Different lifestyles, dance styles meet in Stiles’ film

  Paramount Pictures Sean Patrick Thomas
and Julia Stiles get their groove on and start a
controversial relationship in "Save the Last Dance," now in
theaters.

By Emilia Hwang
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Actor Julia Stiles just got a new groove.

Before putting on her own dancing shoes in “Save the Last
Dance,” the young starlet spent years watching other artists
dance on the big screen.

“I completely grew up on dance movies from the
’80s,” Stiles said in a recent interview.

Among her favorites are films such as “Dirty
Dancing” and “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.” She has
also seen “Adventures in Babysitting” multiple
times.

“It’s not a dance movie, but it has this scene where
Elisabeth Shue is dancing in her bedroom with the hairbrush as a
microphone,” Stiles said. “I actually memorized that
dance.”

In “Save the Last Dance,” Stiles plays Sara, an
aspiring dancer whose dreams of going to Julliard to study ballet
are postponed by the sudden death of her mother.

Consequently, she moves in with her father and transfers to a
predominantly black high school on Chicago’s South Side.

  Paramount Pictures Julia Stiles
practices some of her moves in Paramount’s new film, "Save the Last
Dance," which is playing now in theaters nationwide.

Sara is soon introduced to a local hip-hop hangout by her new
friend Chenille (Kerry Washington). Worlds away from classical
ballet, hip-hop nevertheless helps Sara reconcile her racially and
culturally different experiences.

Urban dance also brings Sara closer to Derek (Sean Patrick
Thomas), a young black student who helps her navigate hip-hop
culture.

“I wanted to do an interracial love story for awhile and I
wanted to do one “¦ where the two people in the movie, they
don’t have any other agenda except that they happen to like
each other and that their affection for each other grows in a very
natural way,” said director Thomas Carter.

The film captures the natural evolution of the attraction
between Sara and Derek, as well as the resentment they encounter
from outsiders. Among those opposed to their romance is Nikki
(Bianca Lawson), Derek’s old flame.

According to Stiles, the film’s portrayal of interracial
relationships is pretty truthful.

“It’s difficult for any couple to mix up their group
of friends, let alone if they come from two completely different
cultures,” Stiles said.

Though Sara and Derek have different backgrounds, Carter said he
didn’t want the focus of their relationship to revolve around
racial issues.

“They might be discovering things about each other that
sometimes had to do with their different cultures, but mostly
it’s them enjoying each other,” Carter said. “I
knew I was going to get a chance to say a couple of things that I
wanted to get said in this movie and reveal characters in some ways
that I felt I hadn’t seen them.”

Thomas, who plays the young and ambitious Derek, said that at
the core of the movie is basic storytelling. His character is
determined to overcome any obstacles that stand in the way of his
dreams.

“It’s really a very basic all-American story, you
just don’t get to see it with a black guy,” Thomas
said.

According to Carter, the music in the film, like the story, is
universal.

“Hip-hop is the music of this generation,” he said.
“Most people are surprised that it’s still around and
it doesn’t seem to be slowing down.”

For Stiles, the dancing dimension of her character appealed to
her just as much as the story line.

“I have so much respect for any kind of professional
dancer,” Stiles said.

The actress has taken dance lessons since she was little, mostly
modern dance, as well as a little ballet.

“(Stiles) was definitely much more comfortable in the club
atmosphere,” Thomas said. “I didn’t really go out
before we started filming the movie. She was much more comfortable
with her body and with dancing than I was.”

Though Thomas’s character can bring down the house on any
given night, the actor himself has been more accustomed to staying
in the house.

He said that before the film, he used to consider himself more
of a homebody who’d usually rather spend an evening watching
television than hitting the clubs with his friends.

After about a week of shooting at Chicago’s Cruel Bar,
however, Thomas changed his outlook on clubbing.

“Those (scenes) were just a blast,” Thomas said.
“A lot of the time we forgot that the cameras were even
rolling. It was just a big party.”

According to Thomas, the whole experience of shooting the dance
scenes in a club opened him up and he’s now more willing to
leave the house.

“It’s changed my life socially,” Thomas said.
“Now I feel much more comfortable with my body and with
dancing and going out and enjoying myself.”

“I’m just much more into life and what’s going
around me and having fun and opening myself to new
experiences,” he said.

FILM: “Save the Last Dance” is now
playing in theaters nationwide.