Publication: The San Diego Union-Tribune [US]
Date: April 15, 1990
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Title: "View From Graffiti Bridge"
Written By: Karla Peterson

It is a bright spring morning in the palace Prince built, and the man of the house isn't talking.

"Don't even wave your camera in his direction," a staff member warns a photographer. "If you do, a bodyguard will come and rip your film out."

Welcome to Paisley Park Studios, a $10 million recording and sound stage complex where the guards hunt for cameras, the staff harbors good intentions, and the owner doesn't talk to nobody no how.

Not even about his new movie. In August, Prince will unveil "Graffiti Bridge," a musical that could be a follow-up hit to 1984's "Purple Rain" (much of the cast is the same); it could also be the minimogul's third self-directed and starring bomb in a row, following "Under the Cherry Moon" and "Sign o' the Times."

Boffo hit or indulgent boondoggle? Prince will never tell. But in the comfort of Paisley Park's indoor courtyard, the cast and crew members talk happily about "Grafitti Bridge," a fairy tale featuring heroes and villains, mouthy babes and triumphant reunions, plus the rare appearance by the quiet man who rules the kingdom.

Occasionally, a dark shadow passes overhead, but no one seems to notice. It's just the boss, dressed in black, slipping silently across the second-story catwalk.

The storytelling is up to everyone else. He has work to do. Once upon a time ...

(The plot)

The sun is streaming through the skylight, making the pastel leather couches gleam like plastic Easter eggs. Visiting filmmaker Spike Lee is getting a tour (unlike the press, Lee is allowed to watch Prince work), and George Clinton is just waking from a nap. It is 10:30 a.m.

"This is the way you make a movie," Clinton says, peering through a forest of multicolored braids. "You get in early, and then you fall asleep until they call you."

Clinton didn't get much sleep the night before, thanks to an impromptu jam session that kept Prince, Clinton and many of the cast members up past 6 a.m. And while the 49-year-old leader of the groundbreaking Parliament and Funkadelic groups has participated in many an all-nighter in his day, Clinton is still a little muzzy around the edges.

But not too muzzy to talk about his movie debut.

"I just play myself, just a funky dude hanging around town," he says with a beatific smile. "Morris is doggin' me out, and I'm just your average funkster trying to get the funk thing going."

Trying to keep the funk thing going seems to be what "Graffiti Bridge" is all about. George Clinton, Mavis Staples, Morris Day and Prince play nightclub owners in Seven Corners, a shady area in a stylized town (almost all of the film was shot on the Paisley Park sound stage) that may or may not be based on Minneapolis.

In the film, Prince plays the Kid, a reprise of his role in "Purple Rain." Once again, he is fighting with Morris Day, who has grown from the self-centered dandy of "Purple Rain" to a rich, power-hungry Snidely Whiplash type who struggles with the artier Kid for ownership of a club called the Glam Slam.

"It's just the ever-present syndrome of people trying to stop the funk," Clinton says. "But in the end we're all funkin' together."

Clinton closes his eyes and smiles.

"I think it's what you'd call a happy ending."

Boy meets band.

Boy loses band.

(The plot thickens)

If part of the "Graffiti Bridge" story is the struggle between the Kid's music and Morris' money, another part is the reunion between Prince and the Time.

In 1981, Prince gathered together seven of Minneapolis' hottest R&B performers and the Time was born. Three years and three albums later, the band disintegrated, leaving fans with wistful memories of high-stepping choreography and skin-tight dance tunes, along with rumors of unspecified feuds between Prince and the band, and later, of reunions that never materialized.

But that's history. If you want to discuss the present, you have to leave Paisley Park and Chanhassen for the affluent Minneapolis suburb of Edina, where former Time keyboardist Jimmy Jam Harris (better known as Jimmy Jam) is talking about "Graffiti Bridge" and the group reunion from the comfort of his very own recording studio.

"Really, the Time was trying to get back together for a while," Jam said from his sleek black office in the Flyte Tyme studio complex he shares with partner (and fellow Time member) Terry Lewis. "Mostly there were a lot of miscues, and people running off at the mouth about things that had never happened, or things that weren't ready to happen yet. We were reading that we were together before we were even talking to each other."

