Movie deals with more than just dancing

Sparks fly from Sara and Derek's first encounter until their last on-screen dance.

So what if he is black and she is white? It should not be a problem if they want to go out. But it is in "Save the Last Dance."

The movie directed by Thomas Carter ("Swing Kids") focuses on the trials that the two face in order to be together. The film stars Julia Stiles ("Ten Things I Hate About You") as Sara, a tough-as-nails former ballerina from the suburbs. She moves Chicago's South Side to live with her absentee father after her mother dies. Sara is one of the few white students at a predominately black high school. It is there that she meets Derek (Sean Patrick Thomas of "Cruel Intentions"), a boy who gives her a hard time at first, but eventually comes to take her under his wing with the help of his sister.

The inevitability of Sara and Derek's romance is quite obvious, but everything is not perfect along the way. There are a few bumps in the road in the form of opposition from friends and family. Sure, they dance, dance, dance for a good portion of the movie, but the message that is conveyed by the end of the movie is definitely important.

This subject matter is not unfamiliar to the stars and director of the movie who recently sat down to discuss, among other things, interracial relationships. According to their outlooks on the subject, things are not always simply black and white.

Stiles is familiar with what it is like to be outnumbered culturally in school. The situation Sara faces at her new high school in the movie is similar to the experience Stiles had in junior high school.

The real junior high and the fake high school are the same "in the sense that I was the minority," Stiles said. "I was one of the only white girls there and I was trying desperately to be this tough homegirl who listened to rap and it was pathetic. I definitely know what it's like to be the nerdy white girl."

Before Stiles would commit to making "Save the Last Dance," she had a few meetings with Carter to discuss revising the script to make the story more realistic, she said.

"I wanted to make the relationship between Sara and Derek more believable and make my character tougher and able to defend herself more so that he'd even have an interest in dating her," the 19-year-old said.

Just as Sara is a different character in the sense that she can take care of herself, Derek is also different as he has goals that extend beyond the confines of his neighborhood. Thomas feels that this is an aspect that is not typically depicted by black characters in movies.

Derek is a determined guy who reaches a turning point in his life, Thomas said, and that is what makes him stand out.

"It's really a very basic all-American story, you just don't get to see it with a black guy, that's all," he said. "A guy whose got ambitions and dreams and he's going for it." For Carter, telling the story of these two characters whose love conquers all was something that he has aspired to do for quite a while.

"However it turned out, I was glad I was making this movie," Carter said. "I knew I was going to get a chance to say a couple of things that I wanted to get said in the movie and reveal characters in some ways that I felt I hadn't seen them."

Carter said that he would like the color lines to disappear from making movies.

"I don't want to be looked at as 'Here comes Thomas Carter, he's a director. First we got to notice he's a black man,'" he said. "Well, I don't want thatÖwho's interesting is what really matters. Who you are as an individual. I wish that we could treat films that way."

He also hopes for changes in the ways movies are cast after "Save the Last Dance" is released. He would like to see race become a non-issue in choosing actors for different roles.

"I would like to see an African-American or any white person or whatever group involved in a love story or some intimate story where it's not about race, where it's about the people," he said. "I think we put so much emphasis on that (race) that it just overshadows so many other things that people are really dealing with."

When an interracial couple has to deal with the issue of race, Stiles said that it is important to keep an open dialogue.

"(Don't) be afraid to admit that people have prejudices and people have assumptions that they make Ö everybody has different experiences they've had in their lives that make them assume things about others," she said. "As long as you keep talking about that and not denying it then you can learn from each other."

Thomas said that it is important to trust your instincts in such a situation.

"Have the courage to tell people who accuse you of being a sell-out thatÖ'I feel this person and how could you question that?'" he said.

"Save the Last Dance" is scheduled to shake its groove into theaters Jan. 12.

Paramount Pictures

Julia Stiles

Paramount Pictures

Sean Patrick Thomas

Paramount Pictures

Thomas Carter

Paramount Pictures

Julia Stiles as Sara and Sean Patrick Thomas as Derek in "Save the Last Dance."

Paramount Pictