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REGGIE ROCK BYTHEWOOD:
“I like to think of this film as a contemporary Western. When I was hanging out in the motorcycle club houses with these guys, and seeing them walk around wearing leathers and chaps with this really amazing swagger, it really started to feel like a Western to me. Instead of a young gun going after the fastest draw in the West, the young gun is going after the faster rider. Every great Western from Shane to The Unforgiven raises the question, ‘What does it mean to be a man?’ It’s the constant theme that runs throughout our film.”
LAURENCE FISHBURNE:
“I’m a motorcycle enthusiast, so the motorcycle bit was big for me. When I got the script I was like, ‘Wow, I’ve always wanted to see this movie.’ When I sat down with Reggie and he said, ‘I’m going to make a Western,’ something for me clicked. The fraternal organization of the motorcycle club, with respect to Black people in America, really is an extension of the migration of Black people coming west. There is something of the Buffalo Soldier inside the mythology of the motorcycle club, and that’s what was really interesting to me.”
DEREK LUKE on working with Laurence Fishburne:
“I wasn’t nervous; I was open. I’m still very much a student, and I knew I could learn so much from working with Laurence. I just wanted to take advantage of everything he had to offer, which was a lot. Mainly, I learned to have trust and confidence and to walk the walk.”
BRENDAN FEHR (Stuntman):
“A lot of guys in this movie grew up in a culture of hip hop and all that stuff, and the movie relies heavily on that music and kind of urban vibe. If there’s going to be a man who’s standing around looking a little confused, it’s going to be me, because that’s not what I grew up doing. But, at the same time, my job is to pretend that that’s what my character Stuntman grew up with. So I did my best to look comfortable with it.”
ORLANDO JONES (Soul Train):
“My character is much older and part of a different generation, because biker clubs as they stand have really come out of the segregationist era, where you couldn’t be part of the Hell’s Angels, so you had your biker club that was in your neighborhood. I really think the Black Knights represent that era, whereas the Biker Boyz I think represents the latest era of bikers where they’re multicultural, multiethnic, and they don’t care if you’re female. As long as you can ride they want you in their club, and I think they represent what the biking world is becoming.”
LISA BONET (Queenie) on the real bikers who were extras in the film:
“They made the set very real. It created the whole feeling and the whole energy of what that lifestyle is really like, and we saw that the way that they were depicted to us as being very violent, or having drugs, or being crazy is not true. My character is based on real women that ride. When they are around, they hold their own, they’re totally respected, they’re powerful women and the men know it. They’ve raced them, and they’ve lost to them.”
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THE CONCEPT:
