“Waist Deep”

scenes, colors pop out like jewels. My favorite directors to work with are the
ones who are very visual, and Vondie certainly is.”
While it is a father’s mission to rescue his child that sets the plot in motion, much
of Waist Deep focuses on evolving relationships. Holmes says, “In the midst of
this wild ride, you watch a family unit developing. O2 and Coco are from the
same urban street culture, and real feeling and heart develops between them.”
Gibson says that O2 is “attracted to how smart and intelligent Coco is, and to the
fact that she goes along with his plan and is able to keep up with him. It takes a
while for him to trust her, because he knows what he’s asking her to do actually
violates all street codes; you can’t snitch about anybody and what they’re doing
in the streets, because you put your life in jeopardy. But Coco deals with it and
makes things happen, and so O2 grows to respect her.”
Holmes remarks, “One of my favorite movies is Bonnie and Clyde, and there
have been a number of films since then that starred a couple in a ‘them against
the world’ scenario. But it had never been done in an urban movie and setting.”
Larenz Tate, cast opposite Gibson as the conflicted Lucky, cites a quote, “’They
rob banks.’ So that’s one Bonnie and Clyde element – and another is, they need
one another to make progressive steps in their lives.”
Waist Deep also has its roots in a 1995 episode of New York Undercover which
(guest-)starred a then-unknown Terrence Howard and Aunjanue Ellis. The
episode, entitled “Buster and Claudia,” was written by Michael Mahern. “That
show had a youthful, and largely black and Latino, audience,” Mahern
remembers. “I had the idea to write a ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ movie for them, in part
because I was passionately opposed to California’s notorious ‘three-strikes’ law.
“I also wanted the movie, ‘Strikeback,’ to star Tupac Shakur; Preston Holmes,
who produced Vondie Curtis Hall’s Gridlock’d – which starred Tupac – told me
that Tupac had wanted to do a ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ story. Tupac was murdered
while I was writing the first draft.”
Mahern, who has since retired from screenwriting and now teaches emotionally
disturbed middle-school kids in Los Angeles’ Crenshaw District, reflects,
“Ultimately, the project ran aground because it lacked a young black male star of
sufficient magnitude to play the lead. But now, Tyrese has the necessary
intensity – and the filmmakers have done a terrific job molding the script to his
talents.”
“Vondie is a very talented director, one who I’d been wanting to work with for
several years now,” adds co-screenwriter Darin Scott. “Also, as a film noir
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