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CUBA GOODING, JR. on 'DADDY DAY CAMP'
Contributed by Michael J. Lee, Executive Editor
for Radio Free Entertainment
August 6, 2007
In the family comedy Daddy Day Camp, well-meaning patriarch Charlie Hinton (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) returns to Camp Driftwood, the summer camp of his youth, only to find it a deteriorating dump on the brink of foreclosure. With the help of his best friend and his estranged father, he attempts to restore the camp to its glory days and make it fit for a new generation of kids, including his own son. But in addition to financial woes, Charlie also faces competition from the upscale camp across the lake, Camp Canola, which just happens to be run by his old childhood rival (Lochlyn Munro). Ultimately, Charlie rallies a ragtag group of underdogs to represent Camp Driftwood in an Olympiad competition to prove, once and for all, which destination is the best for the neighborhood children.
In this interview, Cuba Gooding, Jr. talks about his own experiences with summer camps, being a family man with kids of his own, and the making of the movie.
Daddy Day Camp is now playing in theaters everywhere.
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The Interview
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MEDIA: So what is the extent of your own camping experience?
CUBA: I never actually, as a kid, went camping. I went to the Raiders Pro Football camp, and that was the extent of it. Now I've done more camping as an adult than I ever did in my entire life. That's why I wasn't looking to do a sequel to one of my movies, let alone Eddie Murphy's movie, and I read this script and it was like, "Yeah, they pretty much hit it on the head." My two boys, 10 and 12...We just dropped them off at camp yesterday...They go every year.
How do they like it?
They love it. And it's great because you always get the same thing: they're excited to go the night before, they don't sleep, they get on the bus, they drive up there, they call crying. "Oh, this is a mistake." Right? Then we get the first couple of weepy postcards, and then you don't hear from them. So you think, "Uh oh." And then they show up, and they're dirty and smelly because they forgot to shower the entire two weeks and they're like, "The best time ever. Can't wait till next year!" Every year it's the same thing, and it's great because it is a bit of adult responsibilities. They have to fend for themselves, but it's great. It's great. It really is. And then my youngest boy is a Boy Scout. I've been the chaperone on a couple of those camping excursions.
Was it easy for you to work with a bunch of little kids on this movie?
Oh, yeah. I'm like the grandparent. I come get them heated up and then I split to my trailer and they got to figure out how to calm them down, and it's great. The only trick I think was my off camera dialogue, because the kids didn't really get that. I mean, I'd be saying serious stuff like, "You know, we're a family. We're a team." And the kid's like yawning and picking his nose and pinching the other one.
Did you have to suppress your parental instincts on the set?
Oh, yeah. Absolutely. You know, it's funny because if you've ever been to my house, I have a hockey rink, a batting cage, a sunken trampoline, boxing. We have everything on our property and every weekend all the kids come to our house and it's just like romper room. A lot of times when kids have to govern themselves, there's a certain form of self-awareness that they get, and a certain self-confidence that they get as long as you're setting certain guidelines to them. You let them govern each other. I think it makes them grow up more aware.
In regards to you and your wife, do you play the good cop or the bad cop with the kids?
Oh, I'm the bad cop. My wife's the good cop, yeah.
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You talked earlier about the antics on set when you shot the movie poster. What exactly was going on that day?
[gestures to poster] Just what you see there. We were all having a good time, there was music playing, and there were a couple of different setups for us to do. And it was so funny, because half the kids were the kids in there, and the other half were like stand-in kids. And again, another group of kids, a new audience, and we just had a good time.
What scene was the most fun for you to shoot?
Probably the camping stuff when the tent gets destroyed and the fart, with the fly, and all that stuff. That was great because we were really camping. We were about two hours outside of Park City, Utah in the middle of nowhere, and just having a ball, every day for about a week, a week and a half doing that scene.
You didn't stay in hotels?
Oh, I was! I went to my hotel!
Was your family with you?
Yeah, they came down. Yeah. But the kids were all...I believe they all either stayed in the campsite or they went back to the hotel to sleep and then came back the first thing in the morning, and then just lived in this camp area.
So these child actors were really excited about roughing it?
Yeah. Really, really excited. It's the whole process. I mean, that's the wonderful thing about this movie. And I know I've said this all day, but we weren't looking to make a sequel. We weren't looking to do anything. If anything, we were making a remake with a re-imagined cast and conceptualization. The only thing that we stayed true to was the "Daddy Day" theme of a father connecting with his children. But most of these kids were just first time actors--you know, found in the middle of small towns.
How would you compare the experiences of working with director Fred Savage on this movie, versus working with director Ridley Scott on American Gangster?
Well, it's funny because they both have obviously been trained in film, cinema--Ridley probably 50 years ago, and Fred just recently in the past 10 years. And Fred's process is steeped in children's cinema, be it through his film school experiences or be it the children's television shows. So when I met with Fred for this project, I knew how well versed he was on how to handle the kids, and how to do the material. But it was more of an influence, my personal influence, on his vision that was more a collaborative thing. Whereas Ridley Scott, it's like working with Yoda. I mean, there was one scene where it's just a really violent scene, a real aggressive scene, and Denzel [Washington] and I were in a competition. And something wasn't working. I go, "Listen, if we..." And I kind of rattled off real quick. And everybody's kind of shaking their head, and Ridley goes, "You know, I have done this before." [laughs] It's like, "That's right! Okay. So what do you want us to do?" [laughs] You know what I mean? So yeah, very night and day. And again, I'm blessed to be in both those positions.
Do you still breakdance?
[laughs] Not well. Every once in a while, my kids talk me into showing them a windmill or a backspin or something.
At one point, didn't you have your mind set on leaving Los Angeles and whole Hollywood scene?
No. Because remember, I was raised in LA. I met my wife at North Hollywood High School. So I knew if anything, I was going to have to get a job of some kind. And I said, "Who knows what it'll be, but I just can't go on this path in my career," is the statement I was trying to make. And you know what? I think it was a real period of growth for me, because I really had to reflect on what God's purpose was for me, and what was my ability.
Thanks for your time.
Thank you.
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