Black is not so dark

Black is not so dark
April 2000

By G.W. Brazier

TORONTO–Perhaps it’s the name, the hair colour and the green eyes that make her look like a cat from another world? Maybe it is her intelligence and almost Sag like wisdom that starkly contrasts with her shocking good looks and snow white shell? Whatever the reason’s sitting across from Catherine Black; a light and bubbly, sweet little young lady, I find it hard to believe that she has been so bad this year.

Catherine stars in four movies this year(American Psycho, Loser, Letters To a Street Child and Enfer et Contre Tour!)all of which have her either doing drugs, sporting mohawks, smoking black cigarettes, or riding motorcycles. In her little 1950's pink dress, I find it hard to imagine that she could eat out of a dumster or utter the words “I pissed my pants last night”, which marks, not only my favourite line in a movie, but one of the most tragic, and realistic depiction of a drug addict in cinema.


“My uncle died from heroin use, and even though I never met him, I have been haunted by his ghost, by the reasons why he died so young. I have always both been against drugs and extremely fascinated with how someone could ruin their entire lives over it. Just recently I had a man tell me that I saved his daughters life. Apparently she watch Letters to a Street Child and that she related to my character so much that it inspired her to get treatment, just like my character Andre did. This made me cry! I tried so hard to play that role as uncomfortably and as unglamourously as possible. I hate how drug addicts are made to be so cool in movies. It is reckless as far as I am concerned. Knowing that I helped someone to live and that I helped an entire family is the number one reason I will continue to act. I love acting, but making a difference in the world is what I want to do. I don’t think I could continue if I wasn’t making a difference. I think that is why we are all here, we all have one way to communicate and contribute that is most effective, and I have found mine.”

Catherine doesn’t sound as young and innocent as she looks. I begin to understand how this deep and sensitive soul could be confused with dark. Catherine was an athlete growing up, a competitive gymnast, so she had no time to dabble in drugs or be a rebellious teenager. She tells me how she moved away from home at the age of 16 not so she could party and skip school, so she could move to the city, finish highschool at a school for gifted students, act in theatre and hold a part time job. Catherine is also a very talented visual artist and while in highschool she painting murals in the school and had art shows of her work. She is a self proclaimed perfectionist and over-achiever. Currently with seven films already under her belt, and two tv shows, Catherine is studying Opera at The Royal Conservatory of Music.

“I think my eyebrows make people think I am wild!. Only a bad girl would have such an untamed brow.”

Maybe it is the brows, but whatever it is, Catherine knows how to get to the bottom of some of the darkest roles. You can see Catherine this month in theatres across the country opposite Christian Bale and Reese Witherspoon in the most anticipated movie this year, American Psycho. Black plays Reese’s gothic artist cousin from the East Village; which she very pointedly scolds the Psycho himself over. Bateman(Christian Bale) mocks her about hailing from Soho. Catherine, as Vanden, simply takes a long drag off her Black Russian cigarette, blows blue smoke in Batemans face, while starring him down and slowly says, “We are from the East Village actually”. At the posh restaurant with Reese Witherspoon and Christian Bale, Black gorges on sushi and smokes like a banshee, pounding back sake after sake as she argues with Bale like she doesn’t care, in true bourgiosie gluttonous fashion.

“It was my idea to be an absolute gluttonous pig. I thought it would be really funny if this artist was just gorging on everything she could get her hands on while having dinner with all these shallow rich socialite types who weren’t even touching their plates. Mary Harron love it. After the first take she came running over to me and was so excited saying how funny I was! She wanted ever angle of my me pigging out, so we had a 17 hour day that day thanks to me!”

Apparently, Harron had a secret dinner party for the cast at a house she rented on the Danforth. No one could know anything about the filming process or where Mary was staying because there was so much controversy and uproar about the film by raging feminists and the fact that the book was linked to the Paul Bernardo murder. Apparently it was his favourite book that he kept on his night stand. The film was called The Untitled project during pre production and production to protect the film and those involved from any violent protesters ironically.

“When I arrived at Mary’s house, I walked in and Mary was about ten feet away standing beside Christian Bale and Samantha Mathis holding her baby, she yelled from acroos the kitchen and threw the hall at me “Catherine, I loved your audition tape! You were so obtuse! My husband and I kept rewinding your audition in bed...you were hilarious!” Well that was quite the introduction. It was hard to picture this “mother” as the controversial punk rocker that I read about. In the end, she was a real gentleman really.”

Catherine has another movie coming out later this year called Loser opposite Greg Kinner. Loser is another big studio film directed by Fast Times At Ridgemont High director, Amy Heckerling, where she plays another tough girl decked out in punky military army fatigue fashion.

“It is funny, I have been cast by two super cool cutting edge woman directors who both told me that my character was based off of them.. What a honor really.”

Not really that funny.

COPYRIGHT 2000 G.W. Brazier