RICHARD PRYOR COMES CLEAN IN HARROWING RECAP OF LIFE (original) (raw)

”Yes, it`s true,” Richard Pryor said. ”After the fire (in 1980) I got hooked on drugs again. I`ve been clean now for 1/2 years, and it`s still one day at a time.”

Pryor was using a rallying cry from Alcoholics Anonymous, reflecting the group`s principle that for an addict, as long as he`s alive, it`s a daily battle to steer clear of drug abuse.

”I`ll tell you how bad it still is for me,” Pryor said, seated in a North Carolina hotel room where he is at work on a new movie. ”If you were to put some `base` (cocaine crystals) on this table in front of me–if you were doing base–I`d have to leave the room. I couldn`t deal with it.

”And sometimes when I`m alone at night watching one of those cop shows on TV, and they have a drug bust and show the bags of cocaine spilling onto a table, I have to change channels.”

Pryor`s near-fatal addiction is the central subject of his superb new autobiographical film, ”Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling,” which recounts his growth as a comedian and his disintegration as a human being.

Pryor, 45, directs himself for the first time, taking control of an erratic movie career marked with uniformly mediocre, post-fire films, including the revised version of ”Bustin` Loose,” ”The Toy,” ”Superman III” and, most recently, ”Brewster`s Millions.”

There are more laughs in five minutes of one of his concert films than in all those turkeys combined.

The problem: Of late Pryor had been doing mainstream comic turns for the predominantly young moviegoing audience, rather than his more dangerous, adult humor. ”I did `Superman III` for the money,” he admits. ”Lots of it.”

The triumph of ”Jo Jo Dancer” is that Pryor does not spare himself

–neither his talent nor his mistakes–filling his life story with hilarious episodes from his strip club beginnings to his pathetic scratching for cocaine crystals on the living room carpet of his California mansion.

Pryor`s character in the film mistreats women and mistreats himself. But he typically is most kind to his audience. And we suspect that this behavior applies to scores of self-destructive entertainers who are more kind to strangers than to their dear ones or themselves.

”I only hope the movie shows that drugs may start out fun, but they never end in fun. The horror they brought me every night and the guilt they brought me every day is what drugs are about.

”And people think they can handle it. That`s a joke. Here I was, as the film shows, a snotty little kid from Peoria, who was allowed to rise to the top, who became a very big star–as big as anyone could want–and I couldn`t handle it. I became a drug addict.”

Certain to be the most-talked-about scene in the movie is the moment when Pryor sets himself aflame while doing drugs.

Whereas the popular notion is that Pryor accidentally set himself on fire while using cocaine liquefied by a flame (”freebasing”), in the movie the accident is depicted as nothing less than a suicide attempt.

A drugged Pryor pours liquor over his body and then, off-screen, ignites his clothing.

”I did try to kill myself,” Pryor admits freely. ”I have only fragments of memory about exactly what happened that night, but I know I tried to kill myself. The pain . . . it had come to that.”

Some observers may suspect Pryor of fudging on the truth because he didn`t want to show himself freebasing, thereby making ”Jo Jo Dancer” an instructional film. In other words, the alcohol-dousing may be only symbolic of his death wish.

”That`s right,” Pryor said. ”There were many drafts of the script, and I decided I didn`t want to show kids how it was done.”

However morbid it may be, a fan of Pryor`s can`t help but wonder why Pryor would choose–if he indeed did choose–to die in flames.

Why not something more direct, like a bullet though the head?

”They had taken away all my guns,” Pryor answered quickly, referring to his friends and bodyguards.

Why not jump off a building?

”I was (doing base) on the first floor,” he said.

Why not a lot of pills?

”I had taken them,” he said, and paused. ”The point is I was crazy, and I couldn`t take it anymore. Maybe you have to be crazy to understand it, but I was powerless over drugs, and I still am.”

The excellence of ”Jo Jo Dancer” comes as a major surprise. The film was rumored to be ”in trouble” late last year when its Christmas opening was delayed–never a good sign.

Indeed, Pryor confirmed that re-editing took place and that new scenes and music (supervised by Herbie Hancock) were added.

”Basically my first cut was very impressionistic,” he said, ”with lots of flashes forward and back. It was too confusing for audiences. So we decided to tell the story more chronologically. That was the major change.”

That ”Jo Jo Dancer” exists at all is a rare accomplishment. In the history of movies, few major performers have had clout to write, produce, direct and star in their life story.

