‘Half Baked’ delivers a peek into pot smoker culture
FILM:Writer/comedian Chappelle based movie on real-life
experiences
By Stephanie Sheh
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
You know it as grass, reefer, hash and pot, among other names.
And now there is an entire movie dedicated to everyone’s favorite
herb.
Opening Friday, "Half Baked" is the comedic tale of three pot
smoking slackers, Thurgood (Dave Chappelle), Brian ("Saturday Night
Live" regular Jim Breuer) and Scarface (Guillermo Diaz), who are
forced to straighten out their lives and raise bail when their
friend Kenny (Harland Williams) is arrested. The solution: steal
some marijuana from a pharmaceutical lab and sell the stash.
Co-author and actor Chappelle, who considers himself a New
Yorker, was actually inspired by his real surroundings.
"Oh, there’s these guys in New York. They have these reefer
delivery services," Chappelle explains. "You call them and they’ll
bring reefer to your house in 30 minutes or less.
"There’s a guy there and he goes in and out of all these
houses," Chappelle continues. "It’s a service that the richest
people use and the poorest people use. It’s like a common ground.
And it’s a good way to look at the marijuana subculture."
Speaking of subculture, one of the opening scenes in "Half
Baked" flashes back to a young foursome smoking out behind a
dumpster. The youngsters stroll into the quickie mart where they
are fascinated by four-foot-tall Abba Zabba bars.
"It’s like most of the people who I know who smoke pot started
when they were young," Chappelle says. "And just the image of
people that young smoking reefer, it was so ridiculous."
Chappelle did not use the method technique to capture the weed
experience on film. He didn’t need to. The actor admits to having
his share of encounters with mary jane.
"You know, growing up young in America you’re going to have your
share," Chappelle says. "It’s the kind of thing where even if you
don’t do it, you know people who do it. And it’s like nowadays
people our age, it’s in our music and you know, there’s very much
in public consciousness."
"Half Baked" is a good example of this with a long list of
celebrity cameos  Snoop Doggy Dogg as the Scavenger Smoker,
Jon Stewart as the Enhancement Smoker, Willie Nelson as the
You-Shoulda-Been-There Smoker and Janeane Garofalo as the
I’m-Only-Creative-When-I-Smoke Smoker and others all buying ganga
from the film’s trio.
Chappelle, who has a background in stand-up comedy, used his
personal connections to score some of the cameos.
"People like Janeane Garofalo and Jon Stewart, we are all part
of the same community, that comedy community," Chappelle says. "And
people like Snoop Doggy Dogg and Willie Nelson, those people are
like reefer icons. Willie Nelson smoked weed at the White House.
It’s like, we gotta get this guy.
"I had a meeting with Snoop. Willie Nelson we contacted through
his agents," Chappelle continues. "Janeane and Jon we went through
a more personal route. But you know if something is funny and cool
enough, people will do it. They’ll do it just for the fun of
it."
And if Bob Saget shouting, "Have you ever sucked dick for
marijuana?" is any indication, the film is a lot of fun.
Chappelle also had a lot of fun writing the piece with his long
time friend Neal Brennan.
"He was at NYU film school when he was working the door at one
of the comedy clubs here in New York," Chappelle explains. "And I
was a really young comedian at the time. I moved up to New York at
like 17. He was my age, so we were fast friends."
The actor/comedian says that he and Brennan wrote the screenplay
in "three nights and 40 arguments." According to Chappelle, they
talked for lengths about what they wanted and once they figured it
out, it "just kind of sailed through."
And although there was ad-libbing and improvising on the set,
Chappelle says that the majority of the film was directly in the
script.
"It was funny because me and Neal, we had written the movie on
index cards like scene for scene. And one night we watched the
movie and looked at the cards and it was almost exactly what we had
written on the cards. It was funny to see it come from those index
cards as a finished project."
And when all is said and done, Chappelle has one smokin’ movie
on his hands.
FILM: "Half-Baked" opens Friday.