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There's a new film in some theaters around the country.
This one is called Kids. That has a nice innocent sound,
but this Kids is not about innocence.
I remember when this film hit, and it cause a shit storm of controversy.
So shocking.
ALL TIME CLASSIC!!!
''Kids'' Review (1995)
The story of sex-obsessed teens,
drinking, drugging, drifting kids.
These kids are degenerates!!!
This is why I don't want KIDS.
New York can be really ugly.
Just a f♪♪♪♪ Masterpiece
Movie changed my life.
It's a deeply shocking and disturbing film,
which feels absolutely authentic.
Is this real?
I thought this was a doco.
Kids 1995 Director.
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I really got in the kids, we trusted each other.
This was a massive back in the 90s.
It's the breakout movie of the year.
This movie disturbed Madonna. 'Nuff said.
Most talked about film of the year, it's called Kids.
Where did they find the actors?
No I wasn't an actor at all.
I was skateboarding in Washington Square Park.
What a scummy characters
where were the PARENTS!?
WTF happened to these kids?!?
My name is Hamilton Chango Harris.
I was the one rolling up the blunt in the film.
I can only tell you what I experienced.
I grew up in New York City, I was born in New York.
I grew up in poverty.
New York City 1970's.
When I say poverty, I'm not just talking about poverty
from an economical standpoint, I'm talking about poverty
from a psychological and emotional standpoint.
We moved to the housing projects,
which is really just like a fancy version
of a prison system.
You know, atrocious conditions in the country
that's supposed to be free and open
and have all these opportunities.
I didn't experience those material opportunities.
Everything's burnt down.
Like I actually got burned out as a kid.
So I'm being woken up by my family, it's like
after midnight and everybody's knocking on
each other's doors, ''It's a fire,'' and everyone's
helping each other to get out the building.
'Cause they would set the buildings on fire
to get insurance money.
It was a hustle.
Kids are resilient, we bounce back up.
As kids we would pull out the old, crazy mattresses
that people would throw away and use them
as springboards and do flips on them.
So we always found ways to make something out of nothing.
As you got older, it's really hard
to maintain that state of positivity, you know?
My perception of what I was taught subconsciously
about Black people being poor and unfortunate
and White people being superior and having everything,
like how do you get such a huge divide?
There was a few directions which the environment
would lead you into, which weren't so healthy.
And if you're smart enough to realize that,
you need to figure a way to get out.
WE WERE ONCE KIDS
New York City 1980's.
When I started venturing out of the neighborhood,
I would see skateboards around.
It was like, ''Yo, this looks kind of cool.''
A friend was like, ''Yo, why don't we all get skateboards?''
''Why don't we all get skateboards?''
I was like, ''Yeah, let's do it, let's do it,'' you know?
I knew I couldn't get a skateboard in one shot.
Wasn't possible, 'cause it's too expensive.
Each month for about six months, I just kept getting
every part, until I had the whole thing.
Only thing I could think of is the skateboards.
My name is Hamilton Harris, and I like to skate.
It keeps me out of trouble and stuff, you know,
'cause I live in Harlem.
I wanna go to college and stuff, you know?
A skateboard is something that you get on
and you can ride away from what was going on at home.
You leave that behind you.
We would just go as far as we could go.
Get on the train, we'd go to Skate NYC,
this skate shop in the Lower East Side.
See all these kids, right?
There was one thing we all had in common
and it was the board.
And that really was all that mattered.
And then they skated across the street to the park.
And then they, they were all doing tricks over the garbage can.
I started to move up a little bit, but still out of sight.
It was a bunch of guys, but Harold stood out.
He calls me from across the street, sees me.
''Yo, yo, come over here yo, come, come here.''
Just the way his facial features were,
you couldn't take your eyes off him, you couldn't look away.
It's just like, you felt like you were being
summoned by some spirit, you know?
He was just like, ''Why don't you'',
''why don't you come down and hang out?''
''You could be a part of it too.''
''You're no different than I am.''
And that's when I knew
I had met someone incredibly valuable.
The skate shop became refuge to all the kids
who didn't want to go back home.
It was like a camaraderie.
We just gravitated toward each other.
Wow, these people have lives to, and go through shit too.
All of us from our crew have
like crazy backgrounds and crazy stories.
I think that's kind of what, why we bonded and all.
But once we skated that shit didn't matter.
When we all skated, that was a way
for us to escape that reality.
White kid, Black kid, Chinese kid, just all these
different kids, and they're riding together, you know?
I saw freedom.
New York City in the '80s,
the drug was cocaine and it turned to crack.
It was this huge epidemic which destroyed communities.
And while illegal drug use is found in every community,
nowhere is it worse than our public housing projects.
I remember one day Harold is like,
''Yo, y'all want to go to my house?''
Skate to his crib in the Campos Plaza.
We come in, his grandmother's sitting on the couch.
His uncles were there, they were all hanging out.
He called his grandmother Mom, ''Hey Mom, Hey Mom.''
And then it hit me, it was like, oh.
His grandmother raised him, his parents wasn't there.
He and his uncle, I could see, yeah his uncle,
he has a drug addiction.
I could, because I had that in my home.
My sisters do it, my mom do it, I can pick up on it.
So I'm like, ''Yep okay, that's what''
''that's what I'm connected to with him.''
Harold's Brother It was like a jungle in my house.
The only thing we knew is what we saw,
like to walk into a bedroom and like,
you see like dudes shooting up and it's like,
you're just hanging out with them, watching them shoot up.
And you're just like, ''Holy shit.''
Like, my grandmother charging them,
like space to like shoot up.
It was like, it was like a Airbnb for drugs.
I know that my mother died off of it.
I know that my father had a heart attack from it.
And then I saw my aunt, I saw my uncle.
That's what we saw as a future.
New York City 1990's.
In 1991, '92, there was just too much happening.
Kids needed a place of refuge
because the skate shops closed down.
Skateboarding wasn't cool no more.
There was no more money to be made.
All the skaters stopped skating.
Except for us, the ones with the, the heavy dysfunction.
So we was always skating in the streets.
And that's where I met Justin.
He was smoking cigarettes at the time.
He smoked cigarettes and he drank a lot, you know,
which I was like, ''Damn, it's like a little old man'',
''this guy,'' you know?
Then I found out that he ran away from home
so he was homeless, right?
Staying couch to couch, you know what I mean?
And I was like, ''Whoa, you homeless yo, that's crazy.''
No one knows exactly how many homeless people
there are in New York City.
Officials estimate 56,000 homeless men, women
and children wander the streets of New York.
So we would be hanging at Washington Square Park, right?
And these girls used to hang around.
They were like rave, slash Gothic,
slash punk rock girls, right?
I was a little punk rock chick from the Lower East Side.
I met Justin when I was 14.
This was early '90s New York City.
This is one of like the biggest like crime waves,
biggest murder rate.
Like the city was not fun back then.
It was like crack heads and dope fiends, everywhere.
Afraid of being jumped constantly.
I remember like one time these big dudes
are like fucking with us, like down on Broadway
where we're like walking back and Justin came out of nowhere
and just started slamming his board and punching the wall.
Like, ''You want to see crazy, like, I'll fuck you up,''
just trying to protect us from these dudes.
He was the most loyal friend you could ever ask for.
Fucking like intense and crazy as a person,
like in the best possible way.
He was just larger than life.
When the skate shop died out,
we would go hanging out at Highlyann's spot.
Harold, you know, grew up around the corner from me
and that's how kind of,
we all kind of came together.
We became brothers and sisters.
We're gonna create this reality that's functional.
We spent every day together.
We would just be getting like, fucked up,
drinking 40s, smoking blunts, chilling on the stoop
all hours of the night, on the roof.
We didn't stop, we were just together like 24/7.
They became my family.
We were young, we didn't have shit.
Like, we used to scrape by.
