We Were Once Kids (2021)

1. - There's a new film in some theatres around the country.

2. This one is called 'Kids'.

3. It has a nice innocent sound

4. but this 'Kids' is not about innocence.

5. - The story of sex- obsessed teens,

6. drinking, drugging, drifting kids.

7. - It's a deeply shocking and disturbing film,

8. which feels absolutely authentic.

9. Is this real?

10. - I really got in with the kids.

11. We trusted each other.

12. It's the breakout movie

13. of the year.

14. - Most talked about film of the year.

15. It's called 'Kids'.

16. - No, I wasn't acting at all.

17. I was skateboarding Washington Square Park.

18. I Not me! I

19. - My name is Hamilton Chango Harris.

20. I was the one rolling up the blunt in the film.

21. I could only tell you what I experienced.

22. I grew up in New York City. I was born in New York.

23. I grew up in poverty.

24. When I say poverty,

25. I'm not just talking about poverty

26. from an economical standpoint,

27. but I'm talking about poverty from a psychological

28. and emotional standpoint.

29. We moved to the housing projects,

30. which is really just like a fancy version

31. of a prison system.

32. You know,

33. atrocious conditions in the country

34. that's supposed to be free and open

35. and have all these opportunities.

36. I didn't experience these material opportunities.

37. Everything was burnt down.

38. Like I actually got burned out as a kid.

39. So I'm being woken up by my family.

40. It's like after midnight and everybody's knocking

41. on each other's doors.

42. It's a fire and everyone's helping each other

43. to get out the building.

44. Because they would set the buildings on fire

45. to get insurance money.

46. It was a hustle. (ominous music continues)

47. Kids are resilient.

48. We bounce back up.

49. As kids we would pull out the old crazy mattresses

50. that people would throw away

51. and use them as like springboards and do flips on them.

52. So we always found ways to make something out of nothing.

53. As you got older,

54. it's really hard to maintain that state of positivity,

55. you know.

56. My perception of what I was taught subconsciously

57. about black people being poor and unfortunate

58. and white people being superior and having everything.

59. Like how do you get such a huge divide?

60. There was a few directions which the environment

61. would lead you into which weren't so healthy.

62. And if you're smart enough to realise that,

63. you need to figure a way to get out.

64. When I started venturing out of the neighbourhood,

65. I would see skateboards around.

66. I was like, yo, this looks kind of cool.

67. A friend was like, yo,

68. why don't we all get skateboards?

69. Why don't we all get skateboards?

70. I was like, yeah, let's do it.

71. Let's do it, you know.

72. I knew I couldn't get a skateboard in one shot.

73. Wasn't possible because it's too expensive.

74. And each month for about six months,

75. I just kept getting every part until I had the whole thing.

76. Only thing I could think of is skateboards.

77. “My name is Hamilton Harris.

78. I like to skate, keep myself out of trouble and stuff,

79. you know?

80. Because I live in Harlem.

81. I want go to college and stuff, you know."

82. The skateboard is something that you get on

83. and you can ride away from what was going on at home.

84. You leave that behind you.

85. We would just go as far as we could go.

86. Get on the train.

87. We go to the Skating YC,

88. this skate shop in the Lower East side.

89. See all these kids, right?

90. There was one thing we all had in common

91. and it was the board and that really was all that mattered.

92. And then they skated across the street to the park

93. and then they were all doing tricks over the garbage can.

94. I started to move up a little bit, but still out of sight.

95. It was a bunch of guys.

96. And Harold stood out.

97. Calls me from across the street,

98. sees me, "Yo, yo, come over here, yo come, come here".

99. Just the way his facial features were-

100. you couldn't take your eyes off of him.

101. You couldn't look away.

102. It's just like you felt like you were being

103. summoned by some spirit, you know?

104. It's just like, why don't you?

105. Why don't you come down and hang out?

106. You could be a part of it too.

107. You're no different than I am.

108. And that's when I knew I had met someone

109. incredibly valuable.

110. The skate shop became refuge to all the kids

111. who didn't want to go back home.

112. - It was like a camaraderie.

113. We just gravitated toward each other.

114. Wow, these people have lives too

115. and go through shit too.

116. - All of us from our crew have like crazy backgrounds

117. and crazy stories, you know.

118. I think that's kind of what,

119. why we bonded, you know?

120. But once we skated, that shit didn't matter.

121. - When we all skated,

122. that was a way for us to escape that reality.

123. White kid, black kid, Chinese kid,

124. and just all these different kids

125. and they're riding together, you know.

126. I saw freedom.

127. New York City in the eighties.

128. The drug was cocaine and it turned to crack.

129. It was this huge epidemic which destroyed communities.

130. - And while illegal drug use is found in every community,

131. nowhere is it worse than our public housing projects.

132. - I remember one day Harold is like,

133. “Yo, y'all want to go to my house?“,

134. skate to his crib in the Campos Plaza.

135. We come in,

136. his grandmother's sitting on the couch

137. and his uncles were there and we're all hanging out.

138. He called his grandmother 'Ma'.

139. Ama, Ama.

140. And then it hit me.

141. It was like, 'Whoa'.

142. His grandmother raised him.

143. His parents wasn't there. He had his uncle.

144. I could see, yeah, his uncle, he has a drug addiction.

145. I could- because I have that in my home.

146. My sisters do it, my mom do it. I can pick up on it.

147. So I'm like, yep, okay.

148. That's- that's what I'm connected to with him.

149. - Almost like a jungle in my house.

150. The only thing we knew is what we saw.

151. Like to walk into a bedroom and like,

152. you see like dude shooting up

153. and it's like we just hanging out with them,

154. watching them shoot up and you just like holy shit.

155. Like my grandmother charging them,

156. like space to like shoot up.

157. It was like, it was like a Airbnb for drugs.

158. I know that my mother died off of it.

159. I know that my father had a heart attack from it.

160. And then I saw my aunt, I saw my uncle.

161. That's what we saw as a future.

162. - In 1991- 92,

163. there was just too much happening.

164. Kids needed a place of refuge

165. because the skate shops closed down.

166. Skateboarding wasn't cool no more.

167. There was no more money to be made.

168. All the skaters stopped skating.

169. Except for us,

170. the ones with the heavy dysfunction.

171. So we was always skating in the streets.

172. And that's where I met Justin.

173. He was smoking cigarettes at the time.

174. He smoked cigarettes and he drank a lot, you know,

175. which I was like, damn, just like a little old man,

176. this guy, you know?

177. Then I found out that he ran away from home

178. so he was homeless, right?

179. Staying couch to couch, you know what I mean?

180. Staying with friends.

181. And I was like, whoa, you homeless yo?

182. That's crazy.

183. No one knows exactly

184. how many homeless people there are in New York City.

185. Officials estimate 56,000 homeless men, women

186. and children wander the streets of New York.

187. - So we would be hanging at Washington Square Park, right?

188. And these girls used to hang around.

189. They were like raves slash gothic

190. slash punk rock girls, right?

191. - I was a little punk rock chicks from the lower East side.

192. I met Justin when I was 14.

193. This was early nineties. New York City.

194. This is one of like the biggest like crime waves,

195. biggest murder rate.

196. Like the city was not fun back then.

197. It was like crack heads and dope fiends everywhere.

198. Afraid of being jumped constantly.

199. I remember like one time

200. these big dudes are like fucking with us like down

201. on Broadway where we're like walking back

202. and Justin came out of nowhere

203. and just started slamming his board

204. and punching the wall like,

205. 'You want to see crazy, like I'll fuck you up."

206. Just trying to protect us from these dudes.

207. He was the most loyal friend you could ever ask for.

208. Fucking like intense and crazy as a person.

209. Like in the best possible way.

210. He was just larger than life.

211. - When the skate shop died out,

212. we would go hanging out at Highlyann's spot.

213. - Harold grew up around the corner from me

214. and that's how kind of, we all kind of came together.

215. - We became brothers and sisters.

216. We were going to create this reality that's functional.

217. - We spent every day together.

218. We would just be getting like fucked up,

219. drinking forties, smoking blunts, chilling on the stoop,

220. all hours of the night, on the roof.

221. We didn't stop.

222. We were just together like 24 seven.

223. They became my family.

224. - When we were young,

225. we didn't have shit,

226. like we used to scrape by.

227. I don't even know how we survived when we skated

228. because we never used to eat.

229. Like when we were hungry,

230. we used to go to the supermarket

231. and we would have a plan like we before we'd go in,

232. like you steal the bread,

233. you steal the cold cuts,

234. you steal this, you steal that.