Bob Fosse came the closest, seven years ago in his similarly scorching

”All That Jazz.” But Roy Scheider played Fosse.

Federico Fellini gave us one of his autobiographical states of mind in

”8 1/2,” but Marcello Mastroianni played Fellini.

Woody Allen would seem to come the closest to Pryor`s accomplishment, but Allen is using a piecemeal approach, fragmenting his life among a group of recent films.

That`s a short list among major stars.

Considering major actors who also direct their own movies, we haven`t seen Clint Eastwood`s autobiography or Robert Redford`s or Warren Beatty`s.

Sylvester Stallone? Let`s give him a break and say his ”Rocky” was autobiography as allegory.

”I owe this break to one man,” Pryor said. ”Four years ago I went to Guy McElwaine,” then president of Columbia Pictures, ”and I told him my idea. He said, `Make the picture.`

”I couldn`t believe what I heard. He said, `Make the picture.` So I wrote the script with Rocco Urbisci and Paul Mooney; McElwaine liked it, and he gave me $17 million to shoot it.

”There was no interference, no flak. I couldn`t believe it. I was always waiting for the other shoe to drop, to have it taken away from me.”

The other shoe eventually did drop, but not on Pryor. Last month it dropped on McElwaine, who was fired, rumor has it, for approving pictures that his bosses doubted. What a tribute the smashing success of ”Jo Jo Dancer”

would be.

And what may contribute to the success of the film is its many humor-filled scenes. At regular intervals, we see Pryor do his thing in nightclubs, and he is screamingly funny as always.

But possibly the biggest laugh in the movie is the sight of Pryor, pretty much buck naked, imitating a stripper. A number of people who have seen the film at first can`t believe it`s really Pryor bumping and grinding away with his skinny little body. ”I really want to come clean with this film,” he said, ”and the strip number sure was one way of saying, `Here I am.` ”

Of course, curiosity-seekers will be looking for his burn scars in that scene and others, and they will go wanting, save for one moment in the strip when Pryor crosses his arms and folds the once-charred skin on his chest. He acknowledges that he left the moment in on purpose–a decision that speaks for itself.

In person, Pryor has to be made up for public performances, but off-camera his scars are mostly internal. He answers questions quietly, politely, almost timidly–just the opposite of what one would expect.

He`s not one of those comics who always has to be ”on.” He`s not, for example, a Mel Brooks, who can leave a fan in tears with gags during a short elevator ride. Nor is Pryor a Jerry Lewis, who carries with him a lighter that shoots out a huge, would-be comical flame.

”That`s not me, but that`s okay for Jerry Lewis,” Pryor said. ”I owe a lot to Jerry Lewis. His film `Sailor Beware` (1952) is one of the funniest pictures I`ve ever seen, and it made a big impression on me as a kid (of 11). I went out of the theater rubber-faced, going, `Wah, nah, wah,` just like Jerry. So if he wants to carry a funny lighter, it okay by me.”

For himself, Pryor now divides his time between a sprawling home in Los Angeles` San Fernando Valley and a smaller, getaway retreat in a relatively unpopulated part of the island of Maui.

Now single, after four attempts at sustaining a marriage relationship, Pryor will roam his homes with pet dogs. In Hawaii a couple years after the fire, he had one named, significantly enough, Girlfriend. She died.

Naturally, Pryor has a lot riding personally and professionally on ”Jo Jo Dancer.” If it`s a hit, he`ll be able to direct again.

But his future as a high-paid actor is secure. In North Carolina, he is at work on a comedy called ”Critical Condition,” with Pryor playing a con man faking insanity who winds up in a hospital that has a blackout, after which he is mistaken for a doctor.

Michael Apted (”Coal Miner`s Daughter”) directs, and that`s a good sign because often Pryor has placed himself in the hands of less-talented directors because, one suspects, studios didn`t want to incur huge costs beyond Pryor`s multimillion-dollar salary.

”Critical Condition” sounds like a comic ”One Flew Over the Cuckoo`s Nest.”

”Well, it`s not all comedy,” Pryor said. ”The serious side is what people can accomplish working together in a crisis. Lord knows I`ve had to rely on others to survive what I`ve been through. I`ve needed doctors and friends and a faith in God.

”I could make people laugh alone, but I could not save my life alone. And if there`s anything I`ve learned, it`s that it`s okay to say, `I need help.` I hope that people into drugs seeing my film get that point: It`s okay to say, `I need help.` ”

Originally Published: May 4, 1986 at 1:00 AM CST