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Jordan held auditions earlier this week for “Payin’ the Price,” which homes in on date rape among teens.
Although in its early stages, it is a perfect choice to follow up “Say It Loud!,” a film about education for African-American youth that put Jordan Christopher Coleman — writer, director, producer — on the youth culture map.
At only 15, he’s been honored and touted on TV and in magazines throughout the country. He also was the voice of Tyrone the Moose on Nickelodeon’s Emmy Award-Winning animated series The Backyardigans.”
CLIFFVIEW PILOT asked his award-winning journalist-author-filmmaker-philanthropist mom, Chrisena Coleman, to fire some questions at her boy wonder. The responses would be impressive from someone of any age — yet this kid hasn’t even gotten halfway through high school yet.
How did you get involved in acting?
I used to model for photo shoots for the New York Daily News. Then, we got calls from talent agents who wanted to know if I was interested in acting or modeling. My mom worked so she was too busy to do it. We got more calls and one of her co-workers told her that she should go for it. We called Shirley Grant Management in Teaneck because she and my mom are friends and they gave me an audition. Ms. Shirley said that I looked okay, but since I could read well she thought she could get me work. I did a Huggies commercial, NBA All-Star Weekend commercial and then I landed the voice over role of Tyrone The Moose on the Backyardigans. I was Tyrone for two and half years and my episodes still run on TV.
What made you decide to make a film?
When checks came in for me from the Backyardigans I was very excited. I wanted to buy sneakers, clothes, video games and fun stuff. My mom allowed me to have fun with some of my money, but she also challenged me to use some of my money to make a positive contribution to my community. I looked at her like she was crazy, I was like huh? Then she gave me a week to come up with a project. I had read a story in the paper where a 12-year-old made a movie and I thought it would be fun to make a movie at 12-years-old too. My first film SAY IT LOUD was about the importance of education for African-American boys. I’ve always liked school and did well academically, but I noticed that a lot of my friends were not doing well. I did some research and its a national problem. African-American boys were way behind their classmates academically, but I wanted to show black boys that school is cool. Instead of getting boring people in my film, I got celebrities, like Kobe Bryant, Ludacris, Michael Strahan and Cory Booker to be in my movie. I thought kids my age would listen to them and take the message seriously.
Your next film is about teen dating violence, how did that come about?
After I made my first movie and it did so well (I did a 7-city tour that was sponsored by AMC Theatres) I knew I wanted to make another film. I thought about a lot of different topics, but none really clicked for me. Then, last year Chris Brown and Rihanna had their incident and all of a sudden it came to me. I thought teen dating violence was an issue that affected my generation. Then, after that I read a story in the paper about a 15-year-old boy who was arrested for rape. It seemed like every time I turned on the news someone was talking about teen dating violence and I knew I wanted to include it in my next movie. I’ve been working on the script for the past six months and it is almost finished. I know how the movie is going to end and what happens in the beginning and middle of it, but it still needs some edits. I think it will be better than the first film because the script is a realistic story. As people hear about the film, they are talking to me. One girl at my school told me that her ex-boyfriend abused her for three years. She said he choke slammed her and left bruises on her. I know the movie will get people talking about this issue, that’s my goal.
How do you manage to keep up with everything you have going on?
It’s not always easy to keep organized when are doing a lot of stuff. I play football and basketball for Hackensack High School. I am also the freshman class vice president. Outside of school, I am a member of the Education Equality Project’s board and I travel around the country showing my film and speaking to kids about the importance of education. Then, I have a lot of homework to keep up with. I like being busy because there is never a dull moment in my life. It’s funny because one minute I am sitting in class with everyone else and the next minute I am interviewing celebrities or hanging out with celebrities … I live in two different worlds.
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