by Paul Fischer
by
Paul Fischer
Wesley Snipes is that rare breed
of movie star who can snugly slide from action star to 
straight
drama, as exemplified by both Blade 2 and Undisputed, that showcase
the varying sides to this charismatic star. Originally aspiring to do ballet,
the Florida-born actor grew up in New York's the Bronx where he developed an early
interest in acting. He made his film debut in the Goldie Hawn vehicle Wildcats
(1986) and, although he appeared in a few more films during the 1980s, it was
Snipes' turn as a street tough who menaces Michael Jackson in the Martin Scorsese-directed
video for "Bad" that caught the eye of director Spike Lee. Lee cast
Snipes in his 1990 Mo' Better Blues as a flamboyant saxophonist opposite
Denzel Washington. That role, coupled with the exposure that Snipes had
received for his performance as a talented but undisciplined baseball player in
the previous year's Major League, succeeded in giving the actor a tentative
plot on the Hollywood map. With his starring role in Lee's 1991 Jungle Fever,
Snipes won critical praise and increased his audience exposure, and his career
duly took off.
That same year, Snipes further demonstrated his flexibility with diverse roles
in New Jack City and The Waterdance. Both performances earned strong
reviews, and the following year Snipes found himself as the lead in his first
big-budget action flick, Passenger 57. Snipes' other film that year, the
comedy White Men Can't Jump, was also successful, allowing the actor to
enter the arena of full-fledged movie star. After a few more action stints in
such films as Rising Sun (1993), which featured him opposite Sean Connery,
Snipes went in a different direction with an uncredited role in Waiting to
Exhale (1995). The same year he completely defied his persona with his portrayal
of a flamboyant drag queen in To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything! Julie Newmar.
Snipes' diversity continued in such films as The Fan (1996), Mike Figgis'
One Night Stand (1997) -- for which he won a Best Actor award at the Venice
Film Festival -- and as Alfre Woodard's handsome cousin in Down in the
Delta in 1998. That same year, Snipes returned to the action genre, playing
a pumped-up vampire slayer in the original Blade and a wrongfully accused
man on the run from the law in the sequel to The Fugitive, U.S. 
Marshals.
Snipes portrays the Daywalker again in Guillermo Del Toro's Blade 2, set and shot in the Czech Republic. This time around, Blade must align himself with a high-powered team of vampires to take on a greater evil than either has ever faced -- a new kind of super-vampire on a vicious hunt to eradicate both races.
CrankyCritic.com: So what can we expect from this new "episode"
of Blade?
Wesley Snipes: Well, this one is over the top! It's gonna blow
your mind because it's full of non-stop action. You know I loved the first one,
even if it was slow at times. It was the beginning of the trilogy, because this
is how the writer/producer David Goyer, always saw it, like a three part big action
adventure, but in this one we really pushed the envelop in terms of action, of
emotion since we tried to have some semi-romantic link for Blade and also in term
of the shooting. You'll see camera moves that will blow your eyes out off their
sockets!
CrankyCritic.com: You went with a tough and dark horror director, Guillermo
Del Toro, why this choice?
Wesley Snipes: Well, it's true that at the beginning there was a little
bit of hesitation with him because he is know for more gory, dark and depressing
kinds of horror films like Mimic or Cronos. Blade 2 had to
be a comic tale full of speed and action. Guillermo had so many good ideas with
the monsters, with the vampires, with the weapons of Blade; he is so detailed
oriented that we thought he would be perfect. We wanted to pump up the level of
emotions in this film. It's like a Greek tragedy, with lots of dramatic conflicts
between each characters. Guillermo "gets" the emotions. He knows how
to make them stick in the middle of all the action scenes.
CrankyCritic.com: When did the training start for this?
Wesley Snipes: I was filming Undisputed, a boxing movie, just before
we started Blade 2, so I was already in training and pretty much in good
shape. I trained in Prague. A lot. But you know, because I've been doing martial
arts, and yoga, and mediation, and following a good diet, it 
doesn't
really take me too much time to be in shape and ready for a film like this. When
you have a regular health discipline, your body stays in shape all the time. I've
been lucky to never stop exercising. In this film it's cool to have incorporated
all kind of fighting and physical styles, from a Hong Kong style in the opening,
to a more "Wesley style" which is more ju-jitsu, African, kick-ass whatever
I feel like. So it was intense but fun.
CrankyCritic.com: You're a quite a fighter with a black belt, yeah?
Wesley Snipes: Yes, yeah.I guess, and it's cool to have some black belt
in martial fighting but it doesn't mean you can fight. To fight you need heart
and I'm lucky that I have that, and that's all you really need at the end of the
day.
CrankyCritic.com: Is it harder to fight as you get older?
Wesley Snipes: Sure, I get sore quicker so there are many more massages
than before !!
CrankyCritic.com: Any good masseuses in Prague while you were shooting
Blade 2?
Wesley Snipes: (laughing).You bet, but you know I was doing the super-hero
so I had no time for that, just for pure pleasure !!
CrankyCritic.com: What about the use of CGI in some of your fight sequences?
Wesley Snipes: Well, I thought this was great. We didn't want to suspend
reality, like in The Matrix, but wanted the action to really keep going
and keep blasting. CGI helped us to enhance 
this
and to create scenes that are unseen until now.
CrankyCritic.com: I understand that you did some puppet theatre when
you were younger ?
Wesley Snipes: Indeed, I used to do puppet theatre and also mime and musical
theatre in Florida for competitions and festivals, which was great. I was very
much involved in theatre when I was in college. It's funny because all I wanted
to do when I was young was to become a dancer and then I went to acting school,
where they taught me great drama ! And that was it, I became an actor.and the
rhythm went through the door. But I can still do some dancing, some choreography
in my films and that's cool.
CrankyCritic.com: So what are the things your tried to do with Blade
2 compared to the first one?
Wesley Snipes: Well, first we wanted to enhance Blade's romantic life,
and get him laid! Also we wanted to make it a different environment. Initially
it was going to be Vegas but Prague came up, for various reasons, and that's were
we went. Also we wanted to make Blade feel more at ease with what he is. I think
that when we do the next one, Blade 3, we will go down that road of enhancing
his emotions even more but by keep the action and the stunts breathtaking as well.
I'm in shape, so, it's now or never!! I just want to go ahead and do it and then
just watch cartoons on TV and relax, put the Blade suit in the closet.