Gus Van Sant

Shines a light on the unknowns

IN Finding Forrester, indie film director Gus Van Sant, 48, revisits familiar ground. As in his Oscar-winning 1997 movie Good Will Hunting, a gifted young man (this time, 16-year-old African-American newcomer Robert Brown) at a mostly white prep school stumbles into a friendship with a reclusive novelist and professor (Sean Connery). It changes them both, eventually leading Brown's character to a life-altering choice.

Van Sant says his fascination with underdogs is rooted in his own experience of often feeling like an outsider. He tells us more:

What one word sums up your heroes?

Dispossessed.

Why do you find them interesting?

There are always groups of people that are almost scapegoated. I suppose in Finding Forrester it would be the African-American community as a whole. It's kind of an ingrained injustice that is hard to get under control, but it is an injustice.

Yes, and in this film, it's institutionalized in the school where Connery's and Brown's characters meet ...

[... when Brown's character] comes under racial bias from [another white] teacher. Besides the racial issues, it's about two friends.

Is it true you found Rob Brown in an open casting call?

He answered a flier we sent out. He came in and seemed to be an amazing actor. He could just naturally do the job.

Sounds like a happy ending --something few of your films have. Do you now believe in happy endings?

Sure. Yeah, I believe in sentimental endings.

-- Michele Hatty