Rosario Dawson, too perfect to be true?
Apr. 12th, 2007 05:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fembuckOkay, so not only is Rosario Dawson beautiful, smart, talented and geeky ... but she's a beautiful, smart, talented, geek who has co-written a comic book series, "Occult Crimes Taskforce", and also models for the main character in said comic book.
At San Diego Comic Con, Hollywood celebrities visit fans to promote their movie projects. One can tell if they understand the celebration of pop culture or if they are just going through the motions of another promotional leg. Rosario Dawson understands what it’s all about.
Dawson toured not only her work as an actor in Clerks II, Sin City, an actor/producer in Decent but now as comic creator with her new Image comic, Occult Crimes Taskforce (O.C.T.), which she is co-creator and co-writes with David Atchison. The rumor was she knew her comics, so I tested Rosario, not just to see if she read comics but to what level? Her answers will impress and are indicative that she is in fact, a comic geek. Trust me, she’s earned it. She attributes that to growing up around comics. Her uncle, Gus Vasquez is an artist who has drawn every superhero from Green Lantern to Spider-Man and is a guiding supporter on this book.
Her most creative role may not be seen on Broadway or on the big screen, but perhaps working on and in the pages of sequential art. Her likeness is used for the protagonist, Sophia Ortiz, a hard-working police officer following in the footsteps of her father. Ortiz’s career takes a whirl when she is recruited for an underground operation investigating the world of dark magic and the demonic. Millennium meets the mystical arts in a harsh realm fully imagined by the talented Tony Shasteen who draws Dawson as one bad mamma-jamma!
In real life, however, Rosario is as genuine as her character, Becky in the movie Clerks II: charming, intelligent, thoughtful and seductively sassy. “Down-to-earth” doesn’t do her justice. “One of the guys,” pshhh, you don’t even know. And if you didn’t have a crush on her before, fanboys, keep reading. In Part One of my interview we talk about O.C.T. and her passion for comics and in Part Two, we talk about her career in film.
Ernie Estrella: Is it true that you’re a comic geek?
Rosario Dawson: I would love to say that I’m a comic geek; it would be great company to be in. I grew up around a lot of comic geeks. I’ve been called one more lately. Kevin Smith called me one so that works.
EE: Give me three comic book titles that aren’t in the mainstream that you’d like to see more popular.
RD: Johnny the Homicidal Maniac is amazing but I don’t know if that’s popular or not–but I love that a lot! I talked to Jonathan Rhys Meyers when I worked with him (on Alexander) and told him, “You’d be so good as Johnny!” I think it’s really good humor. I just read this really crazy book, which I would like to be better but it’s not, Trucker Fags in Denial. I like Lenore and all that kind of stuff. Neil Gaiman’s really popular and Lucifer is really amazing. I’m trying to think of what’s not popular. Bite Club, I like Bite Club. I’m not sure if they’re popular or not but it’s what I buy so they’re popular with me. [Laughs]
EE: Do you think elements of those darker comics you’re into get siphoned into O.C.T.?
RD: Probably. I think it just says something weird about myself. They’re definitely tonally what I like. O.C.T. is not a PG-13 kind of thing. It’s not for kids particularly, though they can get into it. But I do like adult-themed comics. I do like intelligent kind of stuff. With O.C.T. we’re dealing with magic and creatures and people keep trying to think about it like Ghostbusters or Men in Black and that’s not where we’re going with it at all. I’m trying to do something much stronger. I think of more grungy, I think of skateboarders in New York looking at the world in a different way. The curiosity, imagination and inspiration that come with that–That’s what I get behind. It’s not something everybody gets because most of those kids are scruffy and people don’t get how amazing and intelligent they are and how playing with the Earth in that way is a really beautiful thing. It’s something a lot of people who push papers around could probably benefit from. O.C.T. is people being able to discover magic, not in the Disneyland, Mickey Mouse sort of way but magic in the sense of power, like Green Lantern, knowing your will, your strength and being able to manipulate that respectfully.
EE: What’s it like to actually be inside a comic book, visually seeing you in the pages?
