America 1982-Chapter 400 - 49: Martin’s Fruit_4
Martin opened his eyes irritably and sized up the other party, "Otherwise what? Should I call Los Angeles and ask my LA brothers to rush over in a week? You simply don’t understand. This isn’t me showing weakness; it’s me worrying about the film crew losing more money for every day we’re delayed."
"I... sir, if I could save you this hundred thousand dollars—could you give me, not fifty, but thirty thousand of it?" the young black man named Albert tentatively asked a question.
As soon as Martin heard he could save a lot of money, he became interested, "You can save me that money?"
"I should be able to, sir. I know that street gang, and I’ve dealt with them before."
"No problem, if you can solve this issue for me, I’ll give you thirty thousand dollars," Martin said.
The young man asked, "May I borrow your cell phone for a moment?"
Martin handed the young man the mobile phone from beside him. Taking the phone, the young man sat down at a distance and dialed a number.
"You’re a gang member too?" Martin asked curiously.
Albert was brief on the call and returned the phone to Martin, shaking his head and smiling, "Not exactly, I’m a member of Black Fruit."
"Black Fruit? What is that?"
"It’s a black neighborhood organization. We voluntarily patrol neighborhoods with racial discrimination, promote safety knowledge, and prevent black people from being harmed by whites," Albert explained:
"We used to rely on community donations, but then those whites called us slanderers, malicious detractors of the white image, and labeled us as a black extremist organization. They prohibited the community from funding our operations, so now we just have to find another way to make money."
"So now, it’s black street gangs extorting black people, and how do you plan to drive them away?" Martin asked curiously.
Neighborhood assistance organizations are not a rare phenomenon in the United States, but Martin had never seen one labeled as an extremist organization.
"Our members all possess security guard certificates and have legal gun licenses," Albert said to Martin with a smile:
"We won’t chase away our own people, but we can scare them off."
...
Spike Lee looked helplessly at the group of black youths in the distance with faces showing fearless expressions born of ignorance. It was such a dark irony that his film, which depicted a young black man killed by a young white man to highlight racial discrimination, required paying protection money to black gangs to complete the shooting during its production.
Furthermore, upon learning he needed to reshoot scenes, those greedy people came knocking again, forcing him to pay even more money.
"Spike, Danny’s flight is at nine o’clock tomorrow morning. If you can’t finish the scenes tonight, you’ll need to negotiate schedules with us again..." The assistant to Danny Ero, the white lead actor of the film, came up to Spike Lee and quietly reminded him.
Spike interrupted frustratedly, "I know, I know! Just give me some time. I’m trying to get someone here to deal with the trouble!"
He even started to regret why he took on the roles of the producer, director, screenwriter all at once, which meant he had to deal with every kind of issue himself. In hindsight, he should’ve taken the money from those big companies, because shooting films for them didn’t involve dealing with such troubles; they had people specialized in handling these matters.
Or to put it bluntly, those black street gangs wouldn’t dare to mess with those big white companies.
"The family could only come up with forty thousand dollars, and it’s all here. But I’ve negotiated with them, Spike~" His associate director, who was also his younger brother Sinclair Lee, hung up the phone and came over, handing Spike a bag stuffed with bills:
"A promissory note. The rest to be paid within a week at the latest. You sign it, they take the money and the note, then we can continue shooting."
Spike looked at his crew, who were all waiting for his decision. He had no choice. If they didn’t wrap up the scenes tonight, the lead actor Danny Ero would have to return to California tomorrow to shoot another movie. Arranging for his time again was uncertain and would warrant another round of payments, including additional labor costs; the total loss would likely far exceed a hundred thousand dollars.
As for Martin’s offer over the phone to come to help, Spike didn’t take it seriously. Martin was just Tommy’s driver and bodyguard, not Tommy himself.
"I called Susan. Susan agreed to let me enjoy a three-day vacation in New York to be with my parents before heading back to California," Vanessa approached Spike at that moment and said.
Spike looked at Vanessa gratefully. Vanessa was the actress Tommy specifically recommended he cast. Initially, Spike felt that Vanessa was too beautiful and not quite fit for his more realistic film. Nevertheless, since Tommy was an investor putting in three million dollars, Spike, after much hesitation, ultimately decided to give the significant part meant for his own sister Joie Lee to Vanessa, though he was somewhat reluctant at the time, as he had always taken care of his family in his filmmaking ever since his first short film, his three younger brothers, and sister being an essential part of his movies.
However, to his surprise, Vanessa’s album and TV series became very popular among the black community thereafter. The media’s portrayal of her previous scandal shifted from a black Jezebel to a black woman victimized by whites, garnering substantial support and empathy from the black community. This ironically brought more attention to his film, especially when he learned that there were insufficient materials for the movie and reshoots were necessary, Vanessa didn’t hesitate for a moment and immediately came to New York to start working without any diva-like attitude, which made Spike extremely grateful to her.
