`AKEELAH AND THE BEE' CASTS ITS SPELL THEY'RE BUZZING WITH PRAISE FOR YOUNG ACTRESS KEKE PALMER.Byline: Valerie Kuklenski Staff Writer `Akeelah and the Bee'' is the story of someone who lacks self-confidence, then meets a daunting daunt tr.v. daunt·ed, daunt·ing, daunts To abate the courage of; discourage. See Synonyms at dismay. [Middle English daunten, from Old French danter, from Latin challenge, puts everything into the effort and ultimately achieves an important goal. And that's just the process of getting the film made. The title character, played engagingly by Keke Palmer, is a sixth-grader from Compton who is pressured by her principal to enter the school spelling bee spelling bee n. A contest in which competitors are eliminated as they fail to spell a given word correctly. Also called spelldown. Noun 1. and, against her mother's wishes and despite feeling out of her element, makes it to the prestigious National Spelling Bee. Writer Doug Atchison Doug Atchison is an American motion picture director and writer. He received the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Nicholl Fellowship for Akeelah and the Bee in 2000. says he faced a similar uphill battle Uphill Battle was an metalcore band with elements of grindcore and noisecore. The group was based out of Santa Barbara, California, USA. History Uphill Battle got some recognition releasing their self-titled record on Relapse Records. , first in convincing himself - a white guy - that he could write a believable story for a predominantly black cast, and then in selling it just as is for production with himself, a first-time director, behind the camera. ``The way Akeelah was hesitant to go for the bee, I was hesitant to write this story, because whenever you do things that are outside the realm of what people expect from you, there's an added pressure, there's an added concern,'' Atchison said. ``For five years I didn't write the story because I thought, oh, no one's going to accept me writing this. And that's exactly the fear that Akeelah's going through: `Nobody's going to accept me going to this bee.' And once I made that connection with her it was easier for me to write the story.'' In the spirit of the successful 2003 documentary ``Spellbound,'' Atchison says he wanted to infuse in·fuse v. 1. To steep or soak without boiling in order to extract soluble elements or active principles. 2. To introduce a solution into the body through a vein for therapeutic purposes. his film with a sports-picture feel rather than making a ``dry academic movie about spelling.'' But it wasn't until he found his star that greenlighting it became easy for Lionsgate and its financial partners. ``They weren't going to go forward until we found Akeelah, which makes sense because she's on every page of the script,'' Atchison said. ``A huge weight lifted up off my shoulders when we found Keke because she was so natural and so real and so talented, but also she's a real kid. A lot of girls we were meeting were overly precocious pre·co·cious adj. Showing unusually early development or maturity. pre·coc  ity , pre·co , overly trained, just felt like adults in kids' bodies. ``Or they felt like a real kid but they didn't have the acting chops that Keke has.'' Keke, 12, who lives in Duarte with her ex-actor parents, two sisters and a brother, got her acting start two years ago with a role in ``Barbershop 2'' and a part in the live stage show at American Girl American Girl, may refer to:
If there was one project that polished her, it probably was ``The Wool Cap,'' a TNT TNT: see trinitrotoluene. TNT in full trinitrotoluene Pale yellow, solid organic compound made by adding nitrate (−NO2) groups to toluene. movie in which she co-starred with William H. Macy. He played a mute character, so she performed without being fed line cues, picking up an Emmy nomination for it. Still, Keke had to do five auditions for the role of Akeelah. ``On the fourth audition I had to do a crying scene from the movie. I didn't go in there trying to cry or anything. I just went in there trying to do the best that I could. ``I did the first half of the scene and then I just started to cry and I did the rest. And I went over and shook all the producers' hands, and when I got to Doug, he stood up and hugged me and said, `Thank you so much.''' Learning how to spell archaic, rarely used words was easier than it would seem, Atchison said. The kids had only dozens to memorize mem·o·rize tr.v. mem·o·rized, mem·o·riz·ing, mem·o·riz·es 1. To commit to memory; learn by heart. 