Random Behind-The-Scenes Stories About 'Kids,' The Most Controversial Movie Of The '90s (10 items)

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  (#10) Miramax Hired A Team Of Lawyers Including Alan Dershowitz To Lobby Against The NC-17 Rating

  Upon acquiring the distribution rights for Kids, which had received the dreaded NC-17 rating for its content by the MPAA, Miramax hired famed constitutional law attorney Alan Dershowitz to appeal the rating.

  Calling the board’s rating “disempowering of every parent in America,” Dershowitz argued that the MPAA’s rating would not only limit the screens upon which it could play, but also prevent parents from taking their own kids to see it, and in effect stifle open conversation about HIV, unprotected sex, and drug use.

  The MPAA didn’t budge, however, and Kids was released unrated by the newly formed distribution company Shining Excalibur, offering the world a depraved peek into '90s New York City skate culture.
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  (#3) After Mia Kirshner Was Fired, The Part Of Jenny Was Given To Chloë Sevigny, A Shop Girl At The Time

  Now well-known for her work in American Psycho, American Horror Story, and the HBO series Big Love, Golden Globe-winning actress Chloë Sevigny made her feature film debut in Kids, as a young girl who discovers she is HIV-positive.

  But Sevigny wasn't the first choice for the role. In fact, Canadian actress Mia Kirshner had originally been tapped for the part, but was let go two days prior to the start of production, as she apparently didn't quite gel with the rest of the cast.

  Sevigny, who had previously met Kids writer Harmony Korine in New York's Washington Square Park, where much of the action in the film takes place, was bumped to the role of Jennie from the small peripheral part of Joy for which she'd originally been cast. 

  At 19 years of age and with no professional film acting experience, Sevigny recalls of her reaction to the audience response to Kids upon its release: 

  I remember people hugging me and thinking it really happened. Kids crying, "Oh, my God, I feel this way, too," or "I have HIV." I was happy that it was resonating with kids. It also made me wary of being a public figure and giving over your anonymity.
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  (#8) The Producers Were Worried About Going To Jail Due To The Film’s Content

  At the time of production, no other feature film came close to the racy content contained in Larry Clark's opus. Because of the ages of the cast members and the content of the film, the producers were on edge about the film and making sure everything remained on the right side of the law.

  "There was some law that you cannot show a nipple if (the actress) is under 18, and if you did, it was like a criminal offense," says Kids producer Cary Woods. "So, we had to have some special effects house smooth it over. It was more expensive than anything else we did on the movie."

  Regardless, the controversy around Kids would play some part in the success of the film, which went on to earn $7.4 million in the North American box office and $20 million worldwide.
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  (#5) Many Other Kids Were Cast From A Flyer Created By Clark Looking For Inexperienced 'Real' NYC Kids

  First-time director Larry Clark met 19-year-old aspiring screenwriter and skateboarder Harmony Korine in Washington Square Park and tapped him to write the feature script for Kids (which he completed in one week). The filmmakers were then determined to cast people as real, and as gritty, as the world in which their story was based.

  To accomplish this, the production pounded the New York City pavement, pasting up and passing out flyers in an effort to round out their cast with real New York denizens. The ploy worked, with Clark hiring mostly non-professional actors, including Rosario Dawson, Chloë Sevigny, Leo Fitzpatrick, and Justin Pierce. 

  And it didn't stop there. As Clark recalls:

  The four boys on the couch at the end of the party (in Kids), those boys just showed up from San Francisco, and came over because they knew the skaters (we'd cast), and I saw them and I said, "Man, I have to do something." So, I stuffed them on the couch and said, "Talk about this, talk about this"... it was magic, probably the best scene in the film, incredible.
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  (#1) Justin Pierce Was Arrested After A Fist Fight And Had To Shoot Scenes With A Broken Wrist

  While the casting of actual New York City skateboarders in Kids provided a sense of hyper-realism to the film, it also provided the production with some challenges. One of them came in the form of actor Justin Pierce, who inhabits the role of the chaotic, violent Casper.

  "(Pierce) was super magnetic, and there was something really beautiful about him," recalls screenwriter Harmony Korine. "At the same time, he was completely uncontrollable. He went for it all of the time, and that's part of what got him into trouble."

  One mid-production incident revolved around a physical altercation involving Pierce and New York police officers during off-hours. Pierce sustained a broken wrist and received two days in jail, which delayed the final day of filming. Out of concern for film continuity (not to mention the limited budget), Pierce finished shooting Kids upon his release from lockup with broken bones - and without a cast.

  "I had such a crush on Justin when we did the movie," Rosario Dawson said. "He was such a mess."

  Pierce took his own life in 2000 at the age of 25.
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  (#9) Miramax Had To Create A New Distribution Company Called Shining Excalibur In Order To Release 'Kids'

  With Kids completed, now disgraced co-founder of Miramax Harvey Weinstein acquired the film for distribution, but given the film’s gritty content, and the fact that the MPAA had slapped it with an NC-17 rating for its depictions of teenage sex, violence, and drug use, he was in a conundrum.

  Additionally, Weinstein had recently sold Miramax to the Walt Disney Company, which wasn’t in the business of theatrically releasing NC-17 films. With Kids making considerable waves at the time at both Sundance and Cannes and with timing an issue, Weinstein’s solution was to form a new distribution company, Shining Excalibur Films, created solely to shepherd the release of Kids, which debuted unrated.

  "It would be impossible to make that film now," said Kids screenwriter Harmony Korine. "You could never get away with it."

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