235. And then we would literally go somewhere afterwards

236. and have like a picnic.

237. - Being able to be together and be able to,

238. you know, have communal food

239. and have everything together was a huge thing for us.

240. And it was important for all of us to maintain

241. I think our sanity growing up.

242. For Justin this was a home base of sorts.

243. You know, he could always come here

244. and he would always be loved.

245. We were each other's support system, I think.

246. We had each other's back and we took care of each other

247. without having any family support at all.

248. And we grew up together supporting each other.

249. - We would go skate together and then I'm like, all right,

250. I'm going to go home.

251. And he would come with me to the Bronx to the block

252. where you have like these guys who like,

253. are like crack dealers with guns and stuff

254. and like come into the project hallway

255. and like smoking blunts and be in rhyme circles

256. and shit- ( laughs)

257. Be like, yo-

258. And they'd be like, 'Yo, I like this dude'.

259. He was a small person who'd just,

260. didn't give a fuck.

261. And when I say he didn't give a fuck,

262. he really didn't give a fuck.

263. He was like fearless.

264. - Oh.

265. Put your hand over it and turn it upside down

266. and back. (water splashes)

267. Oh no, you didn't, yo.

268. That's- (man screeches)

269. That's the ultimate dog motion, yo.

270. That's the dog motion.

271. That's the dog motion, yo.

272. - We drank a lot together,

273. did a lot of acid.

274. We had lots of fun but we also,

275. we also had a lot of issues.

276. You know, I've seen people get like

277. stabbed to death like right there.

278. I've seen people get shot out the window like right there

279. and feeling like emotionally drained, emotionally beaten.

280. We leaned on each other with those issues

281. to plough through feelings.

282. Underneath all of this like act,

283. we are both creative in a certain way

284. When no one else was around,

285. I talked about literature to Justin

286. and just be drinking a beer

287. and like breaking that shit down

288. and we shared that- this love for creativity.

289. We had that bond of trying to find a way

290. to move forward in life with hopes of things getting better.

291. - And at that time,

292. I used to smoke weed because I grew up around weed, right?

293. My dad would roll the joints.

294. So I had a connection with weed, right?

295. But Harold didn't smoke.

296. Of course he didn't.

297. He lost his parents from heroin.

298. His two uncles is drug addicts.

299. He was anti-drugs and he would make jokes,

300. like imitating that we high and clowning us for smoking,

301. you know.

302. Ryan is smoking.

303. So then Ryan passes it to me and I start smoking it

304. and he goes, 'Fuck, Hamilton!

305. You always smoking that shit.

306. I hate that shit, man'.

307. And I got the join in my hand

308. and I'm just like,

309. when he said that to me,

310. I knew he cared and I knew he was thinking like,

311. 'Yo, you smoked that. You're going to start using this,

312. it's going to turn into that.

313. I know because I don't have my mom'.

314. I could hear all of that.

315. So he didn't have to say it, but I knew what he was saying.

316. That was the tough love part.

317. - We're giving no heads here, man.

318. - This is when I saw another side of Harold,

319. that his love and compassion and care was

320. on a whole another level.

321. He just wanted to get out from the projects.

322. I could relate, you know.

323. - I used to always hang out with the skaters

324. and there was a blunt and I smoked some of it

325. and I remember I was actually high

326. and I remember Harold was like very concerned for me.

327. Not that I did it,

328. but just like, was I okay?

329. And I remember he walked me home and we became super close.

330. We would go out to clubs together

331. and he would stay up all night.

332. He could break night.

333. He always wanted to avoid ever having to go home.

334. He used to get real mad because I would complain

335. that I had a curfew.

336. Whenever I complained about my parents

337. or the rules that I had,

338. he was quick to point out to me

339. what a privilege it was to have those things.

340. You know,

341. he didn't talk about home like in the way that, you know,

342. you would hope that someone would talk about home.

343. Ultimately, he felt unsafe.

344. - In Washington Square Park at the time,

345. everyone congregated there.

346. So it's really interesting to have the weed dealers,

347. kids who were into punk rock music,

348. skateboarders and the musicians

349. and the kids who went to the clubs,

350. all hanging there.

351. We would be skating and some random person

352. would just be like,

353. 'Yo, Harold!' and we'd meet all these people.

354. So this kid comes around, he comes with Harold,

355. this kid from Tennessee.

356. He's like, 'Yo, this is my friend Harmony, yo.

357. He's going to NYU film school, blah, blah, blah'.

358. - He used to stay in our crib

359. but we didn't know who the fuck he was.

360. Like him and Harold used to sleep in the same room.

361. We thought he was a runaway

362. because my brother used to runaway all the time.

363. So we thought he was just one of his runaway friends.

364. - Harold would bring all kinds of people to our house.

365. Anyone that he thought was great and loved.

366. It was like he wanted to share them with us too.

367. He was so excited because he just really saw

368. how talented Harmony was

369. and was just very taken by Harmony.

370. He and Harold just seem to really love each other.

371. So right then and there it was like Harold's vouching

372. for this kid and that was a great way to meet him.

373. I mean, he was just- he seemed so great.

374. - Because Harold vouched for him

375. and Harold gave him the stamp of approval.

376. That's it, okay.

377. So he's hanging around now.

378. Alright, that's fine.

379. It's like he coronates fucking people, you know,

380. he's like this divine being.

381. I coronate you- boom!

382. You're accepted. No one questions it. Done.

383. - But he trusted everybody

384. and he always gave everybody an opportunity.

385. - My very first impression of Larry

386. when I first saw him around taking photos was just like,

387. 'Yo, who's like grandpa?

388. Who this old dude? Like who is this cat?'

389. - At that time, like the baggy clothes are in,

390. he had, he's wearing like, you know, skate tees,

391. you know he had the long hair.

392. He's coming to hang out with these young guys

393. and he's making himself look like them

394. so they would accept him.

395. - Remember Harold saying, 'Yo, that's Larry Clark.

396. You know he made this book Tulsa,

397. Teenage Lust, blah blah blah.

398. And I'm like, how does he know?

399. And it turns out Tobin told everybody.

400. - They knocked the door.

401. I said, we're scared.

402. - Meeting Larry, I was, you know,

403. I was a junior in high school

404. and there was a class that was being offered

405. in documentary photography.

406. I was like kind of the youngest student in that workshop.

407. And I'd stayed at Larry's house.

408. - Man, I like your collage.

409. - He was researching skateboarding as as a possible film.

410. He would want to meet people and no one knows kind of

411. who he is at all.

412. Like no one knows art.

413. So I had to be like, no, he is okay.

414. He's a great photographer,

415. which gave him acceptance in the skateboard community.

416. You know, here's his book.

417. People doing shooting up drugs,

418. a pregnant woman shooting up drugs.

419. And they're like, whoa, that's kind of crazy.

420. He would ask me questions like,

421. 'What's the drug of choice for skateboarders?

422. And I said,

423. 'I don't know, Larry.

424. I think everything'

425. and 'are they having sex all the time?'

426. - So you got this 49 year old dude, right?

427. Who is like this well known photographer.

428. None of us don't know. Most of us didn't even care.

429. But he would have weed and like good weed too.

430. Like really good stuff, you know,

431. He's taking photos of us hanging,

432. wild service for service, right?

433. Coax me in, fine.

434. I liked it.

435. All right, you can hang around

436. because I know we going to smoke some good stuff.

437. Right?

438. That was my logic.

439. - I feel like the fact that Larry entered the scene

440. as like an older person who wasn't homeless,

441. who wasn't broke and who seemed like he had some sort

442. of resources.

443. Like okay, how can we make use of this motherfucker?

444. - I never trust people like that, you know.

445. Just growing up, like why does this guy

446. want to hang around all these kids?

447. I always thought he was a little funny or something,

448. you know what I mean?

449. So I always had my guard up.

450. Because I always thought, you know, well Larry,

451. why would he want to take pictures of us?

452. Why is he telling guys to go to us,

453. bringing people to his apartment

454. and buying them beer and you know, weed and shit?

455. You know what I mean?

456. I always thought it was funny.

457. He just saw this group of like,

458. these crazy fucking skateboarding kids.

459. Like we stood out,

460. like these fucking guys, their energy's crazy.

461. You know what I mean?

462. Like the way we looked,

463. the way the diversity amongst all of us and like,

464. but we were all together and like we had parents

465. that were never around.

466. I feel like he saw dollar signs,

467. you know what I mean?

