Carroll’s ‘Diaries’ takes long journey to screen

Carroll’s ‘Diaries’ takes long journey to screen

Author contributes imagination to new film, other projects

By Lael Loewenstein

Daily Bruin Staff

Perched restlessly on a chair in his Beverly Hills hotel suite,
Jim Carroll fidgets with a pack of Marlboro Lights. When he moves,
which he does constantly, he looks uncannily like an older, lankier
version of Leonardo DiCaprio, who portrays him in the current film
The Basketball Diaries, based on Carroll’s cult classic.

"Yeah, it’s true," Carroll says, when it is pointed out to him
how much DiCaprio resembles him. "I was watching a rough cut of the
film with Lou (Reed, a longtime friend), and he goes, ‘Look, he’s
taking a pencil out of his pocket exactly like you. What, did he
live with you for three years?’ I thought he was just projecting,
but Lou knows me really well."

Poet, musician, author, ex-junkie, high school hoops star,
Carroll speaks like he writes, in a stream-of-consciousness ramble
that easily drifts off on to tangents. But his world-weary,
tremulous, seemingly strung-out voice belies his sobriety. He’s
been clean for well over a decade.

In town to publicize the movie, Carroll shared his reflections
on the lengthy ­ and sometimes bizarre ­ development
process that brought "The Basketball Diaries" to film with The
Bruin.

Long before DiCaprio was cast as Carroll, the part was coveted
­ and nearly played ­ by almost every prominent young
actor in Hollywood.

In the early ’80s, Matt Dillon was the favorite to play the
young Carroll, but that production never materialized. Though the
script was in development for years, it came closest to production
at Columbia when Anthony Michael Hall was attached to it a few
years later, a casting choice Carroll’s fans resented.

"They thought it was blasphemy," Carroll recalls. "They saw him
as this nerd because of the parts he’d played. But I spent some
time with him, and he was a real wise ass. Besides, he could play
basketball pretty well. It’s too bad, because that was a really
good screenplay."

But that production fell through after Coca-Cola purchased the
studio and brought in new executives, sending the project bouncing
around to different companies.

Later, the part nearly went to River Phoenix, who, fresh from
his Oscar-nominated performance in Running on Empty, was one of
Hollywood’s most in-demand actors. Carroll recalls how he first
heard that Phoenix was interested in the role.

"I had the TV on one evening and he was being interviewed on
‘Entertainment Tonight.’ And he said, ‘The only lead I want to play
is Jim Carroll in The Basketball Diaries,’ and he pulled a copy of
the book out of his pocket," Carroll says. "It was very funny, it
knocked the shit out of me."

The project was sidetracked yet again, however, when Phoenix got
involved in other projects. There were rumors that Ethan Hawke was
attached to the project, but ultimately the part went to DiCaprio,
who was making waves after a stunning debut in This Boy’s Life. "My
agent called me and said, ‘They’re really gonna do it this time,’
and I said, ‘I’ll believe it when I see it,’" Carroll laughs.

But the on-again, off-again status of the project never got to
him. Throughout the ’80s, Carroll kept himself busy with other
projects, most notably writing poetry and then expanding into rock
music. His musical foray was inspired, curiously enough, by Henry
Miller.

"I was going through this recluse period in Northern California
and I was reading Miller’s book on Rimbaud, ‘The Time of the
Assassins,’" he recalls. "That’s what made me want to get into
music, because Miller’s idea of art and poetry is that it should
change the world, not just that you should write incestuously for
other poets."

Did Carroll have similar goals with his poetry and music?

"Sure, I’d love to do my bit to change the world. Not in any
political or didactic sense, but more in a spiritual sense. But at
a certain point you realize that things become concave and it’s
pretty hard to think about changing anything."

Still, Carroll seems to be doing his "bit to change the world"
by actively making contributions as a cult hero, poet, writer and
musician. Among all of those descriptions, Carroll feels that he is
first and foremost a poet.

"I knew I wanted to be a poet ever since I was a kid. I’ve
always had a real strong imagination."