I don't even know how we survived when we skated,
'cause we never used to eat.
Like when we were hungry, we used to go to the supermarket
and we would have a plan.
Like before go in like, ''All right, you steal the bread'',
''you steal the cold cuts, you steal this, you steal that.''
And then we would literally go somewhere afterwards
and have like a picnic.
Being able to be together and be able to, you know,
have communal food and have everything together
was a huge thing for us, and it was important for all of us
to maintain, I think, our sanity growing up.
For Justin, this was a home base of sorts.
You know, he could always come here
and he would always be loved.
We were each other's support system, I think.
We had each other's back and we took care of each other
without having any family support at all.
And we grew up together supporting each other.
We would go skate together, and then I'm like,
''All right, I'm gonna go home.''
And he would come with me to the Bronx,
to the block where you have like these guys who like,
are like crack dealers with guns and stuff.
And like, coming to the project hallway
and like smoking blunts and be in rhyme circles and shit.
And he's like, ''Yo, for these Jets, I don't give a fuck.''
''Ba ba ba ba ba,'' and they'd be like,
''Yo, I like this dude.''
S'up Justin.
Oh, yeah Jamal!
Yo, this is the first video footage
in the motherfucking dungeon.
He a small person who just didn't give a fuck.
And when I say he didn't give a fuck,
he really didn't give a fuck.
He was like fearless.
Oh, put your hand over it,
now turn it upside down and back.
Oh, no you didn't, yo.
- That's the... - Yeah.
That's the ultimate dog motion, yo.
That's the dog motion, that's the dog motion, yo.
- We drank a lot together. - Did a lot of acid.
We had lots of fun, but we also,
we also had a lot of issues.
You know, I've seen people get like
stabbed to death, like right there.
I've seen people get shot out the window,
like right there, and feeling like
emotionally drained, emotionally beaten.
We leaned on each other with those issues
to plow through feelings.
Underneath all of this like act,
we're both creative in a certain way.
♪ See me come then they come ♪
♪ And they dance upon the floor ♪
♪ Doing a dance it's the man, Jamal ♪
♪ They're not coming back ♪
♪ And I got the right spread Knicks ♪
When no one else was around.
I talked about literature with Justin.
I'd just be drinking a beer and like
breaking that shit down.
And we shared that, this love for creativity.
We had that bond of, of trying to find a way
to move forward in life with hopes of things getting better.
And at that time I used to smoke weed
'cause I grew up around weed, right?
My dad would roll the joints.
So I had a connection with weed, right?
But Harold didn't smoke.
Of course he didn't, he lost his parents
from heroin, his two uncles is drug addicts.
He was anti-drugs.
He would make jokes, like imitating that we high
and clowning us for smoking, you know?
Ryan is smoking, so then Ryan passes it to me.
I started smoking it and he goes,
''Fuck Hamilton, you're always smoking that shit.''
''I hate that shit, man.''
And I got the joint in my hand and I'm just like,
When he said that to me, I knew he cared.
And I knew he was thinking like, ''Yo, you smoke that'',
''you're gonna start using this,''
''it's going to turn into that.''
''I know because I don't have my mom.''
I could hear all of that.
So he didn't have to say it, but I knew what he was saying.
That was the tough love part, right?
This is when I saw another side of Harold,
that his love and compassion and care
was on a whole 'nother level.
He just wanted to get out from the projects.
I could relate, you know?
I used to always hang out with the skaters
and there was a blunt and I smoked some of it.
And I remember I was actually high,
and I remember Harold was like, very concerned for me.
Not that I did it, but just like, was I okay?
And I remember he walked me home, and we became super close.
We would go out to clubs together
and he would stay up all night, he could break night.
He always wanted to avoid ever having to go home.
He used to get real mad because
I would complain that I had a curfew.
Whenever I complained about my parents
or the rules that I had, he was quick to point out to me
what a privilege it was to have those things.
You know, he didn't talk about home, like in the way that,
you know, you would hope that someone would talk about home.
Ultimately he felt unsafe.
In Washington Square Park at the time,
everyone congregated there.
So it's really interesting to have the weed dealers,
kids who were into punk rock music, skateboarders,
and the musicians, and the kids who went
to the clubs all hanging there.
We would be skating and some random person
would just be like, ''Yo Harold,''
and you'd meet all these people.
So this kid comes around, he comes with Harold.
This kid from Tennessee.
He's like, ''Yo, this is my friend Harmony, yo.''
''He's going to NYU film school,'' blah blah blah.
He used to stay in our crib,
we didn't know who the fuck he was.
Like, him and Harold used to sleep in the same room.
We thought he was a runaway because
my brother used to run away all the time.
So we thought he was just one of his runaway friends.
Harold would bring all kinds of people to our house.
Anyone that he thought was great and loved,
it was like he wanted to share them with us too.
He was so excited because he just really saw
how talented Harmony was and, and was just,
just very taken by Harmony.
He and Harold just seemed to really love each other.
So right then and there,
it was like Harold's vouching for this kid.
And that was a great way to meet him.
I mean, he was just, he seemed so great.
Because Harold vouched for him,
and Harold gave him the stamp of approval,
I said, ''Okay, so he's hanging around now, oh, that's fine.''
It's like, he coronates fucking people.
Yeah he's like this, like this divine being.
''I coronate you,'' boom, you're accepted.
No one questions it, done.
But he trusted everybody.
And he always gave everybody the opportunity.
My very first impressions of Larry
when I first saw him around taking photos was just like,
''Yo, who's like Grandpa, who's this old dude?''
Like, ''Who is this cat?''
What the fuck you guys doing?
What the fuck you guys doing, man?
He's a fucking human being, who gives a shit?
Hey, stop being shit man, get the fuck away.
One on one and that's it.
One on one?
At that time, like the baggy clothes were in,
He's wearing like, you know, skate tees,
he had, you know, like the long hair.
He's coming to hang out with these young guys
and he's making himself look like them
so they would accept him.
Who the fuck is that guy?
Who is that old guy?
I don't know. I asked him right out.
I remember Harold saying, ''Yo, that's Larry Clark.''
''You know, he made this book Tulsa, teenage lust,''
blah blah blah.
I'm like, ''How does he know?''
And it turns out Tobin told everybody.
Meeting Larry, I was, you know,
I was a junior in high school.
And there was a class that was being offered
in documentary photography.
I was like, kind of the youngest student in that workshop.
And I stayed at Larry's house.
Man, I like your collage.
He was researching skateboarding as, as a possible film.
He would ask me questions like,
''What's the drug of choice for skateboarders?''
And I said, ''I don't know, Larry, I think everything.''
''And are they having sex all the time?''
He would want to meet people.
No one knows kind of who he is at all.
Like, no one knows art.
So I had to be like, ''No, he's okay'',
''he's a great photographer.''
Which gave him acceptance in the skateboard community.
You know, here's his book.
People doing, shooting up drugs,
a pregnant woman shooting up drugs.
And I'm like, ''Whoa, that's kinda crazy.''
- Hey Larry, do you mind that I’m videoing? - No.
Where’s your dad now, man?
My dad lives in the country, homeboy.
Do you like to talk to him?
- Yeah I talk to him. - I send him postcards and shit.
- He's like, cool? - Fuck yeah, he's bad.
- Turn him on to me, man. - Ay, man.
Tell him about me, man.
He won't come to New York.
Well send him, send some pictures or something.
Can I tell you a secret about Alan, man?
You can.
- Alan is fucking... - so fucking... sexually crazed.
- Yeah. - He just wants to fuck kids, man.
- Yeah see. - So bad, man.
But see...
He would like meet you, shake your hand, say “Hi Tobin,”
and he would try to get in your pants so fast, man.
- He's totally fucking horny. - You know what? He’d get a black eye.
He’s totally fucking mental.
You know what? Trophy.
Aggressive. He’s like faggy aggressive.