468. That's what people like him do.

469. You know, that's how they make money.

470. - Harold would be like,

471. 'Yo, we are going to be in a movie.

472. Yo, they making a movie.

473. We're going to be in this movie'.

474. Larry was going to be making a movie

475. and that we were going to be in it

476. and Harmony was going to write it.

477. And I was like, yeah, alright, whatever.

478. - This guy wants to make a movie, you know.

479. It just didn't seem real to me, you know?

480. It didn't seem like it was ever going to be anything.

481. Some of them were excited probably in their head thinking,

482. 'Oh, I'm going to fucking get rich

483. and become a millionaire of this'.

484. You know what I mean?

485. And you know,

486. I think that was the initial excitement.

487. A lot of us came from nothing to, you know,

488. I was looking at this like,

489. oh I'm going to be somebody now,

490. I'm going to- this is my way out.

491. - Justin always wanted to act

492. and do those kind of things, you know?

493. He never really said it,

494. but Justin always wanted to do that,

495. but also had that personality to do it, you know.

496. - The first time I saw Larry,

497. actually Justin brought him here to this house.

498. At the time, I must have been 15 or 16.

499. So I was still young and all of a sudden,

500. there's like this 60- something year old dude sitting

501. in my fucking living room, trying to smoke a blunt with us.

502. Justin explained he's trying to do a movie of us

503. and he was psyched.

504. So like, you know, for him we're like, all right, cool.

505. But I just really remember him just kind of stalking

506. and just being in the background,

507. just kind of like watching and just being there,

508. just always thinking it was just a little strange.

509. I don't even think he even said hello to me once

510. or even spoke to me.

511. - You know? I wasn't impressed by the idea of it,

512. you know what I mean?

513. I wasn't easily impressed pretty much by anything.

514. I wanted to skate.

515. Had to skate every day, you know,

516. I was very serious about skating around that time.

517. I had goals in my brain, you know, like,

518. like I wanted to become pro skateboarder.

519. - I was just riding the wave.

520. But it was nice to have Ryan and Highlyann

521. and certain people that was like,

522. yo, this dude, nah, no bueno.

523. So that kept like this nice equilibrium,

524. this nice balance also for perspective,

525. for them to be like, wow,

526. this could be an opportunity.

527. And for us to be like, oh,

528. maybe we need to not be so gullible.

529. 94 comes.

530. Supreme opened its doors.

531. Now we got a new skate shop.

532. So Supreme replaced Skating YC.

533. We got a home again, we back home.

534. - For us it was great

535. because we were all together

536. and the skate shop gave us so much free shit.

537. It was cool.

538. - The whole crew, we're all skating.

539. Larry's around, developing this story

540. about a group of kids,

541. hanging out skating, right?

542. I think we could sense there was something bigger than us,

543. but we were just going with the weight.

544. So right where the park was,

545. they were posting up flyers, casting.

546. It was Harold and Justin who went to the office first.

547. I see the office, I'm like,

548. whoa, this really is happening.

549. We got casting call sheets.

550. I was like, whoa.

551. Casting call sheets.

552. That's when I knew-

553. we're making a movie.

554. When I went to the casting, the character was my name.

555. I was like, huh?

556. Like I'm playing myself.

557. Like my character is my name.

558. I thought that was like, eh, you know.

559. So I read the part, I got the part.

560. Justin got the part, Harold got the part.

561. - When I heard that there was going to be this movie

562. and that there was going to be auditions,

563. I was like, fuck that shit.

564. I'm not auditioning for anything. Like, that's crazy.

565. Harold was so, so excited about it.

566. He just loved to perform. He loved the adoration.

567. He loved to make people laugh.

568. You have to be in it and you have to go

569. and you have to-

570. and like telling my mom, like he was just so,

571. so excited by the movie.

572. So it really was Harold who kind of like dragged me,

573. so to speak.

574. So I was like, all right, fine.

575. - Harold and Justin would go to the office,

576. bring whoever there and be like, yo,

577. this is my boy Peter,

578. this is my boy, yo, he's got to be in the film.

579. - They took me up there like they owned the place,

580. they're like walking in with their boards

581. and I'm just following them walking up the stairs.

582. I'm like, yo, this is real. You know?

583. So I go in like, yo, this is Pete.

584. Put him in the movie.

585. That's what Justin said.

586. Like I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

587. And I was just like,

588. and that's how I got it in the film.

589. - Harold is the one that's-

590. was with Harmony at Astor

591. and was, 'Harmony, put Javier in the movie'.

592. Harmony's like all right, cool.

593. And that was it.

594. And then I started going to auditions

595. and readings with these guys.

596. - Then he was casting for the girls parts.

597. So I saw the script with Harmony

598. and I was very frank with Harmony.

599. I'm like, who the fuck are these characters?

600. What is this storyline?

601. Like girls are just to get fucked?

602. These kids are violent

603. and they want to fuck fucking virgins.

604. Like that's fucking gross, you know?

605. Harmony was always like,

606. I've just given the storyline

607. and I have to write the script for it.

608. From the girl perspective,

609. it completely missed our role at all.

610. Like these are our people

611. that we consider our family members.

612. Justin was my brother.

613. Like to me that's a much more powerful story

614. than one of rape and misogyny.

615. We opted not to just because it wasn't anything

616. we were comfortable with.

617. And then all of these other people just started coming

618. in from the outside.

619. - I was walking around the village with my friend

620. and Harmony and Larry came up to me

621. and they were like, 'Oh, we're making this movie.

622. Do you guys want to come audition for it?

623. Like we're having these open auditions.'

624. You know, in the script it says Stephen,

625. a Puerto Rican kid with gold fronts.

626. Okay.

627. Steven Callie, he went to jail for armed robbery.

628. Do you want his part?

629. - Well, we all knew that Larry was sketchy, right?

630. Like so, but like he was still offering money.

631. It wasn't much money, but to us at the time,

632. it was a lot of money.

633. And it was like- what the fuck else were we doing?

634. Yo, we're all fucking hungry.

635. I'm not going to mock Justin getting an opportunity

636. or Harold getting an opportunity.

637. An opportunity is a fucking opportunity.

638. - Two of your best friends, Harold Hunter,

639. Justin Pierce are our lead guys in the film.

640. - You going out tonight?

641. - It was just like, he's in the lead.

642. I'm in the lead because that's my boy.

643. So I'm, I'm good

644. Like that's how we looked at it.

645. Like if one person's doing well,

646. we're all doing well, you know.

647. - It was crazy man, but exciting,

648. you know.

649. - First stuff we shot was at Washington Square Park

650. around the fountain and stuff

651. and so it's like every single motherfucking kid there,

652. you know, it's a tight knit group of friends.

653. Like when you're talking about the people

654. that the movie was written for

655. and like that clique of skater kids,

656. like that's a brotherhood.

657. For real.

658. They were wary of me.

659. Why is this motherfucker playing our friend?

660. Why aren't we playing our friend?

661. You know, it was like, yo,

662. why the fuck are you here?

663. But you know, then you have someone like Harold

664. who's like, yo, this is my friend Johnny

665. and you guys should know Johnny.

666. And Johnny's cool and you know,

667. eventually kind of bonding with Hamilton and Justin.

668. - And then it comes to my scene rolling up a joint, right?

669. A blunt.

670. And as I'm doing it, I do it all the time.

671. But then, you know, it kicked in like, whoa, yo,

672. we on movie set, yo, there's a camera, ai, whatever.

673. And then I was like, I was high as a kite.

674. And it's crazy because like Larry like played along

675. with that shit, man.

676. Like as a kid you look like, man,

677. this dude is fucking cool.

678. But also, and he got like a a $1.5 million budget,

679. but he's still fighting with a heroin addiction

680. and he has crazy ass kids in his film.

681. There was always something happening.

682. - It was like corralling cats.

683. None of us know what the fuck we're doing.

684. None of us know movies, none of us understand continuity,

685. you know?

686. Cut, okay, break for the night.

687. And then the next day Justin comes back with a broken arm.

688. Your lead all of a sudden is wearing a cast.

689. Like how the fuck are you going to hide that, you know?

690. - I didn't know what scale it was on.

691. I didn't know what it was about.

692. We get plopped into this thing, cameras everywhere.

693. I didn't really look at the big picture.

694. - We shot that party scene,

695. which is at my character's house

696. where all this stuff goes down at the end.

697. All these kids in this tiny ass apartment.

698. And they were night shoots and it was like just kind

699. of bopping around the room, okay,

700. get this, get this, get this.

