Rusty Cundieff Working With Spike Lee And What ‘School Daze’ Got Right And Wrong About Greek Life

Going to Atlanta to shoot school days right how did you even get linked up with Lee once again that was uh um so the same two ladies that um oh no I take that back it wasn’t it wasn’t Tony it wasn’t Tony and Jackie it was Robbie

Reid so Robbie Reid who I’d met years earlier at a place called Inner City Cultural Center which was like a black uh theater space in Los Angeles a lot of people used to come through there Ted Lang and and Mara Gibbs and they would do shows um so I met Robbie there and

Then somewhere along the line Robbie became a casting director so when Spike you know was doing getting ready to do school days she called people in you know I did a I think I did a reading for her or something and she put us on tape

And um and then then you get you know you get a call it’s like oh um you got a part Spike wants to meet you and so now everybody auditioned for the leads I mean when you when you read you were either you know if you were a guy you

Were either reading for Jean Carlo Esposito’s role or you for Lawrence fishburn’s role it was you know those were the two big roles so I was I was I read for Jean Carlo Esposito’s world uh Big Brother Almighty and and you know so then you go and you meet

Spike and you realize you know that’s not the role you got your big brother Chucky but I met him at um I met him at uh chatau Marmont that’s he he loves that place he would be there a lot and I went in and it was first time I met

Spike and he was just like he was so enthusiastic he’s like ah they don’t know what they did giving me $5 million up mess him up he didn’t say it like that and I I don’t want you know he but he’s like I’m I’m going to show these

Something I’m gonna I’m gonna use he was big at the time right like Ley was at the like he was very big at that time right he well this was his first big thing after um she’s got to have it after she’s got to have it it was his

First big thing after she’s got to have it and and he was just so he was so hyped about it he’s like they they don’t know what they did giving me this money because he he he’s he’s ready to set the world on fire um which I think he

Eventually did when he got to you know uh um some of his other films how was that movie for you being next you were you had that fraternity experience and what they were highlighting about the fraternity it was interesting because you know and and it it’s I wouldn’t say that this in ter

Terms of my particular frat but there was a lot of Truth to what he was dealing with in terms of fraternities um in terms of uh the Hazen or the colorism The Hazing probably The Hazing but a bit of the colorism um I mean you can see it

Sometimes and and not as much anymore but you know there was there was a point where you would look at the AKA and it was hard to find a dark AKA on the west coast also I thought that’d be more like a East Coast down south thing

It was on the west coast like that you would you you would just kind of see it I’m not saying that it was always but you know they they kind of had the the qes were always dark and like ready to throw down and the alphas were these

Little guys like me you know was but that’s a generalization but so some of I would say some of that was there for sure um I would say the other thing that that probably was there in terms of the Frat side is kind of the the attitude towards

Women I mean you know you’re you’re in college young guys anyhow all all mostly have a you know a onrack mind and how they’re dealing with with ladies you put a bunch of them together it just spirals up so some of the things that he played

Around with or he played around is the wrong word but that he uh uh kind of wrote within the script of school days I think were we’re honest now I would say that I feel like and this is what movies do um he heightened it he he he he took

It to a level that isn’t what was there but but you know that’s part of the film making process you know you don’t you don’t go to a movie to see your life you go to a movie to see something extraordinary and how people are going to get out of bigger more extraordinary

Situations which is why you know you rarely see anybody in an action film shave in the morning or go to the bathroom it’s it’s like we’re not interested in that we just want the big stuff you know um with school days right uh it inspires you to write a film another

Class yeah well between Spike Robert Townsen and uh some classes that I had at USC um because I wasn’t a film major major I was a I I had three degrees I ended up with philosophy of religion um uh public relations and a theater degree

Those are my three degrees um but one of the things I saw uh a class that I had there was a a film kind of a film uh criticism class and different different directors would come in so John sales if you know who he is came in uh and John

Sales was a you know kind of an indie director he did brother from another planet those kind of movies but he had one called the sakaka 7 that was about a group of friends that just got together over the weekend and then so I saw that in school and then later I saw

Uh um a movie called the big shill uh that Lawrence casden wrote and directed which was also about a group of friends that you know haven’t seen each other for a while get together over a weekend and so that that became um kind of a template for me for

The other class which was about a a group of black friends that get together and haven’t seen each other a while over over a weekend and obviously uh Spike and Roberts particularly Spike I guess at this point because I remember in doing school days there were people uh

Among the crew that was like I you know I don’t like how Spike has the movie ending just wake up or whatever and Spike was like look if you don’t you don’t like it write your own damn film this is my film you write a film and you

Know I I was like yeah you know he’s right it’s easy to criticize what somebody has done but to put yourself out there and create that’s a whole different thing you know um and uh you know I found I found that to be kind of an inspiring inspiring thing I

Didn’t have any problem with how the movie ended I I I like the whole thing but I did like Spike’s directness and how he dealt with with that you know that question that came back to him is like this is my movie you know like you

Could write a movie go do your thing um go ahead oh I was going to to ask the uh I don’t know how to say it the black anthropy movie um black anthropy yeah was that around the same time that was a play that I wrote black anth that was a

Play all right so that was uh the disease of being black and Wealthy so okay yeah so um I wrote this play called the black horror show or uh the subtitle was black anthropy it was based on the concept of Li anthropy or ly anthropy which is the disease of

Being a a werewolf a lyer throat that’s a that’s a werewolf uh so black anthropy was the disease of being black and it was a play where a a very uh a very assimilated black businessman goes to the hood for career day which he doesn’t want to do because

He doesn’t want to go to the hood he doesn’t want to be around these tired mofos so he he go but he goes and while he’s there this Rastafarian dude comes up and like shakes his hand really hard and he he he like goes back to his

Office it’s like days later and he’s like he starts having these starts having these kind of fits where anytime he hears um I think was it a was a Miles Davis I can’t remember the track was a jazz track he he starts like kind going outside of himself it’s like he wants to

Take off his tie he he he he he doesn’t want to process his hair he you know he’s like all of a sudden he’s into really big butts and he was with the flat butts for a while and he he ultimately this this rosarian when he

Shook his hand is like you know he he dug his fingernails in and and there was an exchange of some blood and now he is going through this process where he becomes a a black panther but like a in the in the horror movie you become a

Werewolf he becomes a black panther but a black panther he’s like all of a sudden he wants a beret he wants a leather jacket you know it’s huy Newton his dude and it’s all like that so that was that was uh the black horror show and then that that kind of informs some

Of what we ended up doing uh with Tales from the Hood

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