Article

ERIC STOLTZ
The Water Dance
by Rand Marsh

Eric Stoltz whom we all loved to laugh at as one of the dudes in Fast Time at Ridgemont High and who we all had a good cry with as the deformed son of Cher in Mask, and who made us all scream with fright in The Fly II, is back.  Eric has never been typecast and he has never been afraid to accept a challenging role.  His latest film, The Waterdance is no exception; he plays a character in a wheelchair who is half Mexican (he dyed his hair black to look the part).  At this years Sundance Film Festival The Waterdance was the winner of the screenplay award and the film was voted the audience's favorite.  Written by River's Edge author, Neal Jimenez (who also co-directed with Michael Steinberg), it tells the author's autobiographical story while avoiding the snares of self-indulgence.  A script with the potential to be full of despair, it is laced throughout with humor.

The cast is uniformly impressive.  Eric Stoltz plays the filmmaker's alter ego, a young novelist who is paralyzed after a hiking accident, and Wesley Snipes and William Forsythe play his hospital-ward mates.  "When most people hear about a film dealing with people in wheelchairs they go 'Oh no, not another one of those,' but this film will surprise you.  It is a brilliantly written black comedy and you forget the fact that the characters are in wheelchairs ten minutes into the film.  The title comes from a dream the Wesley Snipes' character has.  He dreams that he can walk on water as long as he can keep dancing, but if he stops dancing he will be drowned.  It's like the story in the New Testament where Christ is walking on water and one of his disciples wants to walk to him on the water.  As long as he has faith in Christ he can keep walking on the water, but if he loses faith in the power of Christ, he slips into the water."

Eric views this film as some of his best work as well as a great growth experience.   "Before making this film I had really known only one person who was disabled.  I was sixteen and a friend was injured in a car accident and I'm afraid I may have reacted poorly to his new condition.  I was not emotionally mature.  But, after meeting many of the patients at the hospital where we filmed the movie, and of course after playing the part, I feel no discomfort about approaching and talking with a person in a wheelchair.  I think that our uneasiness about the disabled is the fear that it could happen to us or sort of a strange guilt about feeling the fear.  the human body is such a fragile thing.  I met this patient at the hospital who had stepped on a rake and fell backwards and broke his neck, paralyzing him from the neck down.  In three seconds his life was changed forever.  I think that it is great that our country is finally taking a serious interest in the everyday plight of the disabled and the public access law just passed by the U.S. Congress is a step in the right direction."

Many moviegoers have grown up with Stoltz, watching him become a very peaceful, mature man who has not been spoiled by his Hollywood movie-star-status.  "I started acting at the age of ten in school plays and by the time I came to L.A. from Santa Barbara to study acting, first at USC and then at the Lot Studio, I had done at least 30 plays.  Theater is still my first love.  there is no money in theater, you have to love it to do it.  I've been fairly successful with my movie career and it has allowed me to do theater.  I do about one movie a year.  When I first started acting I never though about making a living at it; I've been making a living for the past eight years.  Because I don't have a lot of big payments or a family, I don't feel the pressure to do a lot of films that I don't believe in.  When I read the script for The Waterdance, which is a low budge film, I knew I wanted to do it.  And I had the freedom to do it."

When Eric speaks of acting, in films or on stage, there is a gleam in his eyes.  "I love being a part of making movies.  It's like being part of an old big top, three-ring circus that sweeps through a town, creates this fabulous entertainment, and then leaves behind an audience wanting more.  I like to try every part of the movie business.  As a matter of fact, I'm going to be producing a film which we'll be shooting in July and August.  Producing is like taking a graduate course in filmmaking.  It's very strange being in a room with the other producers and talking about actors.  It certainly will give me a more balanced approach when I'm rejected for a part I feel that I'm perfect for.  Rejection is the most stressful part of this business.  You have to adapt a Zen attitude to remain sane.  Directing is one job I'm really not ready for; it's like giving birth to a child, and even though I'm 30 I'm not ready to be a parent, someday maybe, but not now.



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