701. And then, okay, oh you know what?

702. We got to shoot this now.

703. So they, okay Johnny, we need you to go sit there now

704. and make out with Michelle

705. and you know, I need you to put your hand

706. in between her crotch and like, you know,

707. Larry's like screaming at me

708. like rub her crotch harder, man.

709. Like, come on. Like really rub her crotch, you know?

710. And it's like, you're like, oh my God.

711. Like you know, this is not like normal, right?

712. This is not normal and you know,

713. I remember kind of feeling a bit pressured there and stuff.

714. Here's my tongue and here's a camera

715. and you know, really wild.

716. You know, you're a 16 year old kid,

717. you don't know what's what and you're super stoned

718. and you're like, you know,

719. you're not thinking about these things really.

720. You're just like, boom, I'm just going with the flow,

721. you know?

722. - You know they were like,

723. we were going to do this scene guys,

724. we had a party, whatever.

725. We had our shirts off.

726. They were like, we got, you know,

727. you guys are just going to smoke and talk,

728. smoke and talk.

729. They had a tray of mad pre-roll blunts.

730. They came, we smoked, we like cut,

731. we light another blunt,

732. we like cut, light another blunt

733. Because we had a, you know,

734. have a fresh blunt every time we started,

735. I remember us being squished,

736. fucking smoking weed and just talking,

737. you know, just talking for like an hour

738. they were filming.

739. We smoked like 10 blunts.

740. We high as hell.

741. We did another scene that night.

742. I literally fell asleep

743. and in the scene you see me sleeping.

744. I'm sleeping. I'm really knocked out.

745. I wake up six in the morning, they're like, it's a wrap.

746. I'm like, oh shit.

747. All right. We're done, cool.

748. That's how young I was.

749. I couldn't even stay up all night.

750. You know, I was trying to, trying to hang,

751. but that didn't happen.

752. - I remember filming that pool scene,

753. I remember them really egging Harold on,

754. he takes his dick out in in the script.

755. Black man's lasso like,

756. so it wasn't like spontaneous

757. but I remember him being like,

758. you know, even Harold, for Harold was a little like,

759. okay, you know,

760. and I remember them sort of egging him on

761. and like kind of getting him riled up to a point

762. that he would be able to like do that

763. and you know, be that sort of gregarious with it

764. and all that stuff.

765. But I remember Larry totally getting Harold out,

766. like Larry knew how to get that performance out of Harold.

767. Like holy fuck.

768. Like it's the antithesis of you know,

769. any sort of like standards and practises.

770. And I remember being like kind of like, whoa, you know?

771. Like here I am coming from my mom being like, yo,

772. you wear two pairs of fucking underwear

773. and then like here's Harold with his dick out.

774. You know like in my face like, you know,

775. and I'm like, oh shit.

776. Like this is real. Like this is okay.

777. So this is what my mom was talking about.

778. Everyone's reaction is real.

779. Like I think I'm like, yo,

780. look at his dick and like you know,

781. all the girls are like blah.

782. You know, it's pretty, it's pretty wild.

783. You know, it still was a shock.

784. - Justin was so natural.

785. It was so easy for him.

786. And you would hear people on the set always say that,

787. man, he's such a natural.

788. - Yo, Ham.

789. - That the tension like lifted him up.

790. It lifted him out of all those traumatic experiences

791. as a kid.

792. - I mean, I remember towards the end of filming

793. like Justin was getting into trouble.

794. I think Justin saw that the end was near with the film

795. and he didn't want it to stop.

796. He got arrested, Washington Square Park.

797. The cops arrested him and the production people

798. had to bail him out.

799. I think that was his way of saying like,

800. I don't want this thing to stop.

801. - Justin had this other flip side, right?

802. Because when he would drink too much,

803. that shit would cause fights all the time.

804. And we would always have to pull this motherfucker out.

805. That was scary and raised concern.

806. You know,

807. your brother and sisters is there for when you fall,

808. they catch you.

809. They got you, right?

810. Something was missing and it was hurting.

811. Then I found out that he didn't have his biological dad.

812. Justin had his mom and you know,

813. when she remarried the connection fell apart, you know?

814. And he had the bottle to cope with that.

815. So when he told me how he felt abandoned,

816. it made total sense.

817. - I remember one time we talked about it

818. and I was just like,

819. 'Hey man, I don't have a dad.

820. My dad's alive but he's not around.

821. You know what I mean? It's the same'.

822. He's like, but at least you know where he is.

823. And that hit me hard.

824. - It's very significant.

825. When you are a 14 year old, 15 year old boy,

826. you never even knew your biological dad.

827. Your mom remarries, you hate this motherfucker.

828. You don't connect with him because he's abusive.

829. - The unpleasant danger was dope, yo.

830. - I can relate to the abuse

831. and I see myself.

832. When my mom got addicted to crack cocaine,

833. I never noticed the violence between her and my father.

834. I didn't get turned on to that until I was about nine.

835. Then I saw it,

836. I walked into the kitchen and he was beating on her

837. and I pulled out a kitchen knife and I told him to stop.

838. I can relate to that condition.

839. I can relate to what he's going through.

840. Nothing else to be said. We got each other.

841. It was just like-

842. We finished filming around in the summer

843. and then way later,

844. Larry invited the whole crew, right?

845. To this private screening studio in Tribeca

846. and we got to see it there before it was released, right?

847. And that was bugged out in a good way

848. because it was, for me it was empowering.

849. And it was empowering

850. because the whole theatre was filled with us.

851. - Every time any one of us appeared

852. on the screen for the first time.

853. The entire crew just like screamed and applauded

854. and that that was honestly the best part about it

855. because it did feel like we were in it together.

856. So even if my one line in the movie was,

857. I think it was like,

858. 'I have sex and I like fucking.

859. I don't give a fuck'. - Hell yeah!

860. Which is just not the thing

861. that I was excited to be known for.

862. So even if I had goosebumps of deep shame

863. and embarrassment, ( Priscilla laughs)

864. At least I wasn't alone in it

865. and then we were all together

866. and like we were supporting each other

867. and that was really cool.

868. - And after that we went to eat.

869. There was like this crazy buffet of food.

870. The layout was insane.

871. Me and Harold was so happy.

872. He was eating and the fruit,

873. fresh fruit and just everything.

874. It was like paradise there.

875. - Then they came around and they like,

876. they came around and gave us these bonus checks

877. and I think that was because they knew

878. that like this movie was going to come out

879. and be a big deal and it was sort of like

880. hush money kind of vibes.

881. - He had like hundred dollars bills

882. and he counted out ten $100 bills

883. and put them in my hand and I was like, 'Sweet!',

884. you know?

885. But I remember we signed something,

886. I remember thinking like, what does this mean?

887. And like, this is strange.

888. - I remember Harold was like crazy psyched

889. on his bonus check

890. and went and bought the Air Max 953

891. which had just come out and everybody wanted them.

892. - Literally after the film it was just like, okay,

893. back to skating, back to what we know.

894. - We were only concerned about the basic needs to survive.

895. Where's the next meal coming from?

896. Where's the roof over my head?

897. What's next, you know?

898. We were left where we started from.

899. - After that, I didn't see Larry at all.

900. Larry was hanging out with us every day for years

901. and then just- (Peter exhales loudly)

902. He's gone.

903. - Then I done heard it's going to be

904. at the Cannes Film Festival, which is great.

905. Nobody was invited.

906. Not even Justin,

907. none of the kids was invited.

908. That was like a slap in the face.

909. When it came to those award shows

910. and all these accolades coming.

911. Crickets.

912. Crickets, Larry and Harmony.

913. Those were the representatives of 'Kids'.

914. - Press conference after the showing

915. of the movie 'Kids' that I'm sure you saw

916. in (indistinct) this morning.

917. You have a question to ask,

918. please signal your- signal ahead of time.

919. - Go ahead.

920. - Mr. Carlos Polav from Colombia.

921. - Does youth in New York have other values

922. than sex and other interests in life?

923. - Well, I think when you're,

924. when you're a kid at a certain age,

925. that's what you think about.

926. You think about sex all the time.

927. - Richard Brooks from the London Observer.

928. Can I just ask Mr. Clark a question?

929. How old are some of the actors in the film?

930. - You saw the film?

931. - Yeah.

932. - They're like, you know, different ages.

933. - As regards to some of the more explicit scenes,

934. what age are some of the children?

935. The youngsters there?

936. - Of which scenes?

937. - Well, some of the harder hitting scenes.

