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*Antonio Banderas and Alfre Woodard star in the new film “Take the Lead.” The film is based on the true story of Pierre Dulaine, and international dance teacher and competitor who volunteers his time to teach ballroom dancing to a group of inner-city high school students serving detention. Banderas plays Dulaine and Alfre Woodard co-stars as the New York high school’s tough principal.
Though critics are already saying that Banderas was perfect for the role, the actor, himself, wasn’t so quickly sold on the idea.
“I confess that I had the sort of reaction that the kids have when I go for the first time to the [classroom] in the movie – ‘Ballroom dancing? No way.’ I didn’t even read it. It sounded cheesy,” he said.
But the producers of the film took a meeting with the suave actor and convinced him that the movie was more than just about teaching kids to dance.
“The producers were very clever,” he said. “In the meeting they explained to me that what they wanted to do in the movie. It was not so much about the dancing, but rather very strong social issues of what’s going on in the schools in America, and all around the world, actually.”
Dulaine’s impact on his students is what really impacted Banderas, too. He said that the producers of the movie showed him a documentary on the dancer.
“That was the first thing that started hooking me," said the actor. "I wanted to meet him, and when I met him, it was clear to me that I wanted to do the movie. Here we have a very strange animal in front of me; A guy who does things for nothing in return. That’s unbelievable in our day. And the way that he did it too, with a lot of elegance and warmness. This was a very disciplined guy, but doesn’t impose it.”
Banderas was able to meet his character in person and develop his character based on conversations with Dulaine, but admits that he’s “still a mysterious guy. I tried to add that to the movie. You don’t know anything about his background. Like in the movie when the kids ask about [his] wife, he says, ‘She died five years ago.’ And that’s it, let’s move on.”
On the other hand, Woodard created her character and based the no-nonsense principal somewhat on her sister, who happens to be a principal in Oklahoma City.
“I thought [the writer] dreamed up the principal to fill the space of the resistance that Pierre got from any number of principles and school officials when he was trying to get it implemented. I based my portrayal on my sister. [That’s] what attracted me – that I knew a woman like this. A woman that people would say was tough, but what she’s actually doing is coming at the kids the way they’re coming at her,” Woodard said, likening her character to her sibling. “She’s not backing down. If they’re swearing at them, she’ll swear back. Like my sister, she had that thing – like a rebel without a cause – who decided to be a teacher. She’s perfect because she doesn’t judge kids, even when they’ve screwed up tremendously; she’ll still expects them to deliver. And when you expect things from people, they’re more prone to deliver for you.”
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Antonio Banderas and Alfre Woodard star in 'Take the Lead'
While Woodard was quite comfortable with the dialog with the young characters, played by a young Hollywood cast, including Yaya DaCosta (“Top Model), Rob Brown (Finding Forrester, Coach Carter), and Dante Basco (Biker Boyz), among others, she never had any problems in school like the characters do.
“I was a great student, and I had wonderful teachers all through my life. I remember all my teachers; I remember their names and I remember what I learned that year. I can remember the curriculum. Back then, schools were segregated so the best and the brightest black women taught school. Now they would be ambassadors or in board rooms. But they were standing up in front of us in knit suits and pumps all day with their faces made up, and they would say, ‘I don’t care who you are, I said you have to do this’ and everybody would respond. It gives children an incredible sense of self when those are the people,” she continued. “Now, we’ve got to restore the respect to the idea of teaching – by paying people, by assisting them, by coming into the school with anything we have to give, like Pierre did.”
Still, just as dance inspires the students in “Take the Lead,” school is what inspired Woodard to pursue acting. Her days in Parochial school are when and where acting was really introduced to her and where she was convinced to take the lead, herself.
“[The teachers] laid the foundation for you to discover. I discovered film [in school]. They got me up on the stage acting. I said, ‘Oh gosh, I couldn’t possibly get up in front of people and make believe.’ And the sister said, ‘It’s not for you, it’s for God.’ So I came into my artistic self there.”
Meanwhile, while Banderas’ moves appear to be quite professional, the Latin star says that he’s not really a dancer.
“I pretend that I dance,” he says of his slick moves in the film. He’s being modest, though. Banderas claims that he ‘got his groove on’ back in the day. Hitting up discos. However, he says, after his clubbing days of the ‘70s, the dance style went too solo for him.
“In the beginning of the ‘80s, the battle between melodies and rhythm was won by rhythm. And ever since I think it brought a lot of individualism,” Banderas explained. “People go now to the disco and it’s basically to show off. They don’t share anything. It’s just about me, me. We lost something there. I think this movie adds that thing, you know. The fact of a man holding a woman and a woman holding a man. There’s a purpose between the two, and they share. It just connects people.”
Nonetheless moviegoers can connect with the art of dance and the film this weekend, as “Take the Lead” hits theaters this Friday.
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