10 - The Michigan Daily -- Weekend etc. - Thursday, March 30, 1995 Muriel's puppetmaster By Sarah Rogacki For the Daily Toni Collette is feeling "Muriel- ish" this afternoon. Arriving at the Ritz- Carleton in Dearborn for apress confer- ence on her way to Los Angeles, the k young actress has just learned that her luggage is lost somewhere between Detroit andNew York. Calming herself long enough to have an intimate talk with area reporters, Collette kicks back in afunky black suit running her fingers through her short-cropped hair, afarcry from the bumbling young woman she plays in P.J. Hogan's Australian hit, "Muriel's Wedding." Tall, lean and ar- ticulate, Collette gives off the air of a jet-set newcomer who must constantly leave luggage, room service and report- ers in her wake. At 22, Collette seems to be riding a trans-cultural wave right into the heart of American movie-goers. A seasoned stage and television actress, she found acclaim in her first screen role, co-starring with Anthony Hopkins in "Spotwood," released as "The Efficiency Expert" in the States in 1991. On the tails of an Australian Academy Award for her quirky por- trayal of small-town Muriel Heslop, Collette is beginning to see the results of her hard work, which began in the Australian Young People's Theater many years ago. A serious actress, Collette believes, "As an actor, it is my job to understand people, to get inside their heads and under their skin... Acting is creating a story about a person, storytelling being inherent to people's need to express themselves. Telling stories about real people is a source of entertainment to me." Working closely with P.J. Hogan to bring the story of an unlikely heroine to the screen, Collette has impressed many critics with her talents at home and abroad. Working on a tight eight-week schedule with little money, the cast and crew of "Muriel's Wedding" had to work quickly and efficiently, "hop- ing for miracles" to happen in front of the camera. And miracles did happen, judging from the cohesion of charac- ters and the talent of the cast. This held especially true for Collette: "The casthad to be entirely focused... Bal- ancing between the silliness and the seriousness of Muriel's character was quite difficult but I think I played it truthfully. It's most important to be honest to the story and the characters. The tragedy and comedy is all com- pletely believable, drawing on some amazingly weird experiences." In her white silk jumpsuit and blonde wig, Muriel's quest to become the mythic Dancing Queen was a real emotional process for Collette. Gain- ing an additional 40 pounds for the part was essential to getting in touch with Muriel's experience as a lonely young woman searching for a rite of passage beyond the small-town atti- tudes of Porpoise Spit. Getting in touch with her "puberty-stricken years" and the self-hate which they entail, Collette believes the film is about the affirmation of self-discov- ery. "Muriel goes through a complete change over the course of the film by aspiring to be something she's not ... It was an opportunity for me to play the imperfect screen heroine, seeing the world through her eyes and creat- ing an intricate slice of life... Muriel's imperfection makes her perfect." With an interest in anthropology and origins in a country saturated by American television, Collette feels that the idea of Australia as an "up- and-coming" United States greatly affects the characters in the post- nuclear context that Hogan creates. The only thing that may be strange to movie goer's is Muriel's obsession with Euro-pop stars ABBA. For Collette, "ABBA is quintessential to the film for a variety of reasons. It makes Muriel even more of a social outcast because her friends think it's so uncool. Also, Isthink Muriel's fam- ily wasn't always the way they are. The music is a way of holding onto something from a time when every- thing was okay, you know? ABBA's music elates you immediately, with a touch of melancholy. It's an emo- tional crash that speaks for her in a really bizarre way." This emotional crash Collette finds in Muriel corresponds with both the tragic and comedic tones of the film. For Collette, making Muriel likable and believable was a challenge. Dur- ing shooting, the actress equated her own creative aspirations and frustra- tions with Muriel's need for accep- tance. "Muriel's fetish for weddings gives her the ability to be someone else and tell a story about herself. Along the way, she realizes that if she doesn't stop lying, she'll end up like Mom or Dad... What I like about the film is at the end, Muriel's just on the way to somewhere positive. It's un- predictable, like life." This is a bunch of people In "Muriel's Wedding." Don't you just want to throw rice at them In a pagan fertility ritual? Eazy-E: A life of