Ye
\Aa r/ New
in High Anxiety who attacks Brooks with
a rolled-up newspaper in a spoof- of the
shower scene from Psycho. Levinson also
won an Oscar nomination for co-script-
ing ... And Justice for All.
It was Brooks who suggested that the
writer turn his Baltimore yarns into
movies, and Diner, Levinson's highly
acclaimed 1982 directorial debut, effec-
tively launched his career. He went on
to direct films as diverse as The Natural,
Young Sherlock Holmes, Good Morning,
Vietnam, Rain Man, Bugsy and Wag the
Dog. He also created the long-running
TV series Homicide: Life on the Street,
which is set in Baltimore and features a
Jewish detective, played by actor
Richard Belzer. As a producer, he's been
responsible for such films as Quiz Show,
Donnie Brasco and Analyze This.
Levinson is on the Hollywood A-
list, but even at this stage in his career,
he says, he's taking a risk to make the
unabashedly Jewish Liberty Heights.
During a recent interview, he seemed
to be bracing himself for the criticism
that comes from viewers who charge
that his Baltimore films are either too
Jewish or not Jewish enough.
The director is particularly defen-
sive about the charge that Avalon plays
down its characters' presumed
Jewishness. And he is prepared for
those who will complain that the
teenaged boys in Liberty Heights are
obsessed with gentile girls.
"You have a problem any time you
depict Jews in a film," Levinson says.
"Because so few movies are made that
deal with Jews, everyone wants every-
thing. So when I made Avalon, people
said, 'Where are the yarmulkes?'
`Where are the Jewish holidays?' And I
said, 'That's not the point of the
movie. I was writing about what I
know. Go make your own movie.'"
A film that is ethnically specific can
be financially risky, Levinson admits,
"so you basically defer most of your
money." During the year-and-a-half
that he worked on Liberty Heights, he
says, he earned only one-quarter of his
usual salary. "When you deal with
Jews in a film, there are more down-
sides than upsides," he says. "You do it
because of a certain conviction and
passion, rather than an eye on busi-
ness. For me, it wasn't so much of a
choice. I couldn't help myself. [The
movie] was in my blood." ❑
Liberty Heights, rated R, opens
Wednesday, Dec. 22, exclusively
at the Landmark Maple Art
Theatre, (248) 855-9090.
3.a
$a
a
`Liberty's'
Rising Son
BILL CARROLL
SUMMI
T
arnott.
DETRO IT n
RENAISSANCE CENTER
Enjoy New Year's Eve at
The Summit Restaurant
Special to the Jewish. News
A
aor Ben Foster, who
plays Ben, the younger
son of the Kurtzman
family in filmmaker
Barry Levinson's Liberty Heights,
is achieving success in the acting
world in a highly unorthodox
manner.
Foster, 19, who is Jewish like
the character he plays, explains
that his parents never wanted him
to get into show business. The
budding actor doesn't like to
audition for parts, and he's earned
the nickname "Dr. No" because
he's not afraid to turn down roles
offered to him.
The Jewish News caught up
with Foster in Seattle, where he
was on a whirlwind tour of major
U.S. cities to promote Liberty
Heights. He carefully avoided the
demonstrators in town during the
World Trade Organization meet-
ings. "My parents fought that
battle in the 1960s and took care
of the situation nicely, so I'm
staying out of it," he says.
Foster makes his feature-film
debut in Liberty Heights, but he's
far from being a novice actor. On
television, he has a recurring role
as Eli, a mentally handicapped
student, in the new NBC drama
Freaks and Geeks. (Now on hiatus,
the show will return in January at
8 p.m. Mondays.)
He played a teenaged killer in
the NBC Movie-of-the-Week I've
Been Watching You, and starred in
26 episodes of the Disney series
Flash Forward (about "painfully
cute teenaged neighbors"), for
which he was nominated for two
Canadian Gemini Awards.
Foster was born in Boston, but
at age 4 he moved with his fami-
ly, including younger brother
Jonathan, now 15, to a small
town in Iowa because his parents
wanted them to be raised in a
safer environment." Aunts, uncles
and cousins came along.
"And it worked," says Foster.
RISING SON on page 94
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