2. Computer Science To store in memory: - just a handful a day to remember - compared with the thousands studied by real bee participants. Keke had her own technique. ``My mom threw like a little spelling bee for me and my sister,'' she said. ``We took all the words out of the script - not just mine but every single word that was hard - and we did a little spelling bee and whoever won would get $10. And I won.'' ``Akeelah and the Bee,'' which opens in theaters on Friday, reunites Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne Laurence John Fishburne III[1] (born July 30 1961) is an American Academy Award-nominated, Emmy- and Tony Award-winning actor of screen and stage, as well as playwright, director, and producer. in significantly less adversarial ad·ver·sar·i·al adj. Relating to or characteristic of an adversary; involving antagonistic elements: "the chasm between management and labor in this country, an often needlessly adversarial . . . roles than their Tina and Ike Turner Ike Turner (born Ike Wister Turner on November 5, 1931 in Clarksdale, Mississippi) is an African American musician, bandleader, talent scout and record producer, best known for his work with his former wife Tina Turner as one half of the Ike & Tina Turner duo. of ``What's Love Got to Do with It.'' Bassett is Tanya, Akeelah's widowed mother who discourages her involvement in the bee because she's afraid her daughter's schoolwork will suffer and she will only be left disappointed. Fishburne is Dr. Larabee, a friend of Akeelah's principal who participated in the bee in his youth and agrees to coach her. Fishburne's early involvement - he's one of its many producers - was one of many factors that encouraged Bassett to sign on. ``The producer, director, the script, Keke, Laurence - when you can't anticipate the outcome you've got to look at some of the ingredients. It had great ingredients, I thought.'' Bassett said her rehearsal time and improvisation sessions with Keke were great for bonding - and for getting a feel for how scenes would shape up when the camera rolled. `Some of the scenes are confrontational between Tanya and Akeelah, mother and daughter. I would just go there, real strong, fierce, and she would meet me with Akeelah attitude and I would meet her right back. ``We were in tears, we were laughing,'' she said, adding that each such tense moment ended with a loving embrace and recognition that ``this is just a little precious soul right here.'' Fishburne's character is a poised and mostly soft-spoken intellectual with his own secret pain bubbling beneath the surface. He considers his young co-star co·star also co-star n. A starring actor or actress given equal status with another or others in a play or film. tr. & intr.v. co·starred, co·star·ring, co·stars To act or present as a costar. ``absolutely brilliant.''Of course, there's that old admonition Any formal verbal statement made during a trial by a judge to advise and caution the jury on their duty as jurors, on the admissibility or nonadmissibility of evidence, or on the purpose for which any evidence admitted may be considered by them. against sharing the stage with kids. ``I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. why they say that because they always make you look good,'' he said. ``She's uninhibited uninhibited /un·in·hib·it·ed/ (un?in-hib´i-ted) free from usual constraints; not subject to normal inhibitory mechanisms. as an actor, you know? She hasn't learned any bad habits bad habit Unhealthy habit Clinical medicine A patterned behavior regarded as detrimental to physical or mental health, which is often linked to a lack of self-control. Cf Good habit. that I can tell. So I think she just lets loose. I think she wants to do very well. I think she takes it quite seriously.'' As for Keke, she's hopping around the country to promote the film, reading scripts for possible summer work and keeping up her seventh-grade studies, while trying to find time for simple pleasures like double-Dutch rope skipping, shopping, seeing movies with friends and styling her big sister's hair. While she enjoys the encouragement and high praise she has received for her work, Keke has not yet decided whether to make acting her career. She oozes confidence but remains cautious. ``I was doubtful at first about doing some of the acting jobs because they were so big, and a lot of people I've seen on TV were auditioning for them,'' she said. ``But as I got to another level I kind of realized, well, I've gotten this far. Maybe I am good enough. ``And that's what Akeelah thought when she got to the regional bee. She kind of realized, `If I've gotten here, then I must be good.''' Valerie Kuklenski, (818) 713-3750 valerie.kuklenski(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): 3 photos Photo: (1 -- cover -- color) The word is A-W-E-S-O-M-E Keke Palmer brings her winning personality to `Akeelah and the Bee' (2 -- color) Angela Bassett, who plays Akeelah's mom, and Laurence Fishburne, her coach, give high marks for professionalism to the film's young star, Keke Palmer, lower right. David Sprague/Staff Photographer (3 -- color) Contestants Javier (JR Villarreal) and Akeelah (Keke Palmer) wish one another luck in ``Akeelah and the Bee,'' opening Friday. |
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