See, you know why, cause he...
- But he’s the sweetest guy, man. - He’s a wonderful guy, man.
You would love the guy, man.
Yeah.
He’s a good guy. But...
But it doesn’t matter.
He’s sexually aggressive to the max, man.
You know what?
He just wants to suck your dick.
- That’s gross. - That’s all he wants to do, man.
But I swear to god, when he’s so horny, man.
The guy's a fucking dork.
He's trying to suck your cock right now.
See, I don’t go for that shit.
Fuck that shit, yo.
So you got this 49-year-old dude, right?
Who is like this well-known photographer.
None of us don't know.
Most of us didn't even care.
But he would have weed, and like good weed too.
Like really good stuff, you know?
He's taking photos of us hanging,
well a service for a service, right?
Coaxed me in, fine, I liked it.
''All right, you can hang around,
'''cause I know we're going to smoke some good stuff,'' right?
That was my logic.
I feel like the fact that Larry entered the scene
as like an older person who wasn't homeless,
who wasn't broke, and who seemed like he had
some sort of resources.
Like, okay, how can we make use of this motherfucker?
I never trust people like that, you know,
just, you know, growing up.
Like, why does this guy wanna hang around all these kids?
I just always thought he was a little funny or something.
So I just always had my guard up
'cause I always thought, you know,
''Larry, why would you want to take pictures of us?''
Why is he telling guys to go to his,
bringing people to his apartment,
and buying them beer and you know, weed and shit.
I always thought it was funny.
You just saw this group of like,
these crazy fucking skateboarding kids.
Like we stood out like, these fucking guys,
the energy's crazy, you know what I mean?
Like the way we looked, the way,
the diversity amongst all of us and like,
but we were all together and like,
we had parents that were never around, like...
Like, I feel like he saw, he saw, he saw dollar signs.
That's what people like him do.
You know, that's how they make money.
Harold would be like, ''Yo, we're gonna be in the movie.''
''Yo, they making a movie, we're gonna be in this movie.''
Larry was going to be making a movie,
and that we were gonna be in it?
And Harmony was going to write it?
And I was like, ''Yeah, all right, whatever.''
This guy wants to make a movie.
You know, it just didn't seem real to me.
You know, it didn't seem like it was ever gonna be anything.
Some of them were excited probably in their head
thinking, ''Oh, I'm gonna fucking get rich''
''and become a millionaire off this,'' you know what I mean?
And you know, I think that was the initial excitement,
and a lot of us came from nothing, so you know,
I was looking at this like, ''Oh, I'm gonna be somebody now.''
''I'm gonna, this is my way out.''
Justin always wanted to act
and do those kinds of things, you know?
He never really said it,
but Justin always wanted to do that,
but also had that personality to do it, you know?
The first time I saw Larry, actually Justin
brought him here to this house.
At the time I must've been 15 or 16,
so I was still young, and all of a sudden
there's like this, like 60-something-year-old dude
sitting in my fucking living room,
like trying to smoke a blunt with us, like, you know,
Justin explained, he's trying to do a movie of us.
And he was psyched, so like you know, for him, we're like,
''All right cool,'' but I just really remember him
just kind of stalking and just being in the background,
just kind of like watching and just being there,
just always thinking it was just a little strange.
I don't even think he even said hello to me once
or even spoke to me.
You know, I wasn't impressed by the idea of it.
You know what I mean?
Like, I wasn't easily impressed pretty much by anything.
I wanted to skate, had to skate every day.
You know, I was like very serious about skating
around that time, you know?
Like I had goals in my brain, you know, it's like,
I wanted to become a pro skateboarder.
I was just riding the wave,
but it was nice to have Ryan and Highlyann,
and some people that was like,
''Yo, this dude, nah, no bueno.''
So that kept like this nice equilibrium,
this nice balance, also perspective, for them to be like,
''Wow, this could be an opportunity.''
And for us to be like,
''Oh, maybe we need to not be so gullible.''
'94 comes, Supreme opens its doors.
Now we got a new skate shop.
So Supreme replaced Skate NYC.
We got a home again, we back home.
Try to do a hard flip and land.
Gotta land it, kinda like this.
For us it was great because
we were all together and like,
the skate shop gave us so much free shit, it was cool.
The whole crew, we're all skating, Larry's around
developing this story about this group of kids
hanging out skating, right?
I think we could sense there was something bigger than us.
But we were just going with the wave.
The taxi! Get the taxi!
Firework popping, laughter.
OPEN CASTING CALL
''KIDS''
So right where the park was,
they were posting up flyers casting.
It was Harold and Justin who went to the office first.
I see office, I'm like, ''Whoa, this really is happening.''
We got casting call sheets.
It's like, ''Whoa, casting call sheets.''
That's when I knew we're making a movie.
When I went to the casting, the character was my name.
I was like, ''Huh, like I'm playing myself?''
Like my character is my name?
I thought that was like, huh, you know?
So I read the part, I got the part,
Justin got the part, Harold got the part.
When I heard that there was gonna be this movie
and that there was gonna be auditions
I was like, ''Fuck that shit, I'm not auditioning''
''for anything, like that's crazy.''
Harold was so, so excited about it.
He just loved to perform, he loved the adoration.
He loved to make people laugh.
Harold yelling nonsense, laughter.
''You have to be in it, and you have to go,
''and you have to,'' and like telling my mom,
like he was just so, so excited by the movie.
So it really was Harold who kind of like dragged me,
so to speak, so I was like, ''All right, fine.''
Harold and Justin would go to the office,
bring whoever there and be like, ''Yo, this is my boy, Peter.''
''This is my boy, yo, he's got to be in the film.''
They took me up there like they own the place, you know?
They're like walking in with their boards
and I'm just following them, walking up the stairs.
I'm like, ''Yo, this is real,'' you know?
So I go in and they go,
''This is Pete, put him in the movie.''
That's what Justin said, and Harold's like, ''Yeah, yeah, yeah.''
And I was just like, and that's how I got in the film.
Harold is the one that was with Harmony at Aster
and was ''Harmony put Harv in the movie.''
Harmony's like, ''All right, cool,'' and that was it.
And then I started going to auditions
and readings with these guys.
Then he was casting for the girls' parts.
So I saw the script with Harmony and I was very frank
with Harmony, I'm like, ''Who the fuck are these characters?''
''What is the storyline, like girls are just to get fucked?''
''These kids are violent, and...''
''and they want to fuck fucking virgins?''
''Like, that's fucking gross.''
You know, Harmony was always like,
''I'm just given the storyline''
''and I have to write the script for it.''
From the girl perspective, it completely missed
our role at all.
Like these are our people
that we consider our family members.
Justin was my brother.
Like to me, that's a much more powerful story
than one of rape and misogyny.
We opted not to just because
it wasn't anything we were comfortable with.
And then all these other people
just started coming in from the outside.
I was walking around the Village with my friend
and Harmony and Larry came up to me
and they were like, ''Oh, we're making this movie.''
''Do you guys wanna come audition for it?''
''Like we're having these open auditions.''
You know, in the script it says Steven,
a Puerto Rican kid with gold fronts, okay?
''Steven Callis, he went to jail for armed robbery.''
''Do you want his part?''
Well we all knew that Larry was sketchy, right?
Like so, but like he was still offering money.
It wasn't much money, but to us at the time
it was a lot of money and it was like,
what the fuck else were we doing?
Yo, we're all fucking hungry.
I'm not gonna knock Justin getting an opportunity
or Harold getting an opportunity.
An opportunity is a fucking opportunity.
Two of your best friends, Harold Hunter
and Justin Pierce, are lead guys in the film.
Yo, I'm right here, you know?
Right. You going out tonight?
It was just like, he's in the lead?
I'm in the lead, 'cause that's my boy, so I'm good.
Like, that's how we looked at it.
Like if one person's doing well,
we're all doing well, you know?
