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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 3, 2012)
Arts & Entertainment Dante Brown: The ‘Won’t Back Down’ Interview B orn in Chicago on Oct. 6, 1999, Dante Brown’s big break came at the ten- der age of 5 when he beat out 500 other children to be showcased as a dancer, comedian and actor on Oprah’s 1st “Amazing Kids” show. A self-taught dancer who learned his moves by watching Michael Jackson, Usher and Chris Brown’s Youtube videos, Brown’s amazing moves have been compared to that of a young Usher. Dante can also beatbox, rap, play piano by ear and make beats. With his younger brother, Dusan, he performs as a duo known as “The Brown Boys.” The siblings released their first album at 10 and 8, and have opened for such notable acts one of the All-Time Amazing Kids by Oprah. Did that make it hard to dumb your- C ELEBRITY self down to play an I NTERVIEW academically-challenged child? DB: No, it didn’t make it hard because as an actor I’ve learned to pull traits and char- by Kam acteristics from friends at school, relatives, Williams by watching YouTube videos, other charac- ters in other movies, etcetera. So, although I’m not like Cody at all, it took a lot of preparation and research to prepare emo- tionally for my audition and scenes as wanted to be a part of this. Cody. But that’s what we do as actors and KW: What was it like to that’s the gift God blessed me with, an ability work opposite Viola Davis as your mother, and with the to relate to people, and to actually become the rest of such an accom- characters I hope to play. Transforming into someone else.... I love it! plished cast? KW: How would you describe you and DB: Working with Mrs. Davis... it was a joy! She your brother, Dusan’s, debut CD, “Here was funny. She gave me tips Come the Brown Boys?” DB: Fun! Exciting! Entertaining! Our CD and also helped me under- has 11 songs, a little something for every- stand the importance of “being in the scene,” so I one. We get calls and messages from family could hold up to her star and friends all the time quality. She was very telling us how catchy the approachable and down to songs are, how our friends earth, so it made working and cousins enjoy listening on car rides to and from school, and just how proud they are of this project. Kids love it and adults, too. We actually have some dope beats on it and some great lyrics. We love performing songs from our CD and look forward to mak- ing more music in the future. We like with her very easy. She sort making the type of music of reminds me of my Mom, so I never felt like I had to that inspires people. We’ve act, but simply be her son performed at schools and for the time being, while churches. The CD is good, shooting the movie. When- kid-friendly music that can ever I’d goof around, she’d be performed anywhere. have no problem with me either, in a nice way, of Read the rest online at course. [Chuckles] I still www.theskanner.com keep in contact with her and will always look at her as an amazing actress that I was privileged to work with and get to know. As for working with the entire cast, it was like I was playing in the NBA All-Star game. [LOL] It showed me how great things can happen when you apply yourself and believe in yourself. Being in their presence taught me that hard work and dedication pay off and one day I hope to be able to share my on-set experience and knowledge with newcomers. Overall, everyone was really nice and fun to work with and being a part of such a talent- ed cast forced me to bring my A-game, too. KW: How would you describe your character, Cody? DB: My character, Cody Alberts, is the son of Nona [played by Viola Davis] and Charles Alberts [played by Mr. Lance Reddick]. Cody has a learning disability and, during a pivotal point in the movie, you’ll learn the cause of his learning dis- order. He’s sort of a quiet kid, gets bullied at school, doesn’t have any friends, and the kids pick on him by calling him names and stuff. KW: You were named Viola Davis and Dante Brown in ‘Won’t Back Down’ It showed me how great things can happen when you apply yourself and believe in yourself. Being in their presence taught me that hard work and dedication pay off ... as the New Boyz, DJ Tha Pope and Trey Songz. Here, he talks about star- ring opposite Viola Davis in “Won’t Back Down,” an inspirational tale of female empowerment about a teacher and a single-mom who join forces to improve a grammar school. Kam Williams: Hi, Dante, thanks for the interview. Dante Brown: Oh, no problem, Mr. Williams. Thanks for interviewing me. KW: What interested you in “Won’t Back Down?” DB: When my agent sent over the sides for my audi- tion on the tape, the project was originally named “Still I Rise.” I immediately thought of Maya Angelou’s poem and was very interest- ed in getting to know my character more, as well as the story. My name means poetic, so it’s ironic that I love poetry, and I was like, “Wow, interesting movie!” [LOL] Then I read the sides and the character was very different than me. But since the movie is a drama, and I love drama, I wanted to nail my audition to make sure I got a callback and be strongly considered for the role. So, it was a combina- tion of all those things that initially interested me in “Won’t Back Down.” And, oh yeah, for callbacks, I had to read the entire script before auditioning with the director, Mr. Daniel Barnz. By then, I knew that the message would be very powerful and I definitely October 3, 2012 The Portland Skanner Page 7
