Confronting Racism--With Humor : Bob Hoskins and a ghostly Denzel Washington play ‘Heart Condition’ mostly for laughs

If I’d known my heart was gonna keep a piece of racist scum like you alive, I never would’ve donated it in the first place.

--Character of Napoleon Stone, in the film “Heart Condition”

Bob Hoskins enters a tiny, eight-lane bowling alley in downtown Montrose, north of Glendale. An electric fan fills the ‘50s style alley with artificial smoke. “Hip Hop Bowl”--its movie name--flashes in neon. Black bowlers send balls down lanes, scattering pins. Another 50 black extras socialize in the snack bar, some holding prop cans of King Cobra malt liquor.

A white assistant director bullhorns instructions to the extras: “Have an attitude .”

The snub-nosed Hoskins, playing belligerent Los Angeles detective Jack Moony, is confronted by a huge, black proprietor named Bubba--340-pound actor Ron Taylor--who makes it clear Moony is anything but welcome.

Eventually, Moony, the only white guy in the place, flees for his life, pursued by a pack of angry patrons and employees.

The scene from New Line Cinema’s “Heart Condition,” currently shooting in and around Los Angeles, is played largely for laughs. But it also clearly plays up--some would say exploits-- black-white distrust and hostility.

Indeed, black-white conflict pumps much of the blood into “Heart Condition.”

“This scene right now is potentially the most racially offensive,” concedes writer and first-time feature film director James D. Parriott, who has worked extensively in television as a producer and director.

At first, the sequence was set in a bar. Then Parriott--who is white--considered a church and a black law firm. He settled on the bowling alley because it seemed less threatening, “kind of a happening thing.”

“The last thing I wanted was a cliche(black) bar,” adds Parriott during a break. “There’s enough in this scene that borders on exploitation. This is the one scene that I’m the least comfortable with.”

In Parriott’s script, Moony is a blatantly racist, lower-class cop--with a black superior (Roger Mosley) who won’t promote him--who gets a new lease on life from the transplanted heart of a car crash victim. The life-saving organ comes from a suave, sophisticated black lawyer--Napoleon Stone, played by Denzel Washington--whom Moony happens to despise. Caught in the middle is high-priced hooker Crystal (actress Chloe Webb) who’s been romantically involved with both of them. Stone shows up as a ghost, visible only to Moony, insisting that he was actually murdered and that Moony bring the villains to justice.

It becomes an argumentative but symbiotic partnership--”The Defiant Ones” meets “Topper”--in which both men bond with mutual respect after much turmoil.

The modestly budgeted production (producer Steve Tisch puts costs at $7 million-$8 million) is essentially a comedy-action buddy picture with a clever twist and a most unusual love triangle. Because it deals with such issues as racism, class consciousness and a woman’s self-respect in the face of male insensitivity--all in the vein of light entertainment--casting was crucial for a needed touch of class.

It’s difficult to imagine anyone but Hoskins, the charismatic Cockney who shot to fame in America in “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” somehow making irascible, bigoted Moony likable.

Tisch said that such stars as Gene Hackman, Robert Duvall, Brian Dennehy and Dennis Hopper were among early considerations. “But when Bob’s (Hoskins) name came up, everybody focused on what a great idea he would be.”

With “Heart Condition,” Tisch retreads familiar ground: he also produced “Soul Man” for New World in 1987, a comedy-drama about a white kid who gets into an Ivy League college on a minority scholarship by darkening his skin. The $4.5-million film grossed $26 million in North America alone, a solid hit.

Tisch thinks “Heart Condition” might prove less controversial--and more successful--calling it “lighter (than ‘Soul Man’), a lot more of an action piece, (with) more production values . . . more of a crowd-pleaser. . . .”

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Personally, I believe that racism--and this refusal to acknowledge me--arises from (your) feelings of inadequacy.

--Napoleon Stone to Jack Moony

Virtually everyone interviewed in connection with “Heart Condition” readily admits that Denzel Washington wanted changes in Parriott’s screenplay, specifically regarding racial material.

Everyone, that is, except Washington, who emerged as a film star two years ago in “Cry Freedom” and who is currently on theater screens in “For Queen and Country.”

“There were things I felt weren’t right (in the script), so they were fixed,” he says without amplification, and after some prodding, in his trailer. “It was rewritten quite a bit, but that’s all part of the process.”

Parriott is more to the point: “I had some material (in the script) that was offensive to Denzel. He said I was going over the top. I’m not a black writer. We’ve got two polemic characters--the idea is to take a poor, white trash cop and put him against a slick black lawyer.”

Moony has his racist jokes, Parriott explains, but always gets his comeuppance--including getting decked by the ghost of Napoleon Stone when Moony calls him a “spook.”

“My one great fear is that they (critics) will find that one mistake (in handling the material) and nail me for it. So I’m watching out for it and Denzel is helping me. The last thing I want is to be called a racist for this film. . . . There have been some ‘niggers’ omitted that offended Denzel. A reference to ‘spade’ was omitted. But mostly it’s subtle stuff, direction on how the scene is going to be played.”