938. - You said earlier that teenagers only think about sex

939. and of course- - And violence, I said.

940. - And violence but particularly sex.

941. And I think we've all been teenagers at one time or another.

942. So we all know that.

943. We've all thought about sex like crazy teenagers. Right?

944. So what's the purpose of the movie?

945. - You should make a good movie and they entertain you.

946. - Yeah? - Yeah.

947. - When you say appropriate age, what do you mean?

948. - I mean they were, you know,

949. they were the right age for the movie.

950. I don't know what you mean.

951. - What does that mean then?

952. What age?

953. Yes. Were they underage?

954. - Which people, you know, specifically?

955. - Have the actors

956. really used drugs during the shooting?

957. Or was it just pretending?

958. - You talk? You asking me?

959. - There was no drugs.

960. - No drugs were used. No, absolutely not.

961. - Not even real whippers.

962. - Sir, was it easy to put together a cast

963. where we would have young girls

964. that would have to appear naked?

965. - Listen, if I sound angry, I hope I don't sound angry,

966. but I haven't done this before

967. and some of these questions sound like challenges,

968. you know, like eh, why did you do this?

969. Why did you do that?

970. Fuck, I don't know, you know?

971. - Listen- - It's a movie, man.

972. It's like, you know, movie- movie, you know.

973. - Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much.

974. - Thank you.

975. - There's a new film in some theatres around the country.

976. This one is called 'Kids'.

977. - This weekend 'Kids' opened in big cities

978. around the country,

979. - Picked up and released

980. by the Weinstein Brothers.

981. It's a little movie which cost a million dollars to make

982. about kids in their middle teen years crashing through life

983. without supervision or structure in New York City.

984. - It was my life basically. That's how I grew up.

985. - They had it down to- to a tee.

986. - Justin was here

987. when the first magazine article came out about it.

988. He was just like, 'Oh, do look at this,

989. look at this'.

990. And it was dope.

991. We knew things were going to happen because of it.

992. And he kind of felt that way too.

993. I was really excited for him.

994. - Editorial write-ups and reviews he got,

995. it was insane.

996. - It has an authenticity.

997. - Yes, it does.

998. - Just kind of blows a lot of other fiction films

999. out of the water.

1000. - What's making news

1001. in America tonight?

1002. 'Kids'.

1003. It's the unexpected hit of the year.

1004. Moving to over 160 locations around the country

1005. this weekend.

1006. - But I'm like, whoa, people really want to see this.

1007. This must be doing well.

1008. - Well, people just started saying things to me like,

1009. you're the girl who was in that movie.

1010. And I remember realising that, oh my god,

1011. this is actually a really big thing.

1012. - It was like on the cover of Newsweek.

1013. And I remember like people being like,

1014. 'Do you know you're on the cover of Newsweek'?

1015. - The movie's huge.

1016. So we go see the film,

1017. the lines were still around the block long.

1018. And this is my first time in the public

1019. and I'm sitting there and we're all together

1020. watching a movie and I'm just like,

1021. I don't know.

1022. I don't know what to think.

1023. I see myself giving a tutorial on how to take cigars

1024. and take out the tobacco and then replace it

1025. with marijuana on a screen

1026. and everybody's coming outside

1027. and everybody was like, 'Oh, that's them.

1028. That's them'.

1029. You know, everybody's like,

1030. hey, that's them from the film.

1031. - The initial reactions to this film by people

1032. who just saw it were interesting

1033. because they related to it as if somehow

1034. it was a documentary.

1035. - Yeah.

1036. - They didn't believe that those were actors.

1037. - Yeah.

1038. - And that that was dialogue.

1039. - Most people thought it was a documentary.

1040. Most people.

1041. - Very scary. It's very scary.

1042. - It is not a pretty picture.

1043. They hang out, act out, skate fast, go nowhere.

1044. They swill beer, swear, smoke dope, have sex.

1045. - It's a deeply shocking and disturbing film

1046. which feels absolutely authentic.

1047. - And everywhere produced lively arguments.

1048. Is this real?

1049. - You want to pound this kid?

1050. - Yeah, I hear what people are saying.

1051. I felt somewhat sort of exposed.

1052. Not in a good way though, you know,

1053. and not in a comfortable way.

1054. Maybe my own insecurities with myself. Right?

1055. This, this ain't going to work.

1056. - Get him out of here.

1057. - Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.

1058. Wait, wait, wait, wait.

1059. Get out of here.

1060. (kid howls) Enough.

1061. - I felt like I was being judged.

1062. I'm starting to feel like that aggression

1063. from where I'm growing up.

1064. I might get violent and I didn't want to get violent

1065. but it was there.

1066. That's going to turn me in a direction

1067. that I cannot turn from.

1068. I need to get away.

1069. - What's wrong? What's wrong about this?

1070. I live in this neighbourhood, man.

1071. - But Harold wanted to be in people's minds

1072. and remembered and be spoken of.

1073. - You are Harold.

1074. - Like no, this is out in America.

1075. It was really big in like London and Japan,

1076. all that stuff.

1077. I don't know, I think,

1078. I think I could do any fucking film.

1079. I think I could blow any film.

1080. Like I could bust like Sam Lee Jackson.

1081. I'm just telling you straight up.

1082. I could, I could-

1083. I know I could do it.

1084. I know I could just like have people,

1085. I could get attention from all people

1086. from across America, around the world.

1087. De, la, la, la, la.

1088. - There you go. There you have it.

1089. - I had some animosity towards the film

1090. because it's part of the reason why a lot the guys

1091. from the crew kind of stopped skating

1092. and started hanging out.

1093. You know what I mean?

1094. My friends were going out a lot and partying a lot

1095. and going out,

1096. starting to go out to clubs and stuff a lot.

1097. In the drop of a dime,

1098. they would sell their set up

1099. or something to get money to go out that night.

1100. You know what I mean?

1101. I didn't like people from outside the circle

1102. that didn't skate.

1103. They don't understand.

1104. We all came from fucked up family situations like,

1105. the reality for a lot of that shit.

1106. You know what I mean?

1107. They just see like these cool fucking dudes in a movie,

1108. not a care in the world.

1109. It always seemed like those people brought some bad

1110. to the mix.

1111. Bad influences and whatnot.

1112. And I still wanted to escape.

1113. People started changing, man.

1114. - At the age of 19.

1115. Our next guest wrote the screenplay

1116. for what has turned out to be the most talked about film

1117. of the year.

1118. It's called 'Kids', ladies and gentlemen, here he is.

1119. Harmony Korine.

1120. Harmony, come on out.

1121. - I heard through the grapevine

1122. Harmony got like some three picture deal.

1123. That's dope.

1124. Got his success.

1125. - And you wrote it when you were 19 years old.

1126. - Yeah.

1127. - And how do you get it turned in from a script?

1128. How do you get it turned into a motion picture?

1129. - Oh, I'm not sure.

1130. - Yeah.

1131. - I mean, Harmony lived right around the corner

1132. from the shop.

1133. We would see him like occasionally walk by and say hi.

1134. I felt him distancing himself from the crew.

1135. - It wasn't like Washington Square Park,

1136. we would hang out,

1137. skate with us all day.

1138. It was like, yo gone.

1139. - I remember watching Harmony transform

1140. into like a person that I didn't recognise.

1141. - At first. I took it a little personal right?

1142. I felt betrayed.

1143. I felt used.

1144. We didn't treat each other like that.

1145. Then I was like yeah, whatever.

1146. I'll just keep it moving. You know?

1147. I got my brothers.

1148. Do what you need to do, you know?

1149. - We was once slumming for a long time

1150. but we doing, we doing okay now.

1151. - Ladies and gentlemen,

1152. we're here today to celebrate independent film.

1153. - The leading roles created an opportunity for themselves.

1154. There was an avenue open for them to pursue a career

1155. in acting further.

1156. - And the Spirit Award goes to Justin Pierce for 'Kids'.

1157. - I'm supposed to say something right now.

1158. Thank you. I'd like to thank my mom first.

1159. Obviously.

1160. - Definitely.

1161. - Larry Clark, Harmony Korine for writing this

1162. who this award really goes to obviously

1163. because I wouldn't have said nothing

1164. that he didn't, right.

1165. So now it's Harold's turn to talk.

1166. Thank you. - I'd like to

1167. to thank my mom, my dad, they locked up in LA

1168. and I'd also like to thank my family.

1169. That's basically it.

1170. Peace. (people cheering)

1171. - Thank you.

1172. - I remember him talking to me about it.