It was crazy man,
but exciting, you know?
The first stuff we shot was at Washington Square Park
around the fountain and stuff, and so it's like
every single motherfucking kid there.
You know, it's a tight knit group of friends.
Like when you're talking about the people
that the movie was written for and like
that clique of skater kids, like
that's a brotherhood for real.
They were wary of me.
''Why is this motherfucker playing our friend?''
''Why aren't we playing our friend?''
You know, it was like, ''Yo, why the fuck are you here?''
But you know, then you have someone like Harold
who was like, ''Yo, this is my friend Jonny.''
''And you guys should know Jonny, and Jonny's cool.''
And you know, eventually kind of bonding
with Hamilton and Justin.
And then it comes to my scene.
Rolling up a joint, right, a blunt.
And as I'm doing it, I do it all the time.
But then, you know, it kicked in like,
''Whoa, yo, we're on a movie set, yo.''
''There's a camera there, all right, whatever.''
And then I was like, I was high as a kite.
And it's crazy because like, Larry like
played along with that shit, man.
Like as a kid, you look like,
''Man, this dude is fucking cool,'' but also,
and he got like a $1.5 million budget,
but he's still fighting with a heroin addiction.
And these crazy-ass kids in his film.
There was always something happening.
It was like corralling cats.
None of us know what the fuck we're doing.
None of us know movies, none of us understand continuity.
You know, ''Cut, okay, break for the night.''
And then the next day,
Justin comes back with a broken arm.
Your lead, all of a sudden is wearing a cast.
Like how the fuck are you going to hide that, you know.
I didn't know what scale it was on,
I didn't know what it was about.
You get plopped into this thing, cameras everywhere.
I didn't really look at the big picture.
We shot that party scene,
which is at my character's house,
where all this stuff goes down at the end.
All these kids in this tiny-ass apartment
and they were night shoots, and it was like,
just kinda bopping around the room.
''Okay get this, get this, get this.''
And then, ''Okay, oh, you know what?''
''We gotta shoot this now.''
So they, ''Okay Jonny, we need you to go sit there now''
''and make out with Michelle.''
You know, ''I need you to put your hand''
''in between her crotch,'' and like, you know,
Larry's like screaming at me like,
''Rub her crotch harder, man.
''Like, come on, like really rub her crotch,'' you know?
And it's like, you're like, ''Oh my God.''
Like you know, this is not like normal, right?
This is not normal, and you know,
I remember kind of feeling a bit pressured there and stuff.
Here's my tongue and here's a camera
and you know, really wild.
You know, you're a 16-year-old kid.
You don't know what's what, and you're super stoned.
And you're like, you know,
you're not thinking about these things really.
You're just like,
''Well, I'm just going with the flow,'' you know?
You know, they were like,
''Then were gonna do this scene, guys.''
And we're at a party, whatever.
We had our shirts off, they were like, we got, you know,
''You guys just going to smoke and talk.''
Smoke and talk.
They had a tray of mad pre-rolled blunts.
They came, we smoke, they're like, ''Cut.''
We'd light another blunt.
It was like, ''Cut,'' light another blunt.
'Cause we had to, you know, have a fresh blunt
every time we started.
I remember us being squished,
fucking smoking weed and just talking,
you know, just talking for like a hour, they were filming.
We smoked like 10 blunts, we were high as hell.
We did another scene that night, I literally fell asleep.
And in the scene, you see me sleeping.
I'm sleeping, I'm really knocked out.
I wake up, 6:00 in the morning, they're like, ''It's a wrap.''
I'm like, ''Oh shit, all right, we done? Cool.''
That's how young I was,
I couldn't even stay up all night, you know?
I was trying to, trying to hang, but that didn't happen.
I remember filming that pool scene.
I remember them really egging Harold on.
He takes his dick out in, in the script,
Black man's lasso like, so it wasn't like spontaneous.
But I remember him being like, ''Uhh...'' you know?
Even Harold, for Harold, it was a little like, ''Okay.''
You know, and I remember them sort of egging him on
and like, kinda getting him riled up to a point
that he would be able to like, do that and,
and, you know, be that sort of gregarious with it
and all that stuff.
But I remember Larry totally getting Harold riled up.
Like Larry knew how to get that performance
out of Harold.
Like, holy fuck, like it's the antithesis
of, you know, any sort of like standards and practices.
And I remember being like,
kinda like, ''Whoa,'' you know?
Like here I am coming from my mom being like,
yo, you wear two pairs of fucking underwear
and then like, here's Harold with his dick out, you know,
like in my face, like you know, and I'm like,
''Oh shit, like, this is real.''
Like this is, ''Okay, so this is what''
''my mom was talking about.''
Everyone's reaction is real.
Like I think I'm like, ''Yo look at his dick.''
And like, you know, all the girls are like,
You know, it's pretty, it's pretty wild.
You know, it still was a shock.
Justin was so natural, it was so easy for him.
And you would hear people on the set always say it.
''Man, he's such a natural.''
Yo, Ham.
That attention, like lifted him up.
It lifted him out of all those
traumatic experiences as a kid.
I mean, I remember towards the end of filming,
like Justin was getting into trouble.
I think Justin saw that the end was near with the film
and he didn't want it to stop.
He got arrested in Washington Square Park.
The cops arrested him and then
the production people had to bail him out.
I think that was his way of saying like,
''I don't want this thing to stop.''
Justin had this other flip side, right?
Because when he would drink too much,
that shit would cause fights all the time.
And we would always have to pull this motherfucker out.
That was scary and raised concern, you know?
Your brothers and sisters are there for when you fall.
They catch you, they got you, right?
Something was missing and it was hurting.
Then I found out that he didn't have his biological dad.
Justin had his mom, and you know, when she remarried,
the connection fell apart, you know?
And he had the bottle to cope with that.
So when he told me how he felt abandoned,
it made total sense.
I remember one time we talked about it
and I was just like, ''Hey man, I don't have a dad.''
''My dad's alive, but he's not around.''
''You know what I mean, it's the same.''
He's like, ''But at least you know where he is,''
and that hit me hard.
It's very significant when you're a 14-year-old,
15-year-old boy, you never even knew your biological dad,
your mom remarries, you hate this motherfucker.
You don't connect with him because he's abusive.
Clear and Present Danger was dope, yo.
I can relate to the abuse, and I'd seen myself.
When my mom got addicted to crack cocaine.
I never noticed the violence between her and my father.
I didn't get turned on to that 'til I was about nine.
Then I saw it.
I walked into the kitchen and he was beating on her
and I pulled out a kitchen knife and I told him to stop.
I can relate to that condition.
I can relate to what he's going through.
Nothing else to be said, we got each other.
It was just like...
We finished filming around in the summer.
And then way later, Larry invited the whole crew, right,
To this private screening studio in Tribeca,
and we got to see it there before it was released, right?
And that was bugged out, in a good way
because it was, for me, it was empowering.
And it was empowering because the whole theater
was filled with us.
Every time any one of us appeared on the screen
for the first time, the entire crew
just like screamed and applauded.
And that, that was honestly the best part about it
'cause it did feel like we were in it together.
So even if my one line in the movie was,
I think he was like, ''I have sex and I like fucking.''
''I don't give a fuck,'' which is just not the thing
that I was excited to be known for.
So even if I had goosebumps of deep shame and embarrassment,
at least I wasn't alone in it.
We were all together, and like we were supporting each other
and that was really cool.
And after that, we went to eat.
There was like this crazy buffet of food.
The layout was insane.
Me and Harold was so happy, we was eating,
and the food, fresh fruit and just everything.
It was like paradise there.
Then they came around and they like,
they came around and gave us these bonus checks.
And I think that was because they knew
that like this movie was going to come out
and be a big deal, and so sorta like hush money,
kind of vibes.
He had like hundred dollar bills
and he counted out 10 hundred dollar bills
and put them in my hand.
