FEATURE STORY
Nicole Ari Parker's Unimagined Life Of
Success
Nicole Ari Parker (left) with young Yara
Shahidi in "Imagine That", which opens on June 12 in the U.S. and Canada.
The film,
directed by Karey Kirkpatrick, also stars Eddie Murphy, Thomas Haden Church,
Ronny Cox and Vanessa Williams.
(Photo: Paramount Pictures)
By
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
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Thursday, June 4, 2009
It has been a good roll of the dice for actress Nicole Ari Parker -- that's not
to say that she hasn't suffered her share of setbacks in life -- but she has
been able to rise and roll with the punches to achieve success and move forward.
She spoke yesterday from Atlanta during a telephone conference before several of
the nation's journalists about her role in the new feature film comedy "Imagine
That", opening in the U.S. and Canada on June 12. The film is about
businessman Evan Danielson (Eddie Murphy), a slacker dad whose life is stuck in
a rut and whose daughter (Yara Shahidi) rejuvenates his work world with her
vivid imagination. Ms. Parker plays the mother who shares custody of the
child with Evan. The actress confessed that her memories of the film
weren't as strong as her onscreen child's imagination. "I shot the movie
in 2007 and all I remember is, 'I shot the movie with
Eddie
Murphy!'" When gently prodded she added that her role in the
film was to "represent all the moms out there but at the same time stay
lighthearted." She had a bigger challenge than that on the set however.
I had to try "at the same time . . . not [to] laugh my butt off watching Eddie
Murphy work."
Ms. Parker, a graduate of New York University's Tisch School Of The Arts, had a
lot of fun playing a parent and while it may have been a challenge to stop
laughing while Mr. Murphy did what he does best, the actress did not have much
difficulty portraying a mother because she is one in real life. She and
actor Boris Kodjoe, who met as co-stars on the set of the Showtime cable
television series "Soul Food", married in Germany in 2005 where Mr. Kodjoe was
raised. They have two children, Nicolas, who will be three this October,
and Sophie, four, born with spina bifida, a neurological birth defect that
affects the spinal column, nervous system, spinal cord and backbone.
Together Ms. Parker and Mr. Kodjoe started Sophie's Voice Foundation last year,
an charitable organization dedicated to family outreach, support and new
surgical procedures for those born with spina bifida. According to the
Foundation, spina bifida ("open spine") affects 3 of every 10,000 births in the
United States, with about 130,000 people in the country living with the
condition. An astounding 60 million women are at risk of giving birth to a
child with spina bifida. Ms. Parker and Mr. Kodjoe's Foundation, named in
honor of their daughter, is currently trying to raise close to $2 million for
phase one of the Xiao Procedure, a surgical procedure that reroutes the lumbar
to sacral nerves in the spine so as to allow self-initiation of bladder and
bowel functions, eliminating the need for catheterization. The Procedure
was expected to be performed in Atlanta on 20 children with spina bifida earlier
this year.
While Ms. Parker and her husband stay occupied with their foundation, they are
also busy with their acting careers, with Ms. Parker very excited about her next
project. "I hope I don't overtake the whole show with my enthusiasm," said
Ms. Parker of her role in Jasmine Guy's upcoming Atlanta stage production of
Ntozake Shange's 1975 book For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When
The Rainbow Was Enuf. "I am so ecstatic. It's so overdue.
I'm so grateful that she gave me the opportunity." Robin Givens also stars
in the stage adaptation, which will be on display for Atlanta denizens beginning
this summer.
Ms. Parker's resume is an illustrious and interesting mix of television, film
and stage, the last of which she relishes the most, with roles in Off-Broadway
productions of "Chicago", "House Of Lear" and "Romeo And Juliet" among other.
Last year on the big screen however, she could be seen in Malcolm D. Lee's
comedy
"Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins"
opposite Martin Lawrence. Ms. Parker was a standout in Paul Thomas
Anderson's 1997 film "Boogie Nights" as the sassy, perky Becky Barnett opposite
Don Cheadle's Buck Swope character. In between those films Ms. Parker has
had a wealth of roles and experiences working with many performers on the silver
screen, but it wasn't too long before she returned to lauding her megastar
co-star of "Imagine That".
"Eddie Murphy is just incredible to watch.
I mean, he's a genius. He's funny in real life. He's generous and
kind. Very serious but at the same time totally there for the other
actors." Ms. Parker cited her idolization of Mr. Murphy as a teenage girl,
no doubt laughing it up through an array of Murphy hit films and stand-up comedy
routines. In the 1980's and early 1990's Mr. Murphy was king, the world's
biggest box office draw before the Bruce Willises, Arnold Schwarzeneggers and
Tom Cruises took over. Things have changed since then, and these days Will
Smith occupies the summit with Mr. Cruise. Though a diverse crop of black
films and black actors have emerged in the United States over the last twenty
years, by contrast the mountain for black actresses in Hollywood remains a steep
climb.
"There's so much work to be done," said Ms. Parker, a central figure of Oil Of
Olay's nationwide advertising campaign in magazines such as Vogue and
Vanity Fair.
"I think, you know, we underestimate the brilliance of someone like
Halle Berry. More often than not . . . she really, really
represents not just the first African-American woman to win an Oscar for leading
lady -- but what a lot of people don't realize about her is that she fights for
everything she gets. Nothing is given to her. From Dorothy Dandridge
to whatever movie she does, she fights and spearheads those projects and speaks
to studios and really makes those things happen. That's where it's at,"
said Ms. Parker, who participates in Habitat For Humanity, the organization that
builds homes for single mothers around the world.
"I think we have to encourage our black actresses to be more proactive and
really try to find those passion projects and fight to get up and get them done.
They can be done. People want to see them. Stories that cross
demographic lines. We just need one of them or two of them to be a hit and
you know, everybody else jumps the bandwagon. But we're all fighting for
the same wife role or the same girlfriend or the same sidekick when really, you
know, a lot of us, more of us, could be fighting for those lead roles, those
blockbuster roles, those summer movie roles. So there's a lot of work to
be done. We just need to encourage each other," concluded Ms. Parker,
sounding hopeful. In late January of this year
Viola Davis and Taraji P. Henson were Oscar nominated for their film
work in 2008, and in 2007
Jennifer Hudson won the supporting actress
Oscar for her work in
"Dreamgirls", a film for which Mr. Murphy was
also nominated for his supporting work. On TNT cable television within the
next few weeks viewers will be able to see Jada Pinkett Smith ("Bamboozled",
"Collateral",
"Reign Over Me") in the title role of the new
series "Hawthorne", an resident nurse at a hospital in the South. Ms.
Pinkett Smith also produced the show.
Nicole Ari Parker has finished shooting her next film, "Pastor Brown", currently
in post production. With "Brown", "Imagine That", and her role in "Colored
Girls" on stage, Ms. Parker has a good summer lined up, and her fight to make
living with spina bifida less uncomfortable and cumbersome for her daughter and
thousands of others continues. Nicole Ari Parker is leading a life of very
real, unimagined success -- and challenges.
"Imagine That", directed by Karey Kirkpatrick, opens in theaters across the
U.S. and Canada on June 12.
Sophie's Voice Foundation website:
http://www.sophiesvoicefoundation.org
Nicole Ari Parker's official website:
http://www.nicoleariparkeronline.com
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