1173. You know that he's going to move to LA

1174. and things like that, you know.

1175. Because he wanted to, you know,

1176. see how we would react, you know?

1177. And at first he was kind of like nervous

1178. but all the homies was like,

1179. 'Nah dude, you got to be out. You got to do it'.

1180. He didn't want to leave.

1181. He didn't want to leave New York.

1182. He didn't want to leave his family.

1183. - What could he do to get from point A to point B

1184. and like point B is, you know, having food, clothing,

1185. shelter, some sense of normalcy and safety.

1186. Assume you could find that in acting

1187. and you know,

1188. what better place to go than the West Coast to do that?

1189. - You got a hundred point of selection

1190. - Diamond? New York City will-

1191. You can't buy this in New York.

1192. - Justin moved out here way before like anybody else did.

1193. Justin was kind of like the pioneer.

1194. - Yeah, Justin, you ready to break up?

1195. - I'm ready, dude, I can't wait.

1196. - I will come out here,

1197. hang out with my girlfriend,

1198. go back to New York, you know?

1199. And same for Harold.

1200. - One of those mass things, whatever, I mean like-

1201. - Sort of like this free flowing

1202. New York to LA kind of vibe.

1203. - Like New York right here.

1204. Except for like two.

1205. - Fucked up.

1206. (guys talking) - Fuck with this kid.

1207. - I remember Harold like just going up to everybody

1208. at, 'Yo kids, like yo, what's up?

1209. Like let's work together, you know?

1210. Put me in your movie.

1211. Oh hey, nice to meet you man.

1212. Phenomenal penis in that film.

1213. We should talk about working together“.

1214. You know, you're like what?

1215. What the fuck is going on?

1216. - Now get this guy.

1217. Get this guy.

1218. - There's that much raw unadulterated brilliance

1219. and talent in that life.

1220. You know, Harold would get auditions

1221. and I would like have to help him,

1222. like studying for auditions and stuff

1223. because some learning issues.

1224. I would help him out.

1225. Help him memorise the stuff,

1226. help him go over it, you know.

1227. Obviously, Justin was getting a lot of attention.

1228. You know, Justin would get all these movies

1229. and all of a sudden it's like, you know, he is famous.

1230. - So everybody right here is pretty much zen

1231. so we're going to represent like

1232. we down south-

1233. - New York.

1234. - San Francisco.

1235. - Exactly. (people chattering)

1236. - Pretty much southern comfortable right now.

1237. - I started getting calls from Justin right from Cali.

1238. He, yo, he would call me.

1239. We would be talking and chopping it up, right?

1240. So, how's it going?

1241. I'm doing well.

1242. Da da da da.

1243. I could hear, I could hear that he was lonely.

1244. We know he was lonely

1245. because he would tell us.

1246. The drinking didn't help.

1247. It stimulated more animosity and rage.

1248. I lost my dad at 12 and a half

1249. but I knew him.

1250. But he didn't.

1251. He always felt alone.

1252. How do you think you would feel your friend,

1253. he comes from the bottom

1254. and is starting to make a better life for himself

1255. and have all these opportunities and he's telling you that

1256. there's something bothering me so deep

1257. that I don't even want none of this shit no more.

1258. It was heavy.

1259. Larry started doing art shows

1260. with all the photos he had taken pre 'Kids'.

1261. Went to this gallery on Prince Street.

1262. I remember walking in there and I seen a picture of me

1263. and pictures of Harold, pictures of the-

1264. All of us, just everybody.

1265. Like the walls were lined with pictures of us.

1266. I think I counted about 51 photos.

1267. They all had sold out signs next to them.

1268. I was like, 'Whoa'.

1269. That's crazy.

1270. And the prices were like 3100, 2800, 42.

1271. I was like,

1272. 'Damn, this dude is killing it'.

1273. You know?

1274. - I just assumed there wouldn't be any pictures of me

1275. because I don't remember him taking any pictures

1276. and then when we went down and looked at them,

1277. there were all kinds of pictures of us, you know.

1278. And that was interesting cause I was like, wow,

1279. I don't remember this at all.

1280. - He never reached out to anyone

1281. and said this did so well here, you know.

1282. Like you live in the fucking projects,

1283. like on a foam sofa that's

1284. in your hair half the fucking time.

1285. Like here's a little extra or something.

1286. No, that never happens.

1287. He got what he wanted.

1288. - Okay, we get that feeling like yay.

1289. Yeah, great.

1290. Lovedit

1291. That was gratifying too but there was also a flip side.

1292. So now the movie's huge.

1293. It grows 22 million.

1294. 1.5 and it get back 22?

1295. Somebody's eating.

1296. That's a lot.

1297. Here's your thousand dollars and we own this.

1298. Later.

1299. It was clearly calculated by someone with experience

1300. on how to manipulate us into giving up so much based

1301. on where we come from and what we've experienced.

1302. That felt off, you know.

1303. That's when that resentment

1304. really started to build up, you know.

1305. What the fuck?

1306. - We are in- - How you doing?

1307. - Long Beach, California.

1308. - Harold was frustrated.

1309. He was trying different things

1310. but things weren't hitting for him.

1311. - From New York, I'm from New York.

1312. - Harmony, Rosario, Chloe, they were doing great.

1313. I mean they just catapulted.

1314. They had this support system.

1315. We didn't have any of that

1316. and he wasn't necessarily jealous of them.

1317. He just wanted to be like where they were headed,

1318. you know?

1319. That 'Kids' cloud was hovering around us forever now,

1320. you know so our crew ended up being all the kids

1321. from 'Kids',

1322. that's what that we were labelled as.

1323. You know,

1324. he would go out all the time because that's what he did.

1325. Now we're going to parties where like, you know,

1326. Leonard DiCaprio are hanging out

1327. and all these big wigs are hanging out.

1328. - Leonard DiCaprio is like, yo, that's my favourite movie.

1329. And you know,

1330. Harold is like swept up by Leonard DiCaprio

1331. and his crew of people.

1332. - Man, Leonard DiCaprio is downstairs and shit

1333. and we are going to hang out.

1334. - You know, there's a million fucking sycophants

1335. and there's people that are like,

1336. oh you know, I'll sell you the fucking world.

1337. I'll sell you dreams

1338. and I think Harold got caught up in that for sure

1339. and liked it.

1340. You know, I mean, Harold liked it.

1341. - Like high class fucking place.

1342. They doing drugs and she said they doing drugs

1343. and they don't want to get the behind scenes.

1344. - He starts getting into drugs and alcohol.

1345. - Had a rough night.

1346. - Somebody's going to get hurt from this shit

1347. because he don't have no

1348. parents to send him to Betty Ford and clean up

1349. and that triggered off a lot of concern.

1350. - When I moved to Los Angeles in 1998,

1351. I was going there to do Teach for America

1352. and to teach in Compton.

1353. We went to this party in the Hollywood Hills

1354. and Justin was there.

1355. And Justin was there with his girlfriend Gina.

1356. She was super nice and I remember feeling so happy

1357. and he seemed really happy too.

1358. So I ended up living across the street from them.

1359. Justin and Gina were so welcoming

1360. and they had this awesome house and they had a backyard.

1361. They were like booed up, you know,

1362. they were like living their romantic like,

1363. happy domestic life together.

1364. - I was skateboarding a lot

1365. and I was going to LA a lot

1366. so I would always stay with Justin.

1367. I would even read with him sometimes,

1368. like I was a big supporter of it.

1369. Did a film where (indistinct)

1370. He was trying to offer Lord of the Rings

1371. and I was like, yo Lord of the Rings y'all,

1372. Lord of the Rings.

1373. I was like, wow, sick.

1374. I was like, this kid is going up,

1375. he's going and he's not stopping.

1376. - So how does that work?

1377. You're hanging around in Washington Square Park,

1378. you're on a skateboard and then you're in a movie

1379. and now you're in Hollywood

1380. and you've made two more pictures.

1381. - 'A Brother's Kiss', it'll come out in the fall.

1382. - So you're an actor now?

1383. - Now I am.

1384. - Uh-huh.

1385. - Acting was good for him.

1386. Like I used to make fun of him all the time for it

1387. because like you sit there for a second

1388. and get into character like fucking cheesy motherfucker,

1389. like you know, I used to make fun of him

1390. all the time for it,

1391. but it was really good for him.

1392. - Where'd you see yourself in like five years from now,

1393. but do you think you're still going to be doing acting?

1394. - Oh yeah, definitely.