And I was like, ''Sweet,'' you know?
But I remember we signed something.
I remember thinking like, ''What does this mean?''
And like, ''This is strange.''
I remember Harold was like crazy psyched
on his bonus check and went and bought the Air Max 95s,
which had just come out, and everybody wanted them.
Literally after the film, it was just like,
''Okay, back to skating, back to what we know.''
This guy Steven Collins?
That's good, no that's good.
Steven Collins, Jeff Ping, break out the center.
Mad, though.
My favorite skaters.
- Just drilling, yo. - Whatcha doing?
Ivan, definitely Ivan.
Ryan Hickey.
Ryan Hickey, definitely.
We were only concerned about the basic needs to survive.
Where's the next meal coming from?
Where's the roof over my head?
What's next, you know?
We were left where we started from.
After that I didn't see Larry at all.
Larry was hanging out with us every day for years,
and then just he was gone.
Then I done heard it's gonna be
at the Cannes Film Festival, which is great.
Nobody was invited, not even Justin.
None of the kids was invited.
That was like a slap in the face.
When it came to those award shows
and all these accolades coming,
crickets, crickets.
Larry and Harmony, those were the representatives of Kids.
The press conference after the showing of the movie Kids
that I'm sure you saw in
this morning.
You have a question to ask,
please signal ahead of time.
Go ahead.
Mr. Clark, Carlos Balard from Columbia.
Does youth in New York have other values than sex,
and other interests in life?
Well, I think when you're a kid at a certain age,
that's what you think about,
you think about sex all the time.
Richard Brooks, from the London Observer.
Can I just ask Mr. Clark a question?
How old are some of the actors in the film?
- Well you saw the film? - Yeah.
They're all like, you know, different ages.
As regards some of the more explicit scenes,
what age are some of the children, the youngsters there?
Which scene?
Well, some of the harder-hitting scenes.
You said earlier that teenagers only think about sex,
And violence, I said.
And violence, but particularly sex.
And I think we've all been teenagers at one time or another.
So we all know that we've all thought about sex,
like crazy teenagers.
Right.
So what's the purpose of the movie?
To make a good movie and entertain you.
- Yeah? - Yeah.
When you say an appropriate age, what do you mean?
I mean, they were, you know,
they were the right age for the movie,
I don't know what you mean.
What does that mean?
What age?
Yes, were they underage?
Which people, you know, specifically?
Well.
Have the actors really used drugs during the shooting,
or was it just pretending?
You talk, are you asking me?
There was no drugs.
No drugs were used, no, absolutely not, no.
Not even real whippits?
Sir, was it easy to put together a cast
where you would have young girls
that would have to appear naked?
Listen, if I sound angry, I hope I don't sound angry,
but I haven't done this before.
And some of these questions sound like challenges, you know?
Like, ''Why did you do this, why did you do that?''
Fuck, I don't know, you know?
- Well... - It's a movie, man.
It's like, you know, movie, movie.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much.
There's a new film in some theaters around the country.
This one is called Kids.
This weekend, Kids opened in big cities
around the country.
Picked up and released by the Weinstein brothers,
It's a little movie which cost a million dollars to make
about kids in their middle teen years,
crashing through life without supervision
or structure in New York City.
It was my life basically, that's how I grew up.
They had it down to a T.
Justin was here when the first
magazine article came out about it.
He was just like, ''Oh, look at this, look at this.''
And it was dope.
We knew things were gonna happen because of it,
and he kind of felt that way too.
I was really excited for him.
Editorial write-ups and reviews it got, it was insane.
- It has an authenticity to it. - Yes it does.
Just kind of blows a lot of other fiction films
out of the water.
What's making news in America tonight? Kids.
It's the unexpected hit of the year, moving to over
160 locations around the country this weekend.
But I'm like, ''Whoa, people really want to see this'',
''this must be doing well.''
Well, people just started saying things to me like,
''You're the girl who was in that movie.''
And I remember realizing that, ''Oh my God'',
''this is actually a really big thing.''
It was like on the cover of Newsweek.
''KIDS'' A wake up call to the world And I remember like people being like,
''Do you know you're on the cover of Newsweek?''
The movie's huge.
So we go see the film, the lines was still around
the block long, and this is my first time in the public.
And I'm sitting there and we're all together,
we're watching the movie, and I'm just like,
I'm, I don't know, I don't know what to think.
I see myself giving a tutorial on how to take cigars
and take out the tobacco and then replace it
with marijuana, on a screen.
And everybody's coming outside and everybody was like,
''Oh, that's them, that's them,'' da da da da da.
Everybody's like, ''Hey, that's them from the film.''
The initial reactions to this film by people
who just saw it were interesting because they related to it
as if somehow it was a documentary.
- Yeah. - They didn't believe that those were actors,
and that that was dialogue.
Most people thought it was a documentary.
Most people.
Very scary, it's very scary.
It is not a pretty picture.
They hang out, act out, skate fast, go nowhere.
They swill beer, swear, smoke dope, have sex.
It's a deeply shocking and disturbing film,
which feels absolutely authentic.
And everywhere produced lively arguments.
Is this real?
You want to pound this kid.
Yeah, I hear what people are saying.
I felt somewhat sort of exposed.
Not in a good way though, you know?
And not in a comfortable way.
Maybe my own insecurities with myself, right?
This isn't gonna work for me.
Well, get him outta here.
I have no control.
Hey what, what, what?
Hey, hey, hey, hey.
- Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. - Get out of here, enough.
Go take your board,
get out of here.
I felt like I was being judged.
I'm starting to feel like, that aggression
from where I'm growing up.
I might get violent, and I didn't wanna get violent,
but it was there.
That's gonna turn me in a direction
that I cannot turn from.
I need to get away.
How is this wrong, what's wrong about this?
No, let me just, here for it, man.
But Harold wanted to be in people's minds,
and remembered and spoken of.
- Hey, great movie. - Thank you very much.
Excellent job.
Watch this.
Right ‘cause I recognize you.
Right on.
But you know, obviously you don't know him the way he knows you.
It's okay, tell him I said, “What's up?”
All right.
I see you around the neighborhood, and she said you were in the movie.
I haven’t seen it yet.
Right on.
How did you get in the movie?
My boy hooked it up.
Harold?
Nah, my name's Chris.
Yo, where Telly at, man?
You played great in that movie, yo.
I was like, ''Yo, did you see, that's my boy Harold, dog!''
Aight.
What are you girls doing tonight?
- You are Harold. - That's Harold.
It was really big in like London and Japan
- and all that stuff. - Know that, word.
I don't know, I think, I think I could
do any fucking film, I think I could blow any film.
Like I could bust like Samuel Jackson.
I'm just telling you straight up.
I could, I could, I know I can do it.
I know I could just have people,
and get attention from all people
from all across America, around the world.
There you go, there you have it.
I have some animosity towards the film
because it's part of the reason why
a lot of the guys from the crew kinda stopped skating
and started hanging out, you know what I mean?
My friends were going out a lot and partying a lot
and going out, starting to go out to clubs and stuff a lot.
At the drop of a dime, they would sell their set up or something
to get money to go out that night, you know what I mean?
I didn't like people from outside the circle
that didn't skate, they don't understand.
We all came from fucked up family situations,
like the reality of all of that shit, you know what I mean?
They just see like these, these,
these cool fucking dudes in a movie,
not a care in the world.
It always seemed like those people
brought some bad shit to the mix,
bad influences and whatnot.
And I still wanted to skate.
People started changing, man.
At the age of 19, our next guest wrote the screenplay
for what has turned out to be the most talked-about
film of the year, it's called Kids.
Ladies and gentlemen, here he is, Harmony Korine.
Harmony, come on out and say hello to the folks.
I heard through the grapevine.
Harmony got like some three-picture deal.
That's dope, got his success.