RD: Yeah, it’s a little odd I’d have to say but fun also. We did this picture [pointing to a poster of the cover to issue #1 behind her] in David Atchison’s and my Uncle Gus’ apartment and Tony Shasteen, the illustrator took photographs where I’m holding a broomstick. And then all of a sudden it looks all badass like that, which is pretty cool. It’s nice because I get to do a lot of stuff unlike with film where it’s 16-hour days where I don’t have as much creative input as I do in the comic. I felt like the work I was doing visually for it was not just fodder for nothing. I’m doing it in a way of true storytelling. We’re going over the panels, the story, what kind of expressions I need to do, where is Sophia coming from emotionally and really adding that to this, which is a really cool thing to bring into comics. When you’re looking at an Alex Ross painting real people, you can see they’re real people because they have real emotions but a lot of times it’s so fantastical when you’re dealing with magic or whatever in a lot of comics to see they’re people with expressions that don’t really feel authentic, they don’t feel like they’re in the moment. That’s the fun part when I see me in there, it looks like storyboards of a movie but it’s cool because I know we specifically did that on purpose. We really tried to get emotion in there purposely and as an actor I feel really excited that I can do that. I hope it’s really coming across the way I want as an actor. I’m trying to contribute what I can because I’m not the illustrator I help with the editing and the dialogue as well but I’m not the writer. This what I can contribute so I hope that comes across.
EE: You’re credited as a writer as well–
RD: Yeah.
EE: Are you doing the actual dialogue, the plot or a little bit of both?
RD: A little bit of both. David and I get on the phone and we go over everything: where we’re going with the story, the characters we’re creating, how we’re pacing it. A lot of the times with the creation kind of conversation he goes and he writes. David does a lot of research and brings what he has. I’ll do some of the editing and boiling it down to get the dialogue really working. He’s definitely the truer geek than I am and puts in a lot of information, and that’s awesome–I feel like I’m reading a Quentin Tarantino script, he has great dialogue–but he brings tons and tons of stuff inside that’s just what the characters are thinking. I’m like, “You’re not necessarily going to get that necessarily, unless Tony can read your mind. I don’t know if they [the readers] are going to get that. So you need to make that snappier and not have thought bubbles all over the place. How do you make that work with just dialogue?” And I have that from experience from doing filmmaking for so long. There’s a lot of exposition in some comics, and they feel they need to do that but I know that from acting and talking to people that if there’s logic to it, you’ll follow, and you don’t need to say as much as you think you do. That’s what I am contributing writing-wise.
EE: For women who don’t read comics, what would you say they’re missing out on?
RD: Oh my god, so much. I talk to my brother and we deliberate over all of the lessons we learn from reading comics. It’s so incredible. The reason why Hollywood’s even jumping on the bandwagon for comics is because they’re real stories. People aren’t telling real stories anymore. Stories are how we learn anything. Stories are our bread; it’s what we had since the beginning. From poetry and oral history and music, it’s all stories and not just entertainment. I think people, especially chicks, think that with looking at comics, ‘Aw, it’s just a pictures thing, it’s a guy thing with muscle-bound guys and the girls are so outrageously perfect.’ That idealistic thing is not really what they’re interested in. And I go, “No. Have you ever thought about this or ever felt that?” You should pick up an Alan Moore book. You should pick up Lucifer because I know how religious your feeling with all of these different thoughts and it’s a different perspective. Look at X-Men. Have you ever felt different? And who would you be? Would you want to be Magneto and feel that everyone’s a peon around you or would you want to be Xavier and try to fit in? And I love that with O.C.T. for a lot of women trying to figure out who they are through experience and looking at their history–that’s what the Sofia character really has and will hopefully be a good draw for women to get into comics. That’s what I’m hoping for.
I work with a girls club group in New York City in the lower East Side and I want to do a block party in New York and bring in artists to come down to teach the girls how to do comics and get them interested on how they can express themselves. Visually they can be artists, they can be writers but also how many people they can reach through comics.
EE: Instead of David Chapelle’s Block Party, it will be Rosario’s Block Party.
RD: [Laughs] Comics are a way to bring up great political humor. There are different types of comics out there. It’s not just all T and A. If you look at Maus or Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi, that’s a great book for girls to get into and really see how you can really bring up really intense–especially female issues–in the world and do it in a way that’s never been experienced before. It’s like documentary films vs. just kid films vs. entertainment films vs. dramatic films vs. whatever, romantic comedies. There are all different types and comics has that as well. Maybe that’s what stops women from getting into it; they think it’s only one thing and that it’s a guy thing.
I just did Clerks II and it’s really tracking well with men, they get it really easily but with women, they don’t really see it, but I’m like, “Are you fucking kidding me? As a chick, I love this movie.” If a guy were to bring me to it on a date I’d be his. I don’t know if that’s just my particular sense of humor or sense of whatever, but I think it’s because I was exposed to it really early because my uncle is a comic book artist so I have the benefit of not being prejudice against it and that’s what I hope to break–that prejudice.