music, controversy from the street By Tom Erlewine Daily Arts Editor Considering his impact on popular music, Eazy-E's death by AIDS on Sunday has received surprisingly little media coverage. A few news reports made it to television, it received an average-sized story in the Detroit Free Press and nocoverage at all in Monday's USA Today, but there were no front- page treatments. Before his death, the announcement that he was hospitalized with full-blown AIDS was also short- changed-the New York Times didn't run any news on his illness until March 20 because the editors "didn't feel it was important enough," according to the March 31 issue of Entertainment Weekly. For a more accurate measure- ment of the gangsta rap innovator's importance, consider that his hospital received over 7,000 phone calls inquir- ing about Eazy-E in the first four days after his illness was announced - re- portedly the highest number for any celebrity ever. That number is a good indication of how popular and influen- tial the rapper was. Eazy-E was the man that defined gangsta rap for a generation. With the ground-breaking N.W.A. and as a solo artist, he invented the image and style of the gangsta rapper, which was almost more important than the music itself. Teenagers of all races and classes imi- tated that stance - the image of the outlaw, on the run from the police and his enemies. Not only did the kids buy the image, but the authorities did too: On the basis of their furious 1988 album "Straight Outta Compton" - and the raging "Fuck Tha Police," in particular -N.W.A.received a warning from the FBI. Musically, the album was a fierce mix of funk, noise and lethal beats that would set the pace for hip-hop for the following decade. With little airplay or MTV support, "Compton" sold three million copies - it was a street revolu- tion in more than one sense of the word. Like any other artist, Eazy-E's pub- lic image was partially grounded in reality and was partially fabrication. There's little question that he came from the streets, where he was con- stantly surrounded by violence, sex, crime, drugs and poverty. Out of that, he created the prototype of the modern- day gangster - he romanticized the urban gangster much like how Holly- wood romanticized Italian gangsters in the '30s and '40s. From the profane lyrics to the thundering beats, every- thing in Eazy-E's music was larger than life. Not only did Black teenagers in similar situations relate to what Eazy was talking about but white suburban kids fantasized about being in his situ- ation. That is, they wanted to live out- side the law, taking all the money and they could hold on to and shooting anyone that stood in their way. While he was in N.W.A., Eazy-E created the role of the gangsta rapper and he popularized it. Eazy may not have written the music of most of the lyrics - with the supremely gifted Ice Cube and Dr. Dre in the group, he didn't have to - but he was the super- star in the group. He was the focal point in the songs and the videos, he was the one who had a successful solo career while N.W.A. was active. He was also the one with the business ______ U sense, forming his own record label Ruthless Records (allegedly with the money he made dealing drugs). Ad- mittedly, Eazy wasn't the greatest rapper, nor did he have the best voice, but he had something more important - charisma. Eazy-E was a star. Once N.W.A. imploded in 1992, the members became embroiled in a vicious feud, which had its roots in Ice Cube's 1990 split. Eazy-E became the target of derision not only forIce but for Dr. Dre. With Eazy-E being attackedon both sides, his career began to slip. Although his albums still sold well, his street credibility was nearly ruined; he didn't help matters much by releasing subpar material when he did record. Not surprisingly, Eazy-E had the last laugh. Reportedly, he earned a portion of Dr. Dre's publishing rights and royalties in N.W.A.'s split, so0 received a chunk of the millions of dollars Dre's multi-platinum "The Chronic" made, as well as a portion of Snoop Doggy Dogg's "Doggy Style." Ruthless was thriving and he pro- duced the multi-platinum Bone Thugs N Harmony. At the time of his death, he was recording a double album that would have certainly earned him an- other platinum album, if not more. Although he wasn't at his artistic prime when he died, Eazy-E's artistic impact remains quite large. Hope- fully, his death will make not only the hip-hop community but the pop world at large aware of how AIDS can strike anyone. Hopefully, it will make people change their habits. Hopefully it will ... but it's not too likely. _ 500O IF THE LP Was OE& (W~ic" ISMXT) OV6R. 5000 pE ' ° :Co,12cT DISC5 .I*6 9 S "S 1{! 9 3JOCK to-G3 t.5LcLI I . " i" 5~ A - 1 THURSDAY NIGHTS AT 911 N. 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