Antoine Fuqua's latest film, the gritty cop drama "Brooklyn's Finest" is turning out to be a rather fine entrance into the world of film for young actress Shannon Kane.
The Michigan native currently holds a recurring role on the daytime soap opera All My Children. She studies various forms of the arts in high school, studied dance at Western Michigan University before setting out for Los Angeles and later New York where she was hired on at All My Children. The show and Kane recently moved back to Los Angeles. Before the soap opera, Kane found work in music videos and appeared on CSI: Miami and Entourage and in modeling. But it is film, she says, that is her passion.
Hanging on to that passion with this film, Kane has so far shared screen time with veteran actor Richard Gere, walked the red carpet with industry heavyweights and picked up the 2010 Breakthrough Actress Award at the Capri International Film Festival.
She recently took some time out to talk to the Yap about what attracted her to the film, what she's learned and what she's looking forward to for her, still developing, career.
"Initially," she says, "what drew me to this character was the big cast."
A big cast indeed. Fuqua's film stars Richard Gere, Wesley Snipes, Ethan Hawke, Don Cheadle and Ellen Barkin. It was Fuqua's attachment to direct the film, however, that sealed the deal.
"That's what got my attention," Kane says. "When he gave me the role, I was happy to accept."
There was a level of apprehension, however. Chantel is the beautiful young prostitute to Gere's aging, downtrodden New York cop and the role required a significant amount of nudity.
"There was controversy about how much of my body I was willing to show," she says. Fuqua quelled any fears.
"He had my back," Kane says. "And he knew what I was willing to do."
With that, she went about her research.
"I went to my first strip club," she laughs. Feeling a bit uncomfortable at first, experiencing a fear at being unsure of what to expect, turns out it wasn't long, she remembers, before she was hanging out in the dressing room, getting to know a little bit more about the lives of those women on stage.
"What I learned was all of these women were just regular women with dreams deferred," she says. Which was a relief for the actress who was, at first, cautious with her character.
"I was intimidated at first with the idea of Chantel," she says. That intimidation gave way to a sense of confidence and focus and soon she was "oblivious" to any insecurities, she says and embracing her character.
"It's about her getting her money," Kane says of Chantel. Still, there is an obvious affection the actress has developed for the character and she hopes audiences find the same in Chantel that she did. "I just hope that they recognize the sensitivity, tenderness and the vulnerability that she had," she says.
On set, it seems Kane has soaked up what she can from the time she shared with Gere and the guidance from her director.
"Antoine... There's this part of him that comes directly from his movies," she says. "He's got a kind of gangster mentality. He gives us actors lots of creative freedom."
Calling Gere "a very humble man" she says the actor taught her "that in no matter what place you are in, in your career, we are all still actors. We are all still coworkers."
So far, reviews for the film overall have been in Kane's words "melancholy." They are mixed, at best. Reviews for Kane's performance, however, aren't half bad. The New York Times called her turn as Chantel "especially fine" and while a review in Time Magazine designated her "an actress of incomparable hip flexibility" it also commented "may 'Brooklyn's Finest' do for her what 'Training Day' did for Eva Mendes."
"I didn't really have any expectations going into the film besides my best performance," she says. ""What I love was I was able to offer this sort of green, new, untouched virgin feeling."
Her debut does not come without a significant sense of risk. Mendes is a success story. Other actresses can get cursed by the prostitute role. It's hopeful that Kane will follow the route of the former - if anything that hope comes from the impression that she takes her craft seriously ans she's open to reap from it whatever she can.
"Acting is being a vessel of self-expression," she says. "It makes people relate to you. I just love the study of human behavior."
In some ways, it's easy to see how Kane might have related to her own character.
"It's a dog eat dog world," she continues. "It's a man's industry. Lots of times directors and fellow actors, anyone who feels they have more clout other than you can try to pressure you to do things for a role. We're looked at for our exterior appearance. Beauty is not a talent."
The future of Kane's career is still uncertain. She's looking forward to any future projects that might come her way. Still, there are a few certainties: she's learning, she's not done showing audiences what she's capable of and hers are some dreams that are no longer deferred.