NEED FOR SPEED

Swedish director Jonas Akerlund puts his own spin on crystal meth with Spun

Shaking up the drug movie wouldn't seem a very welcome task for a filmmaker,
not since landmarks like Danny Boyle's Trainspotting and Darren Aronofsky's
Requiem for a Dream have set such high standards for the sub-genre. But with
Spun, Jonas Akerlund's achingly real, hugely funny and insanely casted
low-budget wonder, the Swedish filmmaker has managed to conjure up something
that's both realistic, raw and freshly realized.

Believably enough, the genesis for Spun did not happen in Sweden. It began
when Hollywood painter and writer Creighton Vero was investigating his own
documentary project on crystal methamphetamine and its effects on users.
Interviewing users in Oregon, Vero spoke with William De Los Santos, a
notorious speed freak. When De Los Santos began recalling his days as a
driver for a crystal meth manufacturer and dealer nicknamed "The Cook," Vero
felt these oddball stories would make for a great dramatic screenplay. He
and De Los Santos collaborated on the beginnings of what would become Spun;
after approaching the Muse production house - the company behind such darkly
visionary films as Buffalo 66, American Psycho and Virgin Suicides - the
screenwriters found interest.

The production company, familiar with Swedish director Akerlund (who was
then best known for making videos for the likes of Madonna, Ozzy Osbourne,
U2 and Prodigy), asked him if he'd like to take the helm.

Call the script doctor

Akerlund says he was eager to take on his first feature, but knew there was
a lot of work to be done. "The first thing that ran through my mind was how
much work the script needed. I could see the weaknesses and what the
solutions were, which in an odd way is a good thing. Many times you can't
see a way out of a problematic script."

As he began to rework the screenplay, Akerlund also started to envision who
might play each of the movie's screwy characters. For the role of the Cook,
he thought of famous Hollywood washout Mickey Rourke. As it turned out, the
actor was available. And Akerlund reports that once his name was on the
bill, the rest of the dream cast fell into place.

John Leguizamo plays the film's most energetic junkie and dealer, who's
completely wired from the first scene; Mena Suvari is his strung out
girlfriend; Patrick Fugit (Almost Famous) is an acne-ridden addict who also
happens to be addicted to video games; Brittany Murphy is Rourke's stripper
girlfriend; Alexis Arquette is a cop with a TV show and his own drug
problem; Eric Roberts is a queeny crystal meth buyer; and Deborah Harry is a
lesbian phone sex worker.

"I realized afterwards how very lucky I was to have all of these people in
one movie," Akerlund says. "I had Mickey in mind early, and actually, he was
great to work with. None of the things I'd heard about turned out to be
true. Very professional - we had to move fast on this shoot, it was only 22
days, and he moved with us." As for Harry, that casting call was also
Akerlund's idea, and he says she was simply "fantastic." (The two just
finished collaborating again: last week he directed the video for Blondie's
single "Good Boys" from their forthcoming album. "This is a real throwback
to Blondie's early, '70s stuff," he says.)

"For me, all of the characters in the script really stood out - they were
all unique and interesting. So it was very important for me to have
interesting characters playing them as well. Each character in the film
should stay with you long after the final credits have rolled."

Crystal method acting

Akerlund says he did extensive research into crystal meth and its effects.
He looked at several documentaries on the subject, read a number of accounts
and interviewed people who'd been strung out on the drug. He handed the
results of his research to his actors, who he wanted to read up on the
topic. "In America, it seems like there are very few people who haven't had
a bad experience with crystal meth. Maybe it's just a west coast thing, but
so many of the people I speak with will talk about a brother overdosing or
their own experience. In Sweden, no one seems to. Although we drink
ourselves piss drunk every day, so I'm not sure which is worse, but we don't
seem to have a lot of crystal meth users."

As for mining the experiences of his cast, Akerlund says the thought didn't
even occur to him. Odd, considering Harry has acknowledged using virtually
every drug in the book, while Rourke's boozy benders are the stuff of legend
(and all that substance abuse shows on the man's face and body). "Frankly, I
don't know how valuable real-life experiences like that are for actors,"
Akerlund says. "Mena Suvari's never done a drug in her life and she's
incredibly believable in the film. I never went to Mickey for advice, if
that's what you're asking. I've actually always had a strict no-drugs policy
on the sets of my movies. Anyone caught doing drugs is kicked off
immediately."

Akerlund says that despite the recently well-trodden cinematic turf of drug
addiction, he had no worries about delving into cliche. "I don't really use
movies as models. We've been compared to Trainspotting and Requiem for a
Dream, but those are nice comparisons, seeing as they're extremely great
movies. There probably are a few cliches in the film, but how do you portray
getting high? The other thing people will say is `I can stop anytime, I'm
not hooked.' That comes up in our film too, but that's a reality of
addiction, so it's going to come up.

"If anything, in the editing process I was worried that we were too weird.
The film starts out very strong. There's no climax. If you went to film
school and studied standard screenwriting, you'd say this is the wrong way
to make a movie."

There's an odd sense that surrounds Spun, and that is a stylistic tension
between all the bells and whistles that go off constantly (Akerlund shot
everything with two cameras at once so he could edit in twice as many
cutaway shots) and the realism that permeates the film. It does seem odd
that a director from a far-and-away place like Scandinavia could come up
with such a bang-on snapshot of an all-American drug subculture. "For any
director, you see a lifestyle differently when it's not from your culture,"
Akerlund opines. "I've always loved American movies and love the idea of
portraying American lifestyles. Think about it: so many of the great movies
about American culture and the American mindset, The Ice Storm, American
Beauty, Chinatown - these films were made by Ang Lee, Sam Mendes and Roman
Polanski, none of who are American."

But perhaps most strange is Akerlund's declaration that he wanted to make
Spun into an anti-drug statement. It's a tough thing to try to do, seeing as
any indie film is going to feature cool stars, cool music and a cool
aesthetic. How to make an anti-drug statement while also making the film
appealing?

"The first draft of the screenplay was far, far more glamourizing," he
recalls. "You have to see if you can find that balance. You want it to look
cool, you want the audience to like the characters, but at the same time you
hope it shows the ravages that drugs cause, that the film still works as an
anti-drug statement. I've never been into drugs myself and certainly don't
think of them as a great idea.

"I suppose if it feels neutral then I've found the right balance."

Spun opens Friday, June 13 at Cinema du Parc