And you, you wrote it when you were 19 years old,
and how do you get it turned in from a script?
How do you get it turned into a motion picture?
- Well I'm not sure. - Yeah.
Audience laughing
I mean, Harmony lived right around the corner from the shop.
We would see him like occasionally walk by and say hi.
I felt him distancing himself from the crew.
It wasn't like Washington Square Park,
we would hang out, and skate with us all day.
It was like, ''Yo,'' gone.
I remember watching Harmony transform
into like a person that I didn't recognize.
At first I took it a little personal, right?
I felt betrayed, I felt used,
We didn't treat each other like that.
Then I was like, ''Yeah whatever, I'll just keep it moving.''
You know, ''I got my brothers, do what you need to do.''
You know?
We was once slumming for a long time,
but we're doing, we're doing okay now.
The 1996 Independent Spirit Awards.
Whoo, ladies and gentlemen,
we're here today to celebrate independent film.
The leading roles created an opportunity for themselves.
There was an avenue open for them
to pursue a career in acting further.
And the Spirit award goes to
Justin Pierce for Kids.
I'm supposed to say something right now, thank you.
- I'd like to thank my mom first, obviously. - Definitely.
For Larry Clark, Harmony Korine for writing this,
who this award really goes to, obviously.
Because I wouldn't have said nothing that he didn't write.
So, now it's Harold's turn to talk.
I'd like to thank my moms.
My dad, he locked up in LA.
And I'd also like to thank my family.
That's basically it.
Peace.
Thank you.
I remember him talking to me about it,
you know, that he's going to move to LA
and things like that, you know?
'Cause he wanted to, you know,
see how we would react, you know?
And at first he was kind of like nervous,
but all the homies was like,
''Nah dude, you gotta be out, you gotta do it.''
'Cause he didn't want to leave.
He didn't want to leave New York.
He didn't wanna leave his family.
This is real, Justin breaking niggers down
like Evander Holyfield, chill.
’Til the next episode.
What could he do to get from point A to point B?
And point B is, you know, having food, clothing,
and shelter, some sense of normalcy and safety.
Assumed he could find that in acting,
and you know, what better place to go
than the West Coast to do that.
You got 120 selections that I feel with the beat.
I'm in New York City, got the tickets.
You can't even buy this good in New York.
Justin moved out here way before, like anybody else did.
Justin was kind of like the pioneer.
Yeah Justin, you ready to break out?
I'm ready, dude I can't wait.
I would come out here, hang out my girlfriend,
go back to New York, you know?
And same for Harold.
You running one of those max things, whatever?
I mean like, a...
Sort of like this free flowing,
New York to LA kind of vibe.
- So we stopped like... - Hi, how are you?
Everybody here is from New York right here, except for like, two.
After a while, you get used to some shit.
That's fucked up.
Just take your dead ass, take it on the run.
I ain’t even fucking with this, kid.
I remember Harold, like just going up to everybody like,
''Yo, I'm Kids,'' like, ''Yo, what's up,'' like,
''Let's work together, you know, put me in your movie.''
''Oh hey, nice to meet you, man.''
''Phenomenal penis in that film,''
''we should talk about working together.''
You know, you're like, ''What?
What the fuck is going on?''
Now get this guy, get this guy.
Laughing.
There's that much raw unadulterated
brilliance and talent in that life.
You know, Harold would get auditions, and I would like
have to help him, like studying for auditions and stuff.
'Cause some learning issues,
I would help him out, help him memorize the stuff,
help him go over it, you know.
Obviously Justin was getting a lot of attention.
You know, Justin would get all these movies
and all of sudden it's like, you know, he is famous.
Everybody right is pretty much, represents.
So we're going to represent like we down South East.
New York.
San Francisco, exactly.
I’m pretty much Southern comfortable right now.
Girl laughing
I started getting calls from Justin, right, from Cali.
Yo, he'd call me.
And we would talking and chopping it up, right?
''Yo how's it going, I'm doing well,''
I could hear, I could hear it that he was lonely.
- Hey. - What up, beat.
Hey yo boss, what's the beat.
We all knew he was super lonely because he would tell us.
The drinking didn't help.
It stimulated more animosity and rage.
Yeah, I lost my dad at 12 and a half, but I knew him.
But he didn't.
He always felt alone.
How do you think you would feel, your friend is,
comes from the bottom and is starting to
make a better life for himself and have
all these opportunities, and he's telling you that,
''There's something bothering me so deep''
''that I don't even want none of this shit no more.''
That's heavy.
Larry started doing art shows with all the photos
he had taken pre-Kids.
Went to this gallery on Prince Street.
I remember walking in there and I seen
a picture of me, and pictures of Harold,
pictures of all of us, just everybody.
Like the walls were lined with pictures of us.
I think I counted about 51 photos.
They all had sold out signs next to them.
I was like, ''Whoa, that's crazy.''
And the prices were like 3100, 2800, 42.
I was like, ''Damn, this dude is killing it,'' you know?
I just assumed there wouldn't be any pictures of me
'cause I don't remember him taking any pictures.
And then when we went down and looked at them,
they were all kinds of pictures of, of us, you know?
And that was interesting, 'cause I was like,
''Wow, I don't remember this at all.''
He never reached out to anyone and said,
''This did so well, here,'' you know?
Like, ''You live in the projects, like on a fucking''
''foam sofa, that's in your hair half the time, like...''
''Here's a little extra or something.''
No, that never happens.
He got what he wanted.
Okay, we get that feeling like,
''Yeah, we... yeah!'' Great, loved it.
That was gratifying too,
but there was also a flip side.
So now the movie's huge.
It grossed 22 million.
1.5, and get back 22?
Somebody's eating.
That's a, that's, that's a lot.
''Here's your thousand dollars, and we own this, later.''
It was clearly calculated by someone with experience
on how to manipulate us into giving up so much
based on where we come from and what we've experienced.
That felt off, you know?
That's when that resentment
really started to build up, you know?
What the fuck.
- We are in... - How you doing?
Long Beach, California.
Harold was frustrated, and he was trying different things.
But things weren't hitting for him.
Harmony, Rosario, Chloe, they were doing great.
I mean, they just catapulted.
They had this support system,
we didn't have any of that.
And he wasn't necessarily jealous of them,
he just wanted to be like
where they were headed, you know?
That Kids cloud was hovering around us
forever now, you know?
So our crew ended up being all the kids from Kids.
That's what we were labeled as.
You know, he would go out all the time
because that's what he did.
Now we go to parties where like, you know,
Leonardo DiCaprio are hanging out
and all these big wigs are hanging out.
Leonardo DiCaprio is like, ''Yo, that's my favorite movie.''
And you know, Harold is like swept up by Leonardo DiCaprio
and his crew of people.
Man, Leonardo DiCaprio is downstairs and shit.
We're gonna hang out.
You know, there's a million fucking sycophants
and there's people that are like,
''Oh, you know, I'll sell you the fucking world.''
''I'll sell you fucking dreams.''
And I think Harold got caught up in that for sure
and liked it, you know?
I mean, Harold liked it.
So this a high class fucking place.
They're doing drugs and shit.
They're doing drugs and they don't want get
the behind the scenes shit.
He starts getting into drugs and alcohol.
Had a rough night.
Somebody's going to get hurt from this shit.
'Cause he don't have no parents to send him
to Betty Ford and clean up.
And that triggered off a lot of concern.
When I moved to Los Angeles in 1998,
I was going there to do Teach for America,
and to teach in Compton.
We went to this party in the Hollywood Hills
and Justin was there.
And, and Justin was there with his, with his girlfriend, Gina.
She was super nice.
And I remember feeling so happy,
and he seemed really happy too.
So I ended up living across the street from them.
Justin and Gina were so welcoming
and they had this awesome house and they had a backyard.
They were like boo’d up.
You know, they were like living their romantic,
like happy domestic life together.