Download video interview
So yeah, between this and Grindhouse my girl!crush on Rosario is officially back (I'm sorry but Alexander really frakking traumatized me)
*goes in search of 'Occult Crimes Taskforce'*
At San Diego Comic Con, Hollywood celebrities visit fans to promote their movie projects. One can tell if they understand the celebration of pop culture or if they are just going through the motions of another promotional leg. Rosario Dawson understands what it’s all about.
Dawson toured not only her work as an actor in Clerks II, Sin City, an actor/producer in Decent but now as comic creator with her new Image comic, Occult Crimes Taskforce (O.C.T.), which she is co-creator and co-writes with David Atchison. The rumor was she knew her comics, so I tested Rosario, not just to see if she read comics but to what level? Her answers will impress and are indicative that she is in fact, a comic geek. Trust me, she’s earned it. She attributes that to growing up around comics. Her uncle, Gus Vasquez is an artist who has drawn every superhero from Green Lantern to Spider-Man and is a guiding supporter on this book.
Her most creative role may not be seen on Broadway or on the big screen, but perhaps working on and in the pages of sequential art. Her likeness is used for the protagonist, Sophia Ortiz, a hard-working police officer following in the footsteps of her father. Ortiz’s career takes a whirl when she is recruited for an underground operation investigating the world of dark magic and the demonic. Millennium meets the mystical arts in a harsh realm fully imagined by the talented Tony Shasteen who draws Dawson as one bad mamma-jamma!
In real life, however, Rosario is as genuine as her character, Becky in the movie Clerks II: charming, intelligent, thoughtful and seductively sassy. “Down-to-earth” doesn’t do her justice. “One of the guys,” pshhh, you don’t even know. And if you didn’t have a crush on her before, fanboys, keep reading. In Part One of my interview we talk about O.C.T. and her passion for comics and in Part Two, we talk about her career in film.
Ernie Estrella: Is it true that you’re a comic geek?
Rosario Dawson: I would love to say that I’m a comic geek; it would be great company to be in. I grew up around a lot of comic geeks. I’ve been called one more lately. Kevin Smith called me one so that works.
EE: Give me three comic book titles that aren’t in the mainstream that you’d like to see more popular.
RD: Johnny the Homicidal Maniac is amazing but I don’t know if that’s popular or not–but I love that a lot! I talked to Jonathan Rhys Meyers when I worked with him (on Alexander) and told him, “You’d be so good as Johnny!” I think it’s really good humor. I just read this really crazy book, which I would like to be better but it’s not, Trucker Fags in Denial. I like Lenore and all that kind of stuff. Neil Gaiman’s really popular and Lucifer is really amazing. I’m trying to think of what’s not popular. Bite Club, I like Bite Club. I’m not sure if they’re popular or not but it’s what I buy so they’re popular with me. [Laughs]
EE: Do you think elements of those darker comics you’re into get siphoned into O.C.T.?
RD: Probably. I think it just says something weird about myself. They’re definitely tonally what I like. O.C.T. is not a PG-13 kind of thing. It’s not for kids particularly, though they can get into it. But I do like adult-themed comics. I do like intelligent kind of stuff. With O.C.T. we’re dealing with magic and creatures and people keep trying to think about it like Ghostbusters or Men in Black and that’s not where we’re going with it at all. I’m trying to do something much stronger. I think of more grungy, I think of skateboarders in New York looking at the world in a different way. The curiosity, imagination and inspiration that come with that–That’s what I get behind. It’s not something everybody gets because most of those kids are scruffy and people don’t get how amazing and intelligent they are and how playing with the Earth in that way is a really beautiful thing. It’s something a lot of people who push papers around could probably benefit from. O.C.T. is people being able to discover magic, not in the Disneyland, Mickey Mouse sort of way but magic in the sense of power, like Green Lantern, knowing your will, your strength and being able to manipulate that respectfully.
EE: What’s it like to actually be inside a comic book, visually seeing you in the pages?
RD: Yeah, it’s a little odd I’d have to say but fun also. We did this picture [pointing to a poster of the cover to issue #1 behind her] in David Atchison’s and my Uncle Gus’ apartment and Tony Shasteen, the illustrator took photographs where I’m holding a broomstick. And then all of a sudden it looks all badass like that, which is pretty cool. It’s nice because I get to do a lot of stuff unlike with film where it’s 16-hour days where I don’t have as much creative input as I do in the comic. I felt like the work I was doing visually for it was not just fodder for nothing. I’m doing it in a way of true storytelling. We’re going over the panels, the story, what kind of expressions I need to do, where is Sophia coming from emotionally and really adding that to this, which is a really cool thing to bring into comics. When you’re looking at an Alex Ross painting real people, you can see they’re real people because they have real emotions but a lot of times it’s so fantastical when you’re dealing with magic or whatever in a lot of comics to see they’re people with expressions that don’t really feel authentic, they don’t feel like they’re in the moment. That’s the fun part when I see me in there, it looks like storyboards of a movie but it’s cool because I know we specifically did that on purpose. We really tried to get emotion in there purposely and as an actor I feel really excited that I can do that. I hope it’s really coming across the way I want as an actor. I’m trying to contribute what I can because I’m not the illustrator I help with the editing and the dialogue as well but I’m not the writer. This what I can contribute so I hope that comes across.
