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Hawaii's Amanda Schull didn't
Benefit appearance, sneak previews Staff and wire reports
have to act in 'Center Stage';
she's living the roleJust 12 months ago, Amanda Schull was at the San Francisco Ballet School, rehearsing for a performance. The Punahou School graduate's dream was to plie her way to a contract with the school's parent company, the San Francisco Ballet.
By chance, she met one of casting agents for the dance movie "Center Stage," who invited her to read for the part.
"Center Stage" opens across the country May 12 with Schull -- a blue-eyed blonde with a lithe frame -- in the lead role of naive newcomer Jody. (Sneak previews will take place tomorrow at Kahala and Pearlridge theaters.)
Schull is the Hawaii-born daughter of E. Gunner and Susan Schull. Before attending Indiana University and college in San Francisco, she appeared locally in Ballet Hawaii's "Nutcracker" and other dance productions."Center Stage" might be best described as a cross between "Rocky" (1976) and "Fame" (1980), set in the world of ballet.
Schull will be the guest of honor at The Ballet Hawaii benefit premiere of "Center Stage" on Wednesday at Signature Theatres Dole Cannery. The film begins at 6:30 p.m.
After the movie, Schull may attend a party at Dole Cannery. Benefit tickets are $75 each. For information and reservations call 732-7733.
Though the film focuses on three young hopefuls -- Schull, Zoe Saldana as a girl with an attitude and Susan May Pratt as a self-destructive prima donna -- it also makes time for a smug star (Ethan Stiefel), the pompous artistic director (Peter Gallagher) threatened by the smug star, a respected teacher (Donna Murphy), a gay black dancer (Shakiem Evans), Jody's two would-be boyfriends (Sascha Radetsky and Eion Bailey) and a stage mother (Debra Monk) vicariously living a dream through her daughter.
In an interview with the New York Times, Schull said, "I think it's very realistic. For the screen test they only gave me a couple of scenes, and they were realistic to me. I had no idea what to expect and, of course, I thought, 'Hollywood is going to glam it up. It's going to be totally outlandish.'"But when I read the whole thing," Schull recalls, "I was really impressed. They touched on so many different things that it gives a really general view of all the elements that go into the life of a dancer, the whole process of becoming a dancer.
"Nick Hytner was very instrumental in the authenticity," she adds. "He was constantly asking us for our perspective. 'Would you do this? Would you say this? Would you wear this?' He was always making sure that we confirmed every single element of the whole film."
The film encompasses a lot of negative elements about the dance world -- backstabbing, underhanded alliances between competitors, stage mothers from hell, bulimia ..."I've seen everything this movie touches on, to the umpteenth degree," Schull says. "That's another reason the film was nice," she says, "because they didn't try to hide any of the unglamorous parts. The curtain goes up and you see all the pretty ballerinas in their tutus and you think, 'Wow, that was just beautiful. Wow, they're just beautiful.'
"But you have no idea what goes into the day of a dancer -- you have no idea what we put our minds through, what we put our bodies through, what we put our lives through.
"It's really nice to bring that to a larger audience," Schull said.
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What: Amanda Schull is guest of honor at the Ballet Hawaii benefit premiere of "Center Stage"
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