I was skateboarding a lot, and I was going to LA a lot.
So I would always stay with Justin.
I would even read with him sometimes.
Like I was a big supporter of it, did a film with Ice Cube.
He was trying out for Lord of the Rings.
And I was like, ''Yo, Lord of the Rings.''
''Yo, Lord of the Rings.''
I was like, ''Wow, that's sick.''
I was like, ''This kid is going up.''
''He's going, and he's not stopping.''
So how does that work?
You're hanging around in Washington Square Park.
You're on a skateboard.
And then you're at a movie, and now you're in Hollywood
and you've made two more pictures?
A Brother's Kiss movie will come out in the fall.
Uh-huh, so you're an actor now.
Now I am, yeah.
Uh-huh.
Marker.
Acting was good for him.
Like I used to make fun of him all the time for it.
'Cause like, you sit there for a second
and get into character like,
''You fucking cheesy motherfucker.''
Like you know, I used to make fun of him
all the time for it, but it was really good for him.
Where do you see yourself in, like five years from now?
Well do you think you're still going to be doing acting?
Oh yeah definitely, definitely.
Made up my mind, and I'm not gonna give up.
It must've been like 4:00 and 5:00
in the morning or something.
Gina and Justin, and they seem like a little,
maybe they were tipsy or drunk or something.
They were like ringing my doorbell and telling me,
''Hey, like come with us to Vegas, we're gonna get married.''
Like they were so excited and they were not only
like happy together, but they were like giddy, you know?
And it turned out that Gina was pregnant.
He was like, ''This is so great.''
I was like, ''This is so great, this is so exciting.''
And Justin knew he needed it, he knew it.
And a father is a way for him to fill himself up
and he was happy because
he was starting to gain stability.
In his day-to-day life there was,
there was a lot that looked to be very
like comforting in ways that like
he hadn't really had before.
They always just seemed really solid.
And then, and then she lost the baby.
They were so devastated.
One day Gina called me and she was really scared.
And she asked me if I could come over.
She was like, ''Can you come over?''
''I really need you to talk to Justin,''
''and I'm feeling scared.''
I think he had like pulled a knife on her
or something like that.
So she had run away, but she was like,
''Can you please go over there?''
Like she was worried about him.
I went over there and he seemed really upset
and like upset at himself.
That's the sense I got was like,
''Oh, shit like I'm fucked up.''
''I'm fucked up in the head, and like, I fucked up.''
I remember saying, ''You know, sometimes in the moment'',
''things seem really, really hard, but then like, you know,''
''if you just like go to sleep and wake up the next day,''
''like you feel better.''
He was feeling really afraid
that things were not gonna work out.
What I felt inside for Justin was deep, deep sadness
around how much pain he was in.
Like he was in just a tremendous amount of pain.
Their relationship fell apart.
So now you alone to deal
with your darkness and you can't.
I remember talking to me about it.
He said, ''Yo man, I feel like killing myself.''
And I said that, ''That shit is selfish.''
''You know what I'm saying?''
'''Cause you're trying to run from something that you can't.''
''We can't run from things, we have to face them.''
''So where are you gonna go from it?''
And I could hear that I confronted him
like how Harold confronted me.
But 'cause, but that was the tough love part.
And that was the part like,
''Yo man, all the stuff you've been doing,''
''you're doing really well, man.''
''Like you such a powerful individual.''
''Get a grip bro, get a grip.''
''Like we all have to find that grip.''
''And dude, you're on a whole ‘nother level energy-wise.''
''You gotta grip up, man.''
Justin Pierce, who rose to notoriety
as a skateboarding delinquent in the 1995 film Kids
was found dead in his Las Vegas hotel room Monday evening.
County coroner Ron Flood confirmed
that quote, hanging is the cause of death,
and the manner of death is suicide.
Pierce was just 25 years old.
''Peter, you got a phone call.''
And then he told me, “Yo, Justin died.”
And it just crushed me, man.
He didn't mean to do it.
Like he was just acting out like, that's it.
Like I know him, like this was not what was meant to be.
He's not one to be alone, like especially
when he's fucked up, and especially if he's hurting.
It's really fucked up.
I think if Justin didn't go to LA he would have been okay.
We were each other's support system for so long
that things really did start to fall apart after that.
I don't think if the film happened,
I don't think Justin would've been dead.
So I wish it never happened.
I thought all of this stuff was supposed to
make our lives better and enrich us,
you know, and take us further.
All this notoriety and fame, all this stuff, it's over.
This whole, ''We this, we that,'' it's over.
It's over guys.
It's done.
I'm gonna take this as a sign to grow up.
Harold bugged out.
And from that moment, I don't know what it was,
but I saw like, yo, this dude,
whatever he does from this point on,
he was gonna do to the fullest.
Yo, Harold!
What's going on, man?
- Hey man. - What's going on?
I separated myself from everything revolving around that
'cause I have a family and a whole new life.
That was a really daunting and troublesome time for me.
Dealing with your dysfunctions as a kid
and how that's rolling over into your family.
And I was petrified.
You know, Harold's skating less, he's partying more.
He's drinking more, drugging more,
and he's not getting work.
You know, like acting work.
You know, he's walking around on the strength
of his name and how he treated people.
So when he started to break down, and needed
a new coping mechanism, it made total sense.
I'm a college student, I'm a fucking college student.
Sounded depressed, right?
Sounded real depressed right now, don't he?
I need a motherfucking beer right now.
I feel like people took advantage of the situation.
They would do it in such a slick way
that he thought he was coming up.
I'm 15 a month, I could get along with that, right?
I could get along with that, on the low, right?
Because he wasn't educated
society’s gonna take advantage of you if you don't know what the fuck you're doing.
This fucking drug dude in Milwaukee,
wants me to write for his company,
and be sponsored by one of them companies that they,
like they ain't doing good, right?
He thought it would pay off eventually
for him some how, some way.
People ripped him off and they did a good job at it.
I put on mad companies, mad companies.
So whatever all would that do?
Mad sketchy companies like the one dude
with the coke habit.
What happened, yo?
One dude, like did so much coke
that he fucking spent all his money.
Instead of giving him money, the money that he deserved,
they gave him a bag of coke.
Shut the fuck up.
And I got mad at my brother because we're men now.
We're not fucking kids.
And those motherfuckers that do that type of shit, they win.
'Cause I wanna get paid, fuck that.
Are you writing with somebody now?
One day, we was in front of Supreme, right?
So Harold said to me, ''Yo, you got five dollars?''
So I said, ''Yo, why are you asking me for money?''
''You got money in your pocket, yo.''
''Yeah, 'cause you're gonna buy coke,''
''so you're asking me for five dollars?''
'Cause he's addicted to it.
And then that flashback of when he screamed at me in the park.
Just like how he confronted me,
I could do that too.
''No, I ain't giving it to you because that's some bullshit.
'''Cause you be around all these other people
''and now you around the family and I'm telling you
''I'm confronting you, so what you want to do?''
''And I have the right to say that.''
''And I have the right to feel this way to say that''
''just like you had the right to feel that way''
''and say what you said to me, which impacted my life.''
That was my way of saying, ''Yo, I care about you bro.''
Harold is gonna do what Harold is gonna do.
Fine, he's entitled to that.
I know he knew where I was coming from.
But as far as skating and acting, that was washed up.
Now he was reduced to nothing.
How you doing, I'm Harold Hunter,
and you're watching armpit TV.
He had to go back there, Campos Plaza
on 13th street between Avenue B and Avenue C.
That was always where he ended up at.
I remember he would tell me, you know, he was like,
''I don't want to die in the projects, man.''
''I don't want to die, you know, I don't wanna die.''
And it's that, that cycle, that vicious cycle.
The guy on the top, the guy on the bottom, and Harold was on the bottom
and he didn't like being on the bottom.
And he used to being open about it.
I know he's not my friend anymore, you know.
