Posted by: Editor on Oct 20, 2004 – 12:01 PM
newsandinfo For Nassau motorists who have vivid memories of last year’s backed up traffic surrounding locations where the film ‘After the Sunset’ was being shot, panoramic shots of locations throughout Nassau and glowing reports of shooting in The Bahamas among Bahamians by the picture’s stars, may well have been worth the inconvenience.
After a few months of filming on the island and “living the Bahamian life,” members of the cast and crew returned to the Atlantis Resort where parts of the film was shot for a press junket.
It was at the resort that the film’s stars, director and producer entertained questions by members of the international as well as local press about the film, upcoming projects and whatever else they were willing to discuss.
Shaded from the blistering sun on a hot Discovery Day morning and seated around tables set up on an Atlantis deck, the stars came one by one to be grilled by anxious reporters.
Making the Movie
Although The Bahamas was, due to its flat topography, the last stop on a two-week journey throughout the Caribbean to choose a movie location, upon arriving on the island of New Providence, the film’s producer Beau Flynn discovered, “we can do everything here.”
With Atlantis putting up the entire film crew at no charge, saving them “millions of dollars” according to Flynn, the deal was cemented. The Bahamas would host its first movie of the magnitude of After the Sunset in what Flynn stated was 40 years.
Already gaining exposure from the movie with an article called “Red Hot Bahamas” in the November issue of Travel & Leisure featuring one of the film’s stars Salma Hayek, Flynn believed that, “it’s good for The Bahamas … with the hurricanes it will help tourism a lot.”
Directing the Film
“I looked at a lot of movies that took place on islands and saw how beautiful you can really make it,” said Brett Ratner, the director of the film he described as a blend of heist, romance, action and comedy.
Proudly announcing that “Boom Pineapple Wine,” sung by Bahamian artist ‘Roachie’ is used in the beginning of the film. Ratner offered his own rendition of the song for us.
With a Junkanoo scene incorporated into the film, Ratner had to share how he felt about the uniquely Bahamian parade.
“Junkanoo is so great, so colourful, the music is so cool,” he effused.
Then lending a degree of authenticity to the characters the film portrayed, he added how time was spent in the country, “we were living the Bahamian life, you know. Eating conch, going scuba diving, going to Junkanoo on the weekends … The actors were literally living the life of their characters.”
Making Bahamian Friends
British actress Naomie Harris, who plays Bahamian police-woman Sophia, made a friend while filming. Not only did she make this Bahamian friend, but according to her, she “based her whole character” on her.
“She was so welcoming to me,” Harris stated of her Bahamian friend whose home she visited and family she met. “We were like sisters,” she said of her friend whom she invited to Los Angeles for the rest of the filming.
Of her Bahamian accent in the movie, Harris said confidently, “I’m about 70 percent there.” Although she warns that “a bit” of a Jamaican accent may have crept in (she has Jamaican roots), she professed, “I tried my best.”
Enough of 007?
“It doesn’t go away,” said star of the film Pierce Brosnan of his James Bond fame. Still fielding 007 questions, while being interviewed for After the Sunset, Brosnan told of going to an awards show where the theme music for James Bond was played when he went on stage.
Of filming in The Bahamas, Brosnan stated, “I had a great time. I loved it.” He added, “I think the Bahamian energy and life, the lovely alchemy of it all, has worked well in the film. Everyone here has welcomed us and we embraced them right back.”
Being the initiator of the decision to write a Junkanoo scene into the film two days before it was shot, he joined in its praises, “as one of the lads said at the hotel, anything with Junknoo in it was good.”
He said of the impromptu decision to put Junkanoo into the film, “it just seemed to make sense. It was a blessing for the film.”
“The Bahamas gave this film character. It influenced and permeated the style of the film, the look of the film,” Brosnan shared.
Said Salma…
“There is something about the people here [in The Bahamas] that I really liked,” she began. Speaking of an indifference to celebrity that she found comforting while shooting in the country, Hayek further stated, “they [Bahamians] speak their mind exactly the same to the king and to the servant. I love that,” she stated emphatically.
“They have a great spirit,” she added.
Telling how she spent her time on this her first island shoot, Hayek, a native of Mexico said that she stayed at Ocean Club, which was “very peaceful and very quiet” and went scuba diving “a lot.”
She said of the experience, “you feel like you’re away from everything and I like that. I like to get away. It was a good gig for me.”
Swamped with questions about her beauty and what her perception of beauty was, she shared this with everyone, “my definition of beauty is that when you look at something that catches your eye, it does because it is beautiful, but how long can you stay interested? How long you can stay interested in that [the object/person], the amount of time and intensity that you are interested in that is how beautiful someone or something is.”
She added, “beautiful people are everywhere, but when you are interesting in a beautiful way and people then are interested in what you have to say or who you are,” then to Ms Hayek, you are truly beautiful.
By Thea Rutherford, The Nassau Guardian