Washington was particularly concerned that the self-respecting Stone be able to react to Moony’s racist remarks--or that the racism be realistically toned down.

“Denzel had a lot of input about his character and about him as a black actor playing Stone, how Stone would be perceived by an audience,” Tisch says. “From my point of view, all of his questions contributed to a richer character.”

In his trailer, Washington proposes that “Heart Condition” is more concerned with lack of self-esteem than with racism per se.

“I think the film deals with insecurity--and racial insecurity is a part of it,” Washington says. “Moony is insecure, so he strikes out at everybody. Both men are very insecure--Stone about attachment and commitment. He runs around with a lot of women, afraid to get close.

“(It’s really) a love story--two guys who didn’t know how much they were in love with this woman. And they find out. And come to realize that combined as one person, they become a better person.”

Above all, Washington adds, he took the part because of its comedic qualities.

“The script has humor, wit, zaniness--people haven’t seen me in that light,” said the handsome and imposing actor known for his dignity and solemnity on screen. “This is different for me. My friends say I’m crazy saying I have a good sense of humor and I’m finally able to show it. But I’m having fun just being silly. It’s great and it came at exactly the right time. I needed it.”

He suddenly leaps up, offering his guest a piece of fresh-baked pecan pie. The reporter wonders what the price--the trade-off--might be.

“No, no,” Washington says, with a deep laugh. “The pen is mightier than the pie!”

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It’s a white (bleeping) curse. No! It is a black conspiracy.

--Jack Moony, lamenting his lot in life

Unlike Washington, Tisch reports, Bob Hoskins didn’t question his character or the script (“Bob’s attitude was, ‘Guys, where do I sign, when do we start?’ ”).

Yet Hoskins himself credits Washington with helping him better understand Moony’s bigotry.

“A lot of it I didn’t understand until I talked with Denzel,” says Hoskins, beard-stubbled for his role and chain-smoking in a small, stuffy trailer. “I thought I understood it, until we started working on it.”

Washington, Hoskins said, put Moony’s character into perspective as a cop who had once had to enforce laws that specifically discriminated against African Americans. “The black-white relationship seems to be so important in America,” Hoskins says. “Not that we don’t have racial prejudice in England. But racial prejudice was legal here not so long ago. It was part of your system. There’s a 200-year history with blacks a part of it. Not so long ago, this cop (Moony) had to enforce the black-white laws.

“He’s a total pig, but like all people, he has bad and good. And he has to find the good inside.”

Hoskins doesn’t mind being tabbed as a character actor--”I’m a short, fat, bald middle-aged man with a broken nose. I’m not going to be the next James Bond”--and isn’t all that thrilled with the star’s burden of carrying a picture.

“I’d rather play a cameo--walk in for two weeks and go home. (Laughing) For my regular fee, of course! This kind of stuff (starring roles) is wake up, go to work, go to sleep, get up, go to work. I’d like a couple of Jack Nicholson roles.”

Chloe Webb has said the first weeks of shooting have been hectic--”I’ve been getting in and out of cars for three weeks”--and Hoskins concurs. He has the usual “bumps and bruises” of action shots, and is a bit worn out.

“It’s been tough--it’s a very tight schedule. There’s been a lot of running, car chases, jumping over things. Give me an armchair!”

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You’ve got these little boxes that you want to keep people in. You want to keep me in the ghetto ... (Crystal) in the house. You gotta stop being scared, Moony. You gotta stop being scared that we’re all gonna leave you behind....

--Napoleon Stone to Jack Moony

Chloe Webb sits on the sunny steps of a film location off a sloping street above Hollywood. Gamine, talkative, bright, funny, she’s anything but the ill-fated, drug-addicted lover of punk rocker Sid Vicious that she played to critical acclaim in “Sid and Nancy.”

As Crystal, a hooker trying to find a better life, she’s suffocated by the possessive Moony, romanced by the slick, unfaithful Stone--but is not a stereotypical movie prostitute, she insists. “She’s the emotional hinge of the whole piece. There are lots of films where you could cut the girl out completely and it wouldn’t make any difference. Not Crystal.”

The script, she says, “is about something--different kinds of bigotry. I think Denzel’s character says it really well, about keeping people in boxes and being afraid of them.

“The film makes some really salient points, in an entertaining way.”

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Bob Hoskins is called to the set. The scene requires Moony to trudge up some steps to his small apartment, carrying groceries, accompanied by his beloved cat, Chuck. As the cameras roll, the chubby Calico trots out ahead, reacting to its trainer’s signal--and the promise of a snack.

Hoskins and the trained cat do the scene again--and again, and again, and again.

The star bears it all without complaint--perhaps it beats leaping in and out of cars.

But with a lopsided grin he says, “I’m looking forward to getting to the acting.”