This week, 5 Questions With … takes the camera to Jamaica’s most popular contemporary screen and stage actor, Paul Campbell. He has enjoyed defining leading roles in films such as Dancehall Queen, The Lunatic, Third World Cop, Shottas and Out the Gate. A graduate of Kingston College – and naturally immensely proud of his purple blood – Campbell is big on philanthropy and his giving back has seen him being recognised with a fistful of awards, and even an official Paul Campbell Day, celebrated on April 13 in Florida. One of his projects is ‘Shoot with the Camera, Not the Gun’.
What have you been doing for the past five years?
For the past five years I have been teaching, I’ve been directing, I’ve been writing and I’ve been doing the usual acting in front of the camera. But these days I want to take more control of things. It’s always great to be the actor but it’s even better to be producing. The other day I was shooting a film called Rags to Reggae … and I go back to Orlando in the next couple of months to shoot the rest.
(a) Are you enjoying it as much as being in front of the camera?
Immensely. Because there are some stories that I have always wanted told and now I am able to tell them. You grow up watching all these different movies and you never notice but what it does, it becomes a part of you. So, telling stories becomes a part of you and it is important and that’s why for me it’s important that I control the narrative.
(b) You are a painter, actor, teacher and producer. Do you have a favourite role?
No, it’s a feeling. If I’m being the fine artist, I am creating from out of the head because I think again it is an important thing to do. Because like how you saw in the caves … they had etchings in the caves and that way we were able to learn about the commerce of the people, how they behaved and their way of life. So it’s important that if yuh can’t write it like, then, as Miss Lou used to say, draw it. I’m an artiste across the board … the complete consummate artiste.
What motivates you to give back?
My life. If you are given an opportunity at life, it is important that you pass it on. Once yuh born on di Earth yah, you have to help … that’s the first law of life. Coming from a third world country … and Jamaica certainly ain’t third world anymore … but coming from this kind of situation it only helps and that’s why it is important that we tell our own story. And when anyone would come to me about helping or assisting in any way I am onboard. I’ve been a victim of not knowing how it’s done. And how else will they know if I don’t do it, or if people like us don’t pass it on?
You have an iconic line in Dancehall Queen. How did that happen and did you know that it would resound in such a way?
Why it resonates with us … and by extension the rest of the world is for us it is real. That’s how we speak … we interject a piece of profanity in the sentence. “Walk and live! Talk and [profanity not said] dead!” You know he’s serious. And the greatest thing about film, or any movie, is its authenticity and that’s exactly what that little piece of magic was. It’s what is called magic happens on the set. And it wasn’t written, it just came. That’s the greatest thing if you are an actor and you get a director who allows you your eccentricities … similar to when I did The Lunatic many years ago and I went out on the streets.
In your most recent film, Love After Holidays, now showing at the Carib, you are not a villain. How come?
No, I’m not a villain … refreshingly so. When the producer Jacinth [Headlam] asked me if I would play this role as her Dad I jumped at the opportunity. People are not used to seeing me play the good guy and there is a quiet, nice side to Paul Campbell. There are a lot of Jamaican stories about fathers who are not in their kid’s lives and that is who Mr Lawrence is. And when you do see me, it is a redemption story for him, coming back, hoping that his daughter will accept him and all of that. It is a pivotal part of the film that I am happy that I got to put down so people could see the other side.
BRAWTA:
What makes Paul Campbell Jamaican?
Jamaica a mi life. Mi modda a Jamaican, mi fada is a Jamaican … mi go a Jamaican school. A jus’ later days mi go a foreign cause it is important that I enhance my creativity. But never ever mistake it … me is 110 per cent Jamaican. When I am out there in the field, yuh know wah dem call mi? Di Jamaican actor. Yuh eva hear dem a seh di American actor? And that’s a title mi love. Who else name so?