It hasn't helped that the group members are now powerful individuals with careers and business managers and lawyers and God knows what else to worry about. Day and background singer Jerome Benton are acting and singing. Guitarist Jesse Johnson, keyboardist Monte Moir and drummer Jellybean Johnson are playing and producing.

And Jam and Lewis are running Flyte Tyme, where the duo has been producing and/or writing a slew of gold and platinum records, including Janet Jackson's "Control" and her new LP, "Rhythm Nation 1841."

Once they got past the red tape and commitments, the Time men converged on Paisley Park to have some fun, do a bit of acting (they play Day's band and henchmen), and cook up the kind of nasty noise that made them one of the best R&B bands of the '80s. There is no talk of touring, or of recording beyond the songs that will appear on the "Graffiti Bridge" sound track. But there could be.

"We'd like to see all that happen, but nothing happens if you push it," Jam says, tugging at the brim of his black baseball cap. "It's a real kick being back with the fellows. We've had a good degree of success outside of the band, and that feeling is the only thing that's been missing. Now that we have that, it's like having our cake and eating it too."

Meanwhile, back at the Park...

(Comic relief and Prince Moment No. 1)

Feel like taking a break from all these good vibrations? Good, because T. C. Ellis is ready to talk.

"I've been bugging Prince to let me rap for five years now. Everywhere he went, I'd go over and start rappin' on him," Ellis said, squinting up at one of Paisley Park's many skylights.

"Then I did this rap about Batman. I called up Miko ( Prince's guitarist) and had him lay down some tracks, and we got it pressed, and they started playing it on the radio. It was right when the movie came out, so they'd play Prince's song ( Batdance'), and then they'd play mine."

Ellis settles into the cream-colored couch and his big, friendly face splits into a big, self-satisfied grin.

"A month later, Prince called me up and said, Come out to Paisley and bring your stuff.' I think the Batman' thing did it. I had a good song with a good vibe, and I had his guitar player playing on it. I guess I was getting kind of close to home."

T.C. Ellis bugged the boss, and it worked. He was subsequently signed to Prince's Paisley Park record label, and given a part in "Graffiti Bridge," where he plays a pesty rapper not unlike himself.

It's not revenge, exactly, but it sure feels sweet. Especially since Prince and this court jester go way back.

"I've known Prince for a long time. He was close friends with my sister," the 26-year-old Ellis said. "I remember one time we were having a barbecue in our back yard, and we noticed that Prince wasn't around. So I went inside looking for him, and when I came through the house, I saw Prince in the kitchen talking to my mom. We were all outside dancing and eating, and he was just sitting on a stool talking to her. He's kind of quiet that way."

Girl talk

(The love interests)

Bo Jackson may know baseball (and football and marketing), but Prince knows women. And he knows that a successful movie has to have at least one beautiful woman to keep things interesting.

"Grafitti Bridge" has three.

"I'm the girl,' " says Jill Jones, tugging at the sexy black minidress that proves "girl" might be a bit of an understatement.

"I'm Aura. She's sort of a spiritual being who has a mission," Ingrid Chavez says in a soft, out-of-body whisper.

"I'm still in costume," Robin Power says, glancing at the smoking jacket that serves as an abbreviated dress. "Sorry about that."

One after another, they tap, tap across the dazzling white tile floor for their interviews. Jones has known Prince for years, and she records for his Paisley Park record label. She plays the Kid's girlfriend, an ambitious singer named Jill. She wants to perform, but the Kid is not encouraging. She has jet-black hair and deep green eyes. Eventually, the Kid comes around.

Ingrid Chavez met Prince when they locked eyes in a crowded Minneapolis club.

"We had an instant attraction, but it was not necessarily a physical one," she says, shifting uncomfortably against the slippery leather couch. "We feel we were brought together for a purpose, that this all happened for a reason."

In the movie, Chavez plays the Kid's spiritual guide. In real life, she writes poetry and takes care of her 5-year-old son. She is 25 and as delicate as a porcelain doll. Prince is producing her debut album.

Like other members of the "Graffiti Bridge" cast, 24-year-old Robin Power plays a character that has her name and many of her personality traits. She met Prince in Los Angeles, where he told her he didn't like the music on her demo tape. He didn't like her biography or her photograph, either. But he liked her lyrics and her voice. Now, the former "Soul Train" dancer is recording a rap album for Paisley Park and playing Morris Day's outspoken girlfriend in the movie.

