minds and expand and really let people see and that\u2019s hard \tsometimes, just like it was hard making it. Every film we\u2019ve made \thas not been like \u201cokay, let\u2019s shoot\u201d, its always this whole game \tof \u201clook what we\u2019ve done\u201d and hopefully by doing something like \tthis and if it\u2019s successful, it gets a little easier, just a little \teasier.<\/p>\n

\n

MS: Barbershop seemed to have a few messages. Was there any \tintended symbolism in the screenplay?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Don Scott: Makes us sound like we were pretty deep, huh? (chuckling)<\/p>\n

Tim Story: At the end of the day, we are filmmakers and we do \tneed to have a point. There\u2019s a little message and if you get it, \tcool and if you don\u2019t, did you enjoy yourself?<\/p>\n

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