A conversation with Kristen Bell
On Saturday, April 16, Showtime will premiere its first musical film, “Reefer Madness,” based on the award-winning stage production. The film incorporates all 16 rousing musical sequences, plus several large-scale dance numbers, and the same talented cast that includes: Christian Campbell (“All My Children,” “The $treet”), Neve Campbell (“Party of Five”), Alan Cuming (“Annie”), Ana Gasteyer (“Saturday Night Live”), John Kassir (“Shemp Howard”), Amy Spanger (“Ed”), Robert Torti (“The Drew Carey Show”), Steven Weber (“Wings”) and Kristen Bell (“Veronica Mars”) as Mary Lane, one of the innocent victims of (gasp) reefer madness!
Kristen Bell, who plays the lead in the UPN’s critically acclaimed series “Veronica Mars,” and who also has a recurring role as Flora on “Deadwood,” says being in the Showtime film “Reefer Madness” could be described as an expected pleasure.
“When the musical came from Los Angeles to New York,” Bell said, “we had a wonderful opening, and we all agreed that we were having fun, and the audience was having fun, and that maybe after the play ends its expected long run, it might be revived at some later time.”
Sadly, opening night would be just four days from Sept. 11, 2001, and “Reefer Madness” was one of many productions that would be unable to go on after the Twin Towers were struck. But later down the line, the decision was made to turn the play into a film.
“We were all very happy at the news,” Bell says. “And we know the (Showtime) audience will love it. The music is wonderful. The dance numbers are brilliant.”
And the plot line?
“Well, it is what it is,” Bell says with a laugh.
And indeed so. The original “Reefer Madness” film was produced by a church group in 1936. I saw it many years later at a showing at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and, frankly, I left the theater more than a little confused.
“Of course, you were,” Bell laughs. “In the ‘30s, people thought marijuana was the greatest threat to American youth — and to make things worse, they believed the kids didn’t even know they were being threatened. They made this film to show teenagers the perils of smoking marijuana and how it can turn nice kids into dope fiends. … I’m sure the filmmakers intended to send a message to the teenagers, but it was so overdone, and the acting was so bad.”
Bell says the “look” of Showtime’s “Reefer Madness” is very special.
“Every effort was made to catch not just the styles of the 1930s, but also of the characters themselves. What they wear reflects who they are before they smoke that first reefer, and afterward when they begin slipping into this depravity. And for some it may be only one puff that gets them started.”
As for “Veronica Mars,” Bell credits the success of the series to its loyal viewers, who have been talking it up as a show to watch.
“I’ve always believed that a show’s quality matters to an audience,” says Kristen Bell, “and I see it happening with ‘Veronica Mars.’ People hear about us from other people and watch us, and tell others about us.”
In Focus
Author, columnist and editor Peter Hamill is one of several literary greats featured in the film “Ring of Fire,” airing April 20 on USA. The movie is based on the bout between Emile Griffith and Benny Paret in 1962. Paret — who had been taunting Griffith as being an “unman” (a press-constructed word in place of the Spanish term Paret used) in a man’s world — was fatally injured when Griffith knocked him down. Hamill would later say not only boxing, but much of America began to change at that point. While it would take a long time to accept homosexuals in sports openly, privately no one would ever again be able to deny they’re part of the sports world.
Hamill had written one of the most compelling descriptions of what it was like to be part of a ringside culture in those days. Inspired by the Irish phrase “a powerful beauty” to describe something of great awe, Hamill calls the boxing of those times and the rituals that surrounded it “a cruel beauty.” As he says, “Boxing exuded the dangerous glamour of the urban night. … Everybody smoked. And the very air seemed charged with the coming blood rite. We were all there to see violence transformed into art.”
“Ring of Fire” is the story of that tragic boxing match between Griffith and Paret, and what happened afterward.
A “Watch With The Kids” Suggestion: On Sunday, April 17, the Science Channel will air “Exploring Einstein: Life of a Genius.” The film tells the story of how, 100 years ago, Albert Einstein challenged the laws of physics as they were known at the time, and introduced theories that have changed the world.