Screen-smart Sean Nelson - actor

Interview, March, 1994 by David Goodman

Sean Nelson gives a rivetingly imperturbable performance in the title role of Fresh, Boaz Yakin's raw, relentless examination of greed, lost innocence, and the banality of violence in the Brooklyn back streets. Between homework and speed-chess sessions with his estranged father (Samuel L. Jackson), Fresh delivers drugs for two vicious dealers.

He begins to dream of revenge upon his exploiters when one of their lackeys pointlessly guns down Fresh's schoolyard sweetheart. "He sets them up like it was a chess game," says Nelson, a matter-of-fact thirteen-year-old from the North Bronx whose piano teacher spotted his acting potential. Fresh's controlled range reaches its apogee in a chilling, morally ambiguous scene in which he sits on a car hood, peels open a candy bar, and watches a gang rubout as if it were in the movies. "It was a very difficult role for a kid," says Yakin. "But Sean's an intuitive movie actor." Crowned by a Sundance Film Festival Special Jury prize for Nelson, Fresh opens next month.