I’ve seen The Prince, and yes: Those Biden echoes are, initially, undeniably forceful. But gradually, the movie also tells its own story. It’s a wild
I’ve seen The Prince, and yes: Those Biden echoes are, initially, undeniably forceful. But gradually, the movie also tells its own story. It’s a wild ride of a polemic that asks larger questions about American political power, where it resides, and how its narratives tend to go unchallenged.
The idea for the movie did not originate with Mamet, but director and producer Cameron Van Hoy, who started in the industry as a teen actor before pivoting to filmmaking. “I was just thinking about the world and America, and started examining privilege and power and addiction,” he says. “There’s this lack of accountability, for everyone who’s in charge, that doesn’t exist with regular people. And if there can be no consequences, there can be no change.” He brought the project to Scott Haze, whom he’s known since he was 18 years senior. “I asked him to be in my first short film, and he was. It’s been a fast friendship ever since,” Van Hoy says.
Haze has built up an impressive filmography, from auteur dramas including Minari and Antlers to tentpoles like Jurassic World Dominion. He starred in several films helmed by James Franco, getting particularly forceful notices as the lead in Child of God. The actor connected with Van Hoy’s idea, though not really its political undertones: Haze came of age with an absent father, and The Prince literalizes this concept. Though you feel the ominous, hovering presence of Parker’s father, you never actually see him in the movie.
“When I was 15, a therapist was like, ‘Your son hasn’t talked to you. Why don’t you have a conversation with your son?’” Haze tells me. “He goes, ‘Well, I don’t really have time.’ After his passing, we found out that he had a second family through 23andMe. I have a sister I didn’t know about. It’s like, ‘Oh, that’s probably why you weren’t there.’”
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