1395. Definitely.

1396. Made up my mind and not going to give up.

1397. - It must have been like four and five

1398. in the morning or something.

1399. Gina and Justin and they seemed like a little,

1400. maybe they were tipsy or drunk or something.

1401. They were like ringing my doorbell and telling me,

1402. 'Hey, like come with us to Vegas,

1403. we're going to get married'.

1404. Like they were so excited

1405. and they were not only like happy together,

1406. but they were like giddy, you know?

1407. And it turned out that Gina was pregnant.

1408. He was like, this is so great.

1409. I was like, this is so great.

1410. This is so exciting.

1411. - And Justin knew he needed, he knew it.

1412. And a father is a way for him to fill himself up.

1413. And he was happy because he was starting to gain stability.

1414. - In his day-to-day life,

1415. there was a lot that looked to be very like comforting

1416. in ways that like he hadn't really had before.

1417. They always just seemed really solid and then,

1418. and then she lost the baby.

1419. They were so devastated.

1420. One day, Gina called me and she was really scared

1421. and she asked me if I could come over.

1422. She was like, can you come over?

1423. I really need you to talk to Justin

1424. and I'm feeling scared.

1425. I think he had like pulled a knife on her

1426. or something like that so she had run away,

1427. but she was like,

1428. can you please go over there?

1429. Like she was worried about him.

1430. I went over there and he seemed really upset

1431. and like upset at himself.

1432. That's the sense I got was like, oh shit.

1433. I'm fucked up, I'm up in the head and like I fucked up.

1434. I remember saying, you know,

1435. sometimes in the moment things seem really, really hard,

1436. but then like you know,

1437. if you just like go to sleep and wake up the next day,

1438. like you feel better.

1439. He was feeling really afraid

1440. that things were not going to work out.

1441. What I felt inside for Justin was deep,

1442. deep sadness around how much pain he was in.

1443. Like he was in just a tremendous amount of pain.

1444. - Their relationship fell apart.

1445. So now you are alone to deal with your darkness

1446. and you can't.

1447. I remember him talking to me about it.

1448. He said, 'Yo man, I feel like killing myself.

1449. And I said, that shit is selfish,

1450. you know what I'm saying?

1451. Because you're trying to run from something

1452. that you can't,

1453. we can't run from things, we have to face them.

1454. So where you going to go from it?

1455. And I could hear that I confronted him like

1456. how Harold confronted me

1457. but because but that was the tough love part

1458. and that was the part like yo man,

1459. all the stuff you've been doing,

1460. you're doing really well, man.

1461. Like you're such a powerful individual.

1462. Get a grip, bro, get a grip.

1463. Like we all have to find that grip.

1464. And do you, you are on a whole another level energy- wise.

1465. You got to grip up, man.

1466. - Justin Pierce who rose to notoriety

1467. as a skateboarding delinquent

1468. in the 1995 film 'Kids' was found dead

1469. in his Las Vegas hotel room, Monday evening.

1470. County coroner Ron Flood confirmed that quote,

1471. 'Hanging is the cause of death

1472. and the manner of death is suicide'.

1473. Pierce was just 25 years old.

1474. - Peter, you got a phone call

1475. and then he told me, 'Yo, Justin died'.

1476. That just crushed me, man.

1477. - He didn't mean to do it.

1478. Like he was just acting out, like that's it.

1479. Like I know him.

1480. Like this was not what was meant to be.

1481. He's not one to be alone,

1482. like especially when he's fucked up

1483. and especially if he's hurting.

1484. It's really fucked up.

1485. I think if Justin didn't go to LA,

1486. he would've been okay.

1487. We were each other's support system for so long

1488. that things really did start to fall apart after that.

1489. I don't think if the film happened,

1490. I don't think Justin would've been dead.

1491. So I wish it never happened.

1492. - I thought all of this stuff was supposed to make

1493. our lives better and enrich us, you know,

1494. and take us further.

1495. All this notoriety and fame, all this stuff is over.

1496. This whole, we this, we that-

1497. it's over.

1498. It's over, guys. It's done.

1499. I'm going to take this as a sign to grow up.

1500. Harold bugged out

1501. and from that moment,

1502. I don't know what it was, but I saw like,

1503. yo, this dude, whatever he does from this point on,

1504. it was going to do to the fullest.

1505. I separated myself from everything revolving

1506. around that because I have a family and a whole new life.

1507. That was a really daunting

1508. and troublesome time for me.

1509. Dealing with your dysfunctions as a kid

1510. and how that's rolling over into your family.

1511. And I was petrified.

1512. You know, Harold's skating less, he's partying more,

1513. he's drinking more, he's drugging more

1514. and he's not getting work.

1515. You know like acting work.

1516. You know he's walking around on the strength of his name

1517. and how he treated people.

1518. So when he started to break down

1519. and needed a new coping mechanism, it made total sense.

1520. - Sound depressed, right? (people laugh)

1521. Sounding real depressed right now.

1522. - With me right now.

1523. - I feel like people took advantage of the situation.

1524. They would do it in such a slick way

1525. that he thought he was coming up.

1526. - I'm 15 and up. I could be on the law with that, right?

1527. I could be on the law with that on the low, right?

1528. - Because he wasn't educated.

1529. Somebody's going to take advantage of you

1530. if you don't what the fuck you're doing.

1531. - This drunk dude in Milwaukee.

1532. He wants me to ride for his company

1533. and be sponsored by one of the companies

1534. that they aren't like they aren't doing good.

1535. - Right?

1536. - He thought it would pay off eventually for him.

1537. Somehow some way people ripped him off

1538. and they did a good job at it.

1539. - I been on mad companies, mad companies-

1540. - So whatever- - Mad sketchy companies

1541. like the one dude with a coke hat.

1542. - What happened, yo?

1543. - One dude like did so much coke,

1544. fucking like spend all his money.

1545. - Instead of giving him money,

1546. the money that he deserved,

1547. they gave him a bag of coke.

1548. - Shut the fuck up.

1549. - And I got mad at my brother

1550. because- (man shouts indistinctly)

1551. - We're men now we're not fucking kids.

1552. - And those- who the fuck is that?

1553. Do that type of shit when-

1554. - That one your pain.

1555. Fuck that.

1556. - Are you running for somebody right now?

1557. - One day we was in front of Supreme, right?

1558. So Harold would say to me, yo, you got $5?

1559. So I said yo, why you asking me for money?

1560. You got money in your pocket, yo.

1561. Yeah because you going to buy coke

1562. so you asking me $5 because he's addicted to it.

1563. And then that flashback of when he screamed at me

1564. in the park.

1565. Just like how he confronted me, I could do that too.

1566. No, I ain't giving it to you because that's some bullshit.

1567. Because you be around all these other people

1568. and now you around the family

1569. and I'm telling you, I'm confronting you.

1570. So what you want to do,

1571. and I have the right to say that

1572. and I have the right to feel this way to say that.

1573. Just like you had the right to feel that way

1574. and say what you said to me, which impacted my life.

1575. That was my way of saying, yo, I care about you, bro.

1576. Harold is going do what Harold's going to do.

1577. Fine. He's entitled to that.

1578. I know he knew where I was coming from,

1579. but as far as skating and acting, that was washed up.

1580. Now he was reduced to nothing.

1581. - How you doing?

1582. I'm Harold Hunter,

1583. And you watching armpit TV.

1584. - Had to go back there.

1585. Campos Plaza on 13th Street between Avenue B and Avenue C,

1586. that was always where it ended up at.

1587. - I remember he would tell me, you know,

1588. he was like,

1589. I don't want to die in the projects, man,

1590. I don't want to die.

1591. You know I don't want to die.

1592. And it's that, that cycle, that vicious cycle.

1593. The guy on the top, the guy on the bottom.

1594. Now he was on the bottom.

1595. He didn't like being on the bottom

1596. and he used to being open about it.

1597. - And he's not my friend anymore, you know?

1598. No, I think he's a little nuts.

1599. Don't, don't let anybody use it-

1600. - All right.

1601. - He starts to build up some resentment.

1602. How's that dude?

1603. He'll say it, he'll say it straight.

1604. - And action!

1605. - Yo, this is Harold Hunter and this is my story.

1606. - But with all the connections that you had

1607. from like 'Kids' and all the people you worked with,

1608. you can't get work?

1609. I mean, having connections doesn't come-

1610. - They're trying to look out, man.

1611. They're only looking out for they- self, yo.

1612. - Yeah.

1613. - After the movie was over, it was weird.

