THE EVOLUTION OF FRED DURST
No Bad Boy, No More
When most people hear the name Fred Durst, they instantly think of the front man to the popular rap-metal band, Limp Bizkit. They see a tattooed, red Yankees baseball cap-wearing rocker whom they either love or hate. Over the years, Durst has been given a lot of labels, be it a troublemaker, a Casanova or the Senior VP to Interscope Records. Durst now is ready to rock a new label –noted filmmaker. Taking his career into his own hands, Durst is focusing on directing “films with substance” starting with his first mainstream feature (and second film), The Longshots. If you thought you knew Fred Durst, take a closer look.
The Longshots starring actor/producer/former rapper Ice Cube and Akeelah and the Bee star KeKe Palmer is based on the true story of then eleven year old, Jasmine Plummer, who became the first female to play in a Pop Warner football tournament. The film came about due to a hand from super-producer Bob Weinstein (formerly of Miramax and now The Weinstein Co.) who caught Durst’s first film, The Education of Charlie Banks and loved it. “I was really interested in going somewhere different with Cube, says Durst. “I didn’t feel like directing an Are We There Yet. I appreciate his movies and I like them, but those are not the kind of movies."
Durst admits filmmaking was always his dream, but he never thought it would seriously happen being a regular kid from the south with a tough emotional background. Luckily, music became his salvation. “I found out I caged up a lot of my stuff. As that started to grow and [I began to] make music with Limp Bizkit, I still wanted to make movies, but no one would see me then. I was in Limp Bizkit and [mimicking critics] ‘you can’t direct movies you’re in a rap/rock band, you’re an idiot’.”
So Durst’s initial foray into directing started with him directing the music videos of his band. “Directing the videos was something I demanded that I did, because I came up for the vision of the band. I didn’t trust anyone to know what we were about. I didn’t know what I was doing. I just knew what I wanted to see. Durst tried to use Limp Bizkit’s success to break into films. “[Producers] all took the meetings ‘cause I was in Limp Bizkit, but a lot of the stuff I was getting offered were ridiculous, just really bad slasher films.”
Eventually, Durst’s luck changed. He got into the right meetings with the right producers and is now on his way to creating his third feature, Psycho Killer, written by Andrew Kevin Walker – the writer of Se7en (1995). “I think you have to be very serious about making films to be a filmmaker. There’s so much involved with it, and I’m very passionate about it. I like working with the actors. I’m in awe of an actor who truly has it, and they bring it. Ice Cube is one of those guys. He really fills in the blanks.” Durst says his directorial inspirations are Hal Ashby, Woody Allen, Stanley Kubrick, and Tom Ford.
Looks like he’s finally beat the “bad boy rep” and he’s glad that it’s behind him: “I think they had fun running with it. I just wasn’t prepared for anything to be the way it was. I was raised on a farm in North Carolina – there’s no press, no media. The best thing I found to do is not to react because I have to pass the test of time. I want to react because I was misunderstood and I want to defend myself, but defending yourself makes you look silly and full of sh--.”
And of course he wouldn’t be Fred Durst if there wasn’t yet another ace in the hole. In 2009, we will see the reunion of Limp Bizkit –including original band member Wes Borland. “No matter what I do and no matter what Wes does in his life we will always be known as the guys from Limp Bizkit. We just got to own it. There’s no point in being the elephant in the room.”
So what’s next for Fred Durst the man and not the artist? “[It’s a] constant evolution – somehow living and learning and being grateful for any mistakes that come my way.” And who could be mad at that?
By Aarona Browning
