Snow Flicks: How High
By Daily Bruin Staff
Dec. 5, 2001 9:00 p.m.
 Filmed on the UCLA campus, "How High" tells the story of
two stoners who go to Harvard.
By Amy Shen
Daily Bruin Contributor
Last spring, many students may remember Redman and Method Man of
the mighty Wu-Tang Clan sending a aromatic cloud of weed smoke over
the beautiful, yet unusually hazy UCLA campus.
Method Man surely remembers the experience.
“UCLA, what’s going on?” Method Man said, as
he rolled a Dutch Master into a fat blunt during a recent
interview.
Thousands of college students, hardcore stoners and hip-hoppers
will flock to theaters Dec. 21 when the movie “How
High” opens across the nation.
Method Man, sparking his blunt, said why he believes people will
enjoy the film.
“It has a lot to do with the weed element, because weed is
just so cool. For every person that doesn’t smoke, they know
a person that do,” Method Man said. “And they hang out
with them, and they gonna go see this movie ’cause their
friend wants to go.”
Redman agreed, “I think (people will want to see the
movie) because of the college thing, man. And it’s Red and
Meth, you know what I’m saying. Besides smoking weed and
being in college … I mean we wildin’ in there man, we
giving them what they would see in a show. It’s like you come
to see us perform all over in this kind of film. So you got a lot
of hip-hoppers out there, besides just stoners, you got
motherfuckers that just like our shit for us. They just love
us.”
“How High,” written by Dustin Abraham, produced by
Danny DeVito and directed by Jesse Dylan, stars Method Man as Silas
and Redman as Jamal ““ two stoners from Staten Island who
literally smoke their way into Harvard.
Silas is the neighborhood Dr. Greenthumb, with herb-based
remedies for every medical affliction from impotence to the flu.
When Silas’ best friend, Ivory, meets an untimely death,
Silas pays tribute to his ace homeboy by planting Ivory’s
ashes with some special seeds. From the plant emerges huge
“Ivory” buds, which, when smoked, have the power of
bringing Ivory’s spirit back from the dead. Jamal, a super
sixth-year junior college student, lights up with Silas to take
college entrance exams, and Ivory emerges from the haze to help the
two achieve perfect scores.
The chancellor at Harvard, eager to increase diversity on
campus, quickly recruits Silas and Jamal to the Ivy League. When
the two arrive they turn the Harvard campus upside down ““
toking up a storm, getting their mack on and generally disrupting
the usually tame college campus with their ghetto-fabulous
ways.
Along the way, they meet people who typify the college
experience ““ their stereotypical Asian and overzealous
frat-boy roommates, the hot and rebellious daughter of the vice
president, and the beautiful, talented girlfriend of the crew
captain (Lark Voorhies from “Saved by the Bell”).
While Silas and Jamal smoke the “Ivory” and cruise
through the semester, the conservative Dean Cain (Obba Babatunde
from “Life,” “Philadelphia” and
“Silence of the Lambs”) plots to get the two disruptive
stoners kicked off campus. When the “Ivory” plant is
mysteriously stolen, Silas and Jamal must rely solely on their wits
to get them through finals ““ otherwise the dean will gladly
give them the boot.
The story behind “How High” was actually the
brainchild of Red and Meth. According to the rappers, they
contributed about 85 percent of the plot, script and scenes, but
felt that due credit was not given.
“We came with the ideas and it was basically built around
us,” Method Man said.
Most of the scenes were shot on the UCLA campus during spring
quarter 2001, especially around Dickson Plaza. While on campus, the
hip-hop duo were swamped with fans wanting to smoke them out, hook
up with them, or snag a few signatures.
“They wanted to smoke and they wanted autographs. I
wouldn’t mind (going to) UCLA. UCLA is higher learning, they
also got a lot of hoes up there man,” Redman said. Yes,
indeed.
Method Man agreed.
“It was cool. (The students) were awesome,” said
Method Man, getting noticeably more stoned with each puff of his
blunt.
With all the stoners running down to campus looking to smoke
with the infamous Red and Meth, it was hard to stay sober while
filming. Method Man agrees that smoking weed helps artists to be
more creative at times, but he also recognizes the importance of
separating work and play.
“Sometimes (it makes you more creative). It also makes you
lazy and procrastinate a lot. Yeah, we smoked ““ but not as
much as people would think. You know, we cut it down. Especially
when your name is top billing on it ““ you don’t wanna
look stupid in your own flick,” Method Man said.
Redman, munching on handful after handful of Cheetos, said,
“(We) smoked a lot of cloves.”
Method Man thought “How High” was a pretty accurate
portrayal of college life.
“In certain aspects of it, you know, like some of the
teachers ““ they were definitely character-like, the
chancellor ““ character-like, and the recruiters ““
character-like,” he said.
Despite all the crazy things Red and Meth must have seen during
that few weeks of filming, Method Man’s most memorable
experience on campus was trying to do a back flip on the grass in
Dickson Plaza and landing on his neck.
The two rapper stoners had trouble estimating exactly how much
chronic they smoke a day.
“A whole lot,” was Redman’s best guess.
“I dunno. I guess it’s that short-term memory (loss)
kicking in all of a sudden,” Method Man added.
With their continuing conquest of the hip-hop scene and the
impending release of “How High” and its soundtrack,
both Redman and Method Man are looking forward to acting a lot more
in the future.
“I seen a lot of other artists doing it, and some of them
were good, but a lot of them really fucking suck, you know what
I’m saying. So I was like, “˜Hey, I can do that better
than them man, let me get in where I fit in,'” Method
Man said.
With a movie about Mary Jane and her magical wonders, it is
quite clear that there is nowhere else Redman and Method Man would
better fit in.
FILM: “How High” opens in theaters everywhere Dec.
21.