1614. It was like we were stars but we had nothing.

1615. I made a thousand dollars off that film.

1616. It was not an union.

1617. - That's all you made?

1618. - I made a thousand dollars.

1619. So at the time I was like, wow, a thousand dollars.

1620. - Right?

1621. But that ain't shit-

1622. - That shit ain't nothing, dogs.

1623. - The movie did.

1624. - Me and my man Hamilton at the time,

1625. it was like, yo man, I can't- I didn't eat today.

1626. Nothing, man.

1627. Could I get some money for food?

1628. - He always had his hopes up.

1629. They're not going to forget about me,

1630. they're going to remember me,

1631. they're going to help me.

1632. Those are my friends.

1633. They just didn't come through.

1634. - What's going on right there?

1635. - Wardrobe.

1636. - Every time I try to talk to him about drugs,

1637. like it's either like mind your business

1638. or like, you do that too.

1639. You know what I mean?

1640. But like, I learned my lesson,

1641. so why the fuck I would do something

1642. that kill my mother?

1643. Right now, I didn't want my brother to disappear,

1644. you know what I mean?

1645. Like me and my brother had a crazy argument

1646. like I'm telling you like we were about to kill each other.

1647. And then my son walks into the living room,

1648. he starts playing with my son and goes, yo,

1649. chill out Ron, the kid is here.

1650. I'm still mad but now he's throwing my son in the air,

1651. they laughing. (Ronald laughs)

1652. Like bro, we just have a fucking-

1653. we just had an argument like, this is serious right now.

1654. I'm like- I just walked away from him.

1655. He went to a party and I remember him coming back.

1656. It was like, like 10:30, 11 o'clock at night.

1657. And I-

1658. he was like, yo, Ronald,

1659. I love you, yo, I love you, love you.

1660. Yeah. So I think,

1661. but I remember checking on him

1662. and I like bugged the fuck out,

1663. You know what I mean?

1664. You know, I shook the nigger mad times.

1665. - Like you're fucking kidding me like,

1666. just guilt and sadness.

1667. And then it's like, oh, we all know what to do.

1668. We all meet up and we all drink and we all cry

1669. and we all go to the wake and we all bury him

1670. and it's the same thing again.

1671. The same fucking place.

1672. Like it's just- it's just too much already.

1673. - He passed away in the projects so that for me is tough.

1674. It's off, you know?

1675. - This line of people walking up to pay their respects,

1676. to see Harold, people from all over,

1677. it was incredible.

1678. - Love, right?

1679. Just everything so I'll miss him.

1680. Love you, Harold.

1681. - What is it about Harold that he's able to connect

1682. with all these people?

1683. Well, what is it about this guy?

1684. What special quality does he hold?

1685. Does he contain? - My man is the man.

1686. - I said, yo, Harold should have been the most

1687. guttiest criminal out.

1688. Being in a movie that becomes a fucking cultural classic

1689. and you end up going back to 13th Street

1690. between Avenue B and C, apartment five 0

1691. and still have a smile on your face.

1692. And still want to make people happy

1693. and still want to stay out of trouble.

1694. Yo, that takes a lot of strength to do.

1695. And with all that, this still happened.

1696. There's no escape

1697. because you got no one around to guide you.

1698. You are vulnerable.

1699. This is years, I'm wiping years out of my face,

1700. years of pain, years of lessons.

1701. It's so hard to be vulnerable, you know what I mean?

1702. And this world doesn't allow you to be vulnerable.

1703. If this happened to Harold,

1704. what's going to happen to the rest of us?

1705. I need to heal myself from all of this, man,

1706. all these traumas, man, you know.

1707. I need to fix it up

1708. because now I'm a father.

1709. It's my duty for my sons to be there for them.

1710. I need to teach them what I've learned,

1711. what I've learned from Harold and Justin.

1712. Keep going.

1713. - Okay!

1714. I will keep going.

1715. Stuff they were never able to learn from their fathers.

1716. - Okay, one sec.

1717. Yep, whenever you're ready.

1718. - Sorry. My name's Michael Hayes and I'm from Canberra.

1719. I'm Australian and I'm the biological father of

1720. Justin Pierce.

1721. It had been 35 years since Justin was born

1722. when I found out that he had actually been born.

1723. The story goes back to the 19703.

1724. In May of 74, I lived in a house out in West London.

1725. Before I knew it,

1726. I'd fallen into a relationship

1727. with a young Welsh girl, Merrill.

1728. Merrill was quite a character.

1729. She loved to sing, loved to party, in a good way.

1730. We enjoyed our self for a few months and then parted ways.

1731. I'm going to go back to Australia and go to university

1732. and get a career.

1733. Headed back here and did exactly that

1734. and completely lost track of her.

1735. Time went by, I'd been married

1736. and I had two kids by this stage

1737. who was coming around to my 60th birthday party.

1738. And then a couple of people turned up very late

1739. and these are a couple who'd been over to London

1740. probably about a year after I'd been there.

1741. We got chatting about old times as you do,

1742. and they mentioned that Merrill had died

1743. so six years back and I said, oh I-

1744. I hadn't heard that and that's terrible.

1745. Went on to say that the tragedy was really double

1746. because not that long back,

1747. her son had also died and that,

1748. you know, they thought,

1749. oh maybe she died a bit of a broken heart

1750. because they said she'd been completely destroyed

1751. by the whole thing.

1752. And I said, what do you know about him?

1753. And he said, oh, oh,

1754. oh I can't really tell you very much about that

1755. except he looks a hell of a lot like you.

1756. And I went, whoa, okay.

1757. I said, do you even have a name for him?

1758. I went straight online

1759. and googled the name Justin Pierce

1760. and up came a photo that I swear was,

1761. it could have been me at the same age.

1762. Stared and stared at it and thought this can't be real.

1763. As soon as I found out the dates,

1764. I figured out straight away there is a strong possibility

1765. that he was mine.

1766. Not too long before his mum died,

1767. she came back to Wales to be with her family

1768. and she knew she was dying there from cancer.

1769. And shortly before she died she said,

1770. oh look, there's one thing I want you to do for me.

1771. That if you ever see Michael again,

1772. please tell him that he had a son.

1773. That secret, it robbed two people.

1774. An awful human tragedy that he was never able

1775. to find his father.

1776. But Merrill had her own reasons.

1777. I guess she was very protective

1778. of the one little boy she had.

1779. Probably not a lot of point

1780. in me trying to work out why.

1781. I'd lost two brothers already

1782. and then to find that I'd lost a son as well

1783. was just another knife being twisted.

1784. It cuts me deeply that I was not there for him.

1785. I just wished I could have had him in my life.

1786. But you know, yeah, it's hard.

1787. What more can I say?

1788. - When you breaking a cycle,

1789. the only way out is through that.

1790. There's no other way to it but that.

1791. Because people think people

1792. from the projects are inferior in society.

1793. And because you come from poverty

1794. and you know you don't have both your parents,

1795. you can be used at the disposal of those

1796. of some type of social and economic status.

1797. I appreciate that. I've experienced it.

1798. I also appreciate that I no longer need that experience

1799. so I can peacefully walk away.

1800. Leaving New York

1801. and moving to the Netherlands is not an easy ride.

1802. Make no mistake.

1803. It was hard.

1804. Justin and Harold are superheroes to me.

1805. You know, those are my superheroes.

1806. They made it possible for me to keep going.

1807. I have many dark periods, which we all do.

1808. Years of pain and people are still struggling with it.

1809. Justin is remembered as the guy

1810. who committed suicide by hanging himself

1811. at the hotel in Las Vegas.

1812. Harold's legacy is remembered as the guy from 'Kids'

1813. who died of overdose.

1814. But what about those other experiences though?

1815. Just because your friend can't take it no more,

1816. you don't want to be here no more,

1817. doesn't mean you failed.

1818. That person's a reflection of us all.

1819. That's an opportunity for you.

1820. It's almost like them sacrificing themselves for you.

1821. That's legacy.

1822. Fast forward to today,

1823. some of us have families of our own

1824. and it's like people who had these dysfunctional upbringings

1825. doing pretty well right now, you know,

1826. and they've acquired a certain knowledge that they passed

1827. onto their children, you know?

1828. What's going to be their legacy?

1829. Making this place a better place for our children.

1830. Memories and experiences.

1831. That's where we grow from.

1832. Far as I'm concerned, Harold and Justin's legacy is us.

1833. - Hey Larry. How's it going, man? It's Hamilton.

1834. - Who is this?

1835. - It's Hamilton.

1836. - Let me call you back.