VARIOUS: "Blood Diamond" stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly, and Djimon Honsou talk about Africa and the Kimberley process.

Record ID: 749343

  • Title: VARIOUS: "Blood Diamond" stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly, and Djimon Honsou talk about Africa and the Kimberley process.
  • Date: 14th December 2006
  • Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (RECENT) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) EDWARD ZWICK, DIRECTOR OF "BLOOD DIAMOND", SAYING: "Djimon (Hounsou) is a West African man. He brings the experience that you can even estimate it's value but Leo is a man, is an actor who does his homework and he came weeks and weeks in advance. We met mercenaries, we met smugglers, we met people from NGO's (Non- government Organizations). He worked with the weapons, we worked on the accent, he worked in the bush. He was determined to inhabit this character. The great actors, and I have worked with some really great ones, they are sponges."
  • Embargoed: 29th December 2006 12:00
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  • Reuters ID: LVA6OUSGR5188Q203R0ZIZFQV2JO
  • Story Text: The message in new movie "Blood Diamond" is clear: know the history of a precious gem before buying it.
    From the early days of Hollywood, writers, directors and producers have cranked out films that addressed social or political issues, including 1915's controversial "The Birth of a Nation" and 1967's "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," both of which dealt -- in vastly different ways -- with race in the United States.
    As a result, message movies are mostly made by independent filmmakers, as was this year's global warming documentary "An Inconvenient Truth." It earned $24 million at U.S. box offices and became the No. 3 documentary of its kind by luring environmentally conscious audiences more than mass markets. Message films that do win big audiences and major studio backers often center on lesser known topics or are released well after controversies were addressed by governments or other institutions. Such is the case with "Blood Diamond."
    The movie, which debuted on Friday (December 8) in The States, is at first an adventure thriller with big-name stars, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Connelly, who can lure mass audiences.
    After watching the plight of residents of poverty-hit Mozambique for six months, actor DiCaprio admits that he had returned home to Hollywood after filming his new film 'Blood Diamond' with a new perspective on life. DiCaprio is handing over money to support an orphan girl he met while filming new movie in South Africa. The 32- year old actor was so touched by the youngster, who is being raised in an orphanage, he decided to pledge funds not just towards her upbringing, but to the orphanage itself.
    "You spend six months there and your with an all African crew and you have children on set that were child soldiers and children whose both parents who have been lost as a result of AIDS and you can't help but be completely effected by it and have a complete different outlook on life. As a result we the film community try to give back to the community that we shot in and the studio matched that and working with orphanages as a result of it. Trying to help them out but it makes you come back to the United States just with a different outlook on you know the way we live out lives. We have not much to complain about. If they can maintain a positive attitude about life so can we and it is the responsibility of us as the richer countries of the world to give back to a place like that and try top help some of the problems there," DiCaprio said in an interview in Los Angeles, California.
    But the movie does not hide the fact that its chief villains are "conflict diamonds," which are illegally mined gems whose profits buy guns and fuel wars.
    "This did happen years ago in Sierra Leone in 1999 but there has been a UN report that there are conflict diamonds from Cote d'Ivoire that are reaching the market place so it's still a problem. I think everyone agrees that the Kimberly process, which is a certification scheme to keep conflict diamonds off the market, needs to be supported and strengthened," Oscar winner Connelly told Reuters.
    The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) is a process designed to certify the origin of diamonds from sources which are free of conflict. The process was established in 2002 to prevent rebel groups and their rivals from financing their war aims from diamond sales. The certification scheme aims at preventing these conflict diamonds (also known as "blood diamonds") from entering the mainstream rough diamond market. It was set up to try to assure consumers that by purchasing diamonds they were not financing war and human rights abuses.
    "Blood Diamond" tells of a bond between an ex-mercenary from Zimbabwe (DiCaprio), who smuggles diamonds out of war-torn Sierra Leone in the late 1990s, and a poor fisherman (Djimon Hounsou) whose son is kidnapped by rebels and trained to kill.
    "I was so compelled to be a part of this film and I really desperately wanted to hopefully the studio will choose me to play this role. The fact that Leo came on and was so supportive of the cause and make sure that this story was told. He came and spent five months with me in South Africa in Mozambique in very difficult conditions to shine light on the issue, because you are dealing with child soldiers dealing with refugees the displacement of the people of this country into neighbouring countries and the corruption throughout the continent is devastating," Honsou said.
    Indeed, Africa generates around $8.4 billion (US dollars) worth of diamonds each year, and the industry employs about 10 million people globally, according to the World Diamond Council. While conflict diamonds are still a problem, the United Nations-backed Kimberley Process in 2003 has helped reduce their numbers, and now the industry claims that more than 99 percent of all diamonds comes from conflict-free sources. A council spokesman said attention to the movie has helped it focus people on improvements in the trade, and others noted a recent "KP Plenary" strengthened the Kimberley Process.
    DiCaprio has seemed a reluctant movie star ever since he broke out in the 1997 blockbuster 'Titanic.'
    But after 2006, with 'The Departed' and 'Blood Diamond,' two awards-season movies released back to back, DiCaprio will have to work harder than ever to avoid the spotlight.
    "Djimon is a West African man. He brings the experience that you can even estimate it's value but Leo, is a man, is an actor who does his homework and he came weeks and weeks in advance. We met mercenaries, we met smugglers, we met people from NGO's (Non- government Organizations). He worked with the weapons, we worked on the accent, he worked in the bush. He was determined to inhabit this character. The great actors, and I have worked with some really great ones, they are sponges," Zwick said.
    DiCaprio is slated next to portray Theodore Roosevelt for Scorsese, and take on a thriller like Robert Ludlum's 'The Chancellor Manuscript.'
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