- Damn. - I think he's a little nuts.
Dog, don't let anybody use you in this world, all right?
He starts to build up some resentment.
Harold's that dude, he'll say it.
He'll say it straight.
And action.
Yo, this is Harold Hunter, and this is my story.
But with all the connections that you had
from like Kids and all the people you worked with,
you can't get work?
- I mean having connections doesn't help? - They're trying to look out, man.
They're only looking out for their self, yo.
After the movie was over, it was weird, it was like,
we were stars, but we had nothing.
I made $1000 off that film, it was non-union.
- That's all you made? - I made $1000.
At the time I was like, ''Wow, $1000?''
Right, but that ain't shit for what movie...
That shit ain't nothing, dogs.
And me and my man Hamilton at the time was like,
''Yo man I can't, yo I didn't eat today or nothing.''
''Can I get some money for food?''
He always had his hopes up.
''They're not going to forget about me.''
''They gonna remember me, they're gonna help me.''
''Those are my friends.''
They just didn't come through.
What's going on right there?
Every time I tried to talk to them about drugs, like,
it's either like, ''Mind your business,'' or like,
''Nigger, you do that too,'' you know what I mean?
But like I learned my lesson, so why the fuck
I would do some that'd kill my mother?
Right now I didn't want my brother to disappear.
You know what I mean?
Like me and my brother had a crazy argument.
Like I'm telling you, like we're about to kill each other.
And then my son walks into the living room,
he starts playing with my son and he goes,
''Yo, chill out Ron, your kid is here.''
I'm still mad, but now he's throwing my son in the air.
They're laughing.
Like bro, we just had a fucking,
we just had an argument.
Like this is serious right now.
And like, I just walked away from him.
He went to a party, and I remember him coming back, it was like,
like 10:30, 11:00 at night, and.
The nigger was like, ''Yo Ronald, I love you.''
''I love you, love you.''
Yeah, so um...
I think, uh...
but I remember checking on him and I like
bugged the fuck out.
You know what I mean?
You know, I shook the nigger mad times.
GUIDETTI FUNERAL HOME, INC. CRESTWOOD MEMORIAL CHAPEL, INC.
Like, are you fucking kidding me? Like...
just guilt and sadness.
And then it's like oh, we all know what to do.
We all meet up, and we all drink and we all cry
and we all go to the wake and we all bury him.
And it's the same thing again, the same fucking place.
Like it's just, it's just too much already.
He passed away in the projects.
That for me is tough.
It's tough, you know?
This line of people walking up to pay their respects,
to see Harold.
People from all over, it was incredible.
What is it about Harold that he's able
to connect with all these people?
What is it about this guy?
What special quality does he hold, does he contain?
I say yo Harold should have been the most gulliest
criminal out, being in a movie that becomes
a fucking cultural classic.
And you end up going back to 13th Street,
between Avenue B and C, apartment 5C,
And still have a smile on your face,
and still wanna make people happy,
and still wanna stay out of trouble.
Yo, that takes a lot of strength to do.
And with all that, this still happened.
There's no escape,
'cause you've got no one around to guide you.
You're vulnerable.
This is years, I'm wiping years out of my face.
Years of pain, years of lessons.
It's so hard to be vulnerable, you know what I mean?
And this world doesn't allow you to be vulnerable.
If this happened to Harold,
what's going to happen to the rest of us?
I need to heal myself from all of this, man.
All these traumas man, you know?
I need to fix it up because,
Hey Cosmo, stop watching the movie.
Now I'm a father.
Cosmo.
It's my duty for my son to be there for them.
I need to teach them what I've learned,
what I've learned from Harold and Justin.
- Keep going. - Okay.
I'm gonna keep going.
Stuff they were never able to learn from their fathers.
Okay, one second.
Yep, whenever you're ready.
So, my name's Michael Hayes and I'm from Canberra.
I'm Australian, and I'm the biological father
of Justin Pierce.
It had been 35 years since Justin was born
when I found out that he had actually been born.
The story goes back to the 1970s.
In May of '74 I lived in a house out in West London.
Before I knew it I'd fallen into a relationship
with a young Welsh girl, Meryl.
Meryl was quite a character.
She loved to sing, loved to party in a good way.
We enjoyed ourselves for a few months and then parted ways.
“I'm gonna go back to Australia and go to university
“and get a career.”
I headed back here and did exactly that,
and completely lost track of her.
Time went by.
I'd been married and I had two kids by this stage.
It was coming around to my 60th birthday party,
and then a couple of people turned up very late.
And these are a couple who had been over to London
probably about a year after I'd been there.
We got chatting about old times as you do,
and they mentioned that Meryl had died six years back.
And I said, ''Oh I hadn't heard that, that's terrible.''
Went on to say that the tragedy was really double
because not that long back, her son had also died
and they thought oh, maybe she died a bit
of a broken heart because they said she'd been
completely destroyed by the, the whole thing.
I said, ''What do you know about him?''
And he said, ''Oh, oh, oh, I can't really tell you''
''very much about that, except he looks''
''a hell of a lot like you.''
And I went, ''Whoa, okay.''
I said, ''Do you even have a name for him?''
Yeah, I went straight online and Googled the name
Justin Pierce, and up came a photo
that I swear was, it could've been me at the same age.
So I stared and stared at it and thought,
this can't be real.
As soon as I found out the dates,
I figured out straight away,
there is a strong possibility that he was mine.
Not too long before his mum died,
she came back to Wales to be with her family.
And she knew she was dying there from, from cancer.
And shortly before she died, she said,
''Oh look, there's one thing I want you to do for me.''
''That if you ever see Michael again,''
''please tell him that he had a son.''
That secret, it robbed two people.
An awful human tragedy,
that he was never able to find his father.
But Meryl had her own reasons.
I guess she was very protective
of the one little boy she had.
Probably not a lot of point in me trying to work out why.
I'd lost two brothers already,
and then to find that I'd lost the son as well
was just another knife being twisted.
It cuts me deeply, that I was not there for him.
I just wished I could have had him in my life.
But you know,
yeah it's hard.
What more can I say?
When you're breaking a cycle,
the only way out is through.
That there's no other way to it, but that.
'Cause people think people from the projects
are inferior in society, and because you come from poverty
and you know, you don't have both of your parents,
you can be used at the disposal of those
of some type of social and economic status.
I appreciate that I've experienced it.
I also appreciate that I no longer need that experience
so I can peacefully walk away.
Leaving New York, moving to the Netherlands
was not a easy ride.
Make no mistake, it was hard.
Justin and Harold are superheroes to me.
You know, those are my superheroes.
They made it possible for me to keep going.
I have many dark periods, which we all do.
Years of pain, and people are still struggling with it.
Justin is remembered as the guy who committed suicide
by hanging himself at the hotel in Las Vegas.
I heard that Justin Pearce was working the graveyard shit.
Harold's legacy is remembered as the guy from Kids.
Yeh he died of a heart attack due to cocaine... - Who died of a overdose.
He died from o.d on coke
cocaine-induced heart attack. double sad.
What about those other experiences though?
Just because your, your friend can't take it no more,
they don't want to be here no more,
doesn't mean you failed.
That person is a reflection of us all.
That's an opportunity for you.
It's almost like them sacrificing themselves for you.
That's legacy.
Fast forward to today, some of us have families of our own
and it's like people who had these dysfunctional upbringings
doing pretty well right now, you know?
And they've acquired a certain knowledge
that they passed on to their children, you know?
What's gonna be their legacy?
Making this place a better place for our children.
Memories and experiences, that's what we grow from.
Far as I'm concerned, Harold and Justin's legacy is us.
Larry Clark and Harmony Korine declined to participate in this film.
Hey Larry, how's it going, man, it's Hamilton.
Who is this?
It's Hamilton.
Let me call you back.
Michael Hayes is in contact with Justin's friends.
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