EE: You’re credited as a writer as well–
RD: Yeah.
EE: Are you doing the actual dialogue, the plot or a little bit of both?
RD: A little bit of both. David and I get on the phone and we go over everything: where we’re going with the story, the characters we’re creating, how we’re pacing it. A lot of the times with the creation kind of conversation he goes and he writes. David does a lot of research and brings what he has. I’ll do some of the editing and boiling it down to get the dialogue really working. He’s definitely the truer geek than I am and puts in a lot of information, and that’s awesome–I feel like I’m reading a Quentin Tarantino script, he has great dialogue–but he brings tons and tons of stuff inside that’s just what the characters are thinking. I’m like, “You’re not necessarily going to get that necessarily, unless Tony can read your mind. I don’t know if they [the readers] are going to get that. So you need to make that snappier and not have thought bubbles all over the place. How do you make that work with just dialogue?” And I have that from experience from doing filmmaking for so long. There’s a lot of exposition in some comics, and they feel they need to do that but I know that from acting and talking to people that if there’s logic to it, you’ll follow, and you don’t need to say as much as you think you do. That’s what I am contributing writing-wise.
EE: For women who don’t read comics, what would you say they’re missing out on?
RD: Oh my god, so much. I talk to my brother and we deliberate over all of the lessons we learn from reading comics. It’s so incredible. The reason why Hollywood’s even jumping on the bandwagon for comics is because they’re real stories. People aren’t telling real stories anymore. Stories are how we learn anything. Stories are our bread; it’s what we had since the beginning. From poetry and oral history and music, it’s all stories and not just entertainment. I think people, especially chicks, think that with looking at comics, ‘Aw, it’s just a pictures thing, it’s a guy thing with muscle-bound guys and the girls are so outrageously perfect.’ That idealistic thing is not really what they’re interested in. And I go, “No. Have you ever thought about this or ever felt that?” You should pick up an Alan Moore book. You should pick up Lucifer because I know how religious your feeling with all of these different thoughts and it’s a different perspective. Look at X-Men. Have you ever felt different? And who would you be? Would you want to be Magneto and feel that everyone’s a peon around you or would you want to be Xavier and try to fit in? And I love that with O.C.T. for a lot of women trying to figure out who they are through experience and looking at their history–that’s what the Sofia character really has and will hopefully be a good draw for women to get into comics. That’s what I’m hoping for.
I work with a girls club group in New York City in the lower East Side and I want to do a block party in New York and bring in artists to come down to teach the girls how to do comics and get them interested on how they can express themselves. Visually they can be artists, they can be writers but also how many people they can reach through comics.
EE: Instead of David Chapelle’s Block Party, it will be Rosario’s Block Party.
RD: [Laughs] Comics are a way to bring up great political humor. There are different types of comics out there. It’s not just all T and A. If you look at Maus or Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi, that’s a great book for girls to get into and really see how you can really bring up really intense–especially female issues–in the world and do it in a way that’s never been experienced before. It’s like documentary films vs. just kid films vs. entertainment films vs. dramatic films vs. whatever, romantic comedies. There are all different types and comics has that as well. Maybe that’s what stops women from getting into it; they think it’s only one thing and that it’s a guy thing.
I just did Clerks II and it’s really tracking well with men, they get it really easily but with women, they don’t really see it, but I’m like, “Are you fucking kidding me? As a chick, I love this movie.” If a guy were to bring me to it on a date I’d be his. I don’t know if that’s just my particular sense of humor or sense of whatever, but I think it’s because I was exposed to it really early because my uncle is a comic book artist so I have the benefit of not being prejudice against it and that’s what I hope to break–that prejudice.
Download video interview
So yeah, between this and Grindhouse my girl!crush on Rosario is officially back (I'm sorry but Alexander really frakking traumatized me)
*goes in search of 'Occult Crimes Taskforce'*
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Date: 2007-04-12 10:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-12 11:54 pm (UTC)