And when she has time, she is saying her prayers.

"I have so many things to be thankful for," she says, pushing back her mass of curly hair. "This is my biggest dream come true. When I was 15, I was waiting in line for Prince concert tickets, and now I'm here. God is definitely smiling on me with all his teeth."

Come to mama

(The good influence and Prince Moment No. 2)

Jerome Benton is sprinting through the lobby with a basketball. Robin Power is trying out a new pair of roller skates, almost knocking over a fern in the process. Upstairs, Prince's two doves -- Divinity and Majesty -- rattle in their cage, while a photographer takes a picture of Spike Lee taking a picture of George Clinton.

In the midst of the late-afternoon bustle, Mavis Staples, 50, is making herself comfortable, secure in the knowledge that her children are staying out of trouble. At least for the moment.

For her role in "Graffiti Bridge," the warm-hearted R&B singer got a new pair of dangling braids ( Prince's suggestion) and a part made just for her.

"Being Melody Cool is really about being me," Staples rasps, her voice a casualty to last night's jam session. "In the movie, I'm more or less an older woman who the kids come to when they need an uplifting word. That's a good job to have. Prince reads me pretty good."

Like many of her fellow cast members, Staples records for Prince's Paisley Park record label. Prince co-produced last year's "Time Waits for No One," Staples' first project outside the Staples Singers in almost 15 years. The album was not a big seller, but it did get Staples back in the spotlight. It also gave her a lesson in Princely behavior.

"After I got signed to Paisley, I got a call saying Prince wanted to meet me in L.A.," she says, her brown eyes sparkling. "So I went to his dressing room and stayed there for an hour, but he wouldn't talk to me. He was just too shy.

"I started thinking, I've got to find a way to communicate with him if we're going to work together.' So I went back to my hotel, and it came to me that I should start writing letters to him.

"When I let him into my life like that, he was just like a little kid. He got looser and looser with me. By the time I met him in London a few months later, I couldn't stop him from talking."

And they all lived happily ever after

(The big picture and a fleeting Prince Moment)

From his office outside Paisley Park's main courtyard, Peter MacDonald can see almost everything.

He can see Mavis Staples croaking into the kitchen telephone. He can see Morris Day avoiding the reporters. He can see the bodyguards keeping tabs on the MTV film crew. What the executive producer of "Graffiti Bridge" can't see is the film's director and star, and MacDonald isn't worried in the least.

" Prince's abilities as a director weren't a concern for me, and they weren't a concern for Warner Brothers," the unflappable Englishman says. (Warner Bros. studio is distributing the film.) "The idea is his. The script is his. The music is his. It seemed like a good bet to put him in charge."

In his 30-plus years in the movie business, MacDonald has worked with his share of talented eccentrics. As a camera operator, he worked with Bob Fosse on "Cabaret" and Barbra Streisand on "Yentl." He directed Sylvester Stallone in "Rambo III" and acted as executive producer on Stallone's "Tango & Cash."

As the executive producer of "Graffiti Bridge," MacDonald helps Prince keep his various hats on straight. And for the most part, his job isn't as tough as people think.

" Prince is a very hard worker. We're already two days ahead of schedule," MacDonald says. "That's probably because he doesn't sleep. And when he doesn't sleep, he writes another song, and that ends up going into the film. When he comes in humming, we all know we're in trouble."

Between now and August, there will be more bulletins from the Bridge. Music videos will be released. Sneak previews will be scheduled. Prince might even talk to Rolling Stone. And maybe, just maybe, someone will find out why the film is called "Graffiti Bridge."

Until then, there are the words of MacDonald, which promise a lot without giving too much away.

"I think the film is very daring and very exciting," he says. "There is music. There is a mystical quality to the story. There is love in it. There is a conflict between two opposing men. It's slightly surreal and entertaining. I don't think people will be bored."

It is an assessment Prince would appreciate, if he were around. In his office/studio apartment on the second floor, something moves behind the stained-glass windows. It could be Prince. Or it could be a cloud passing over the setting sun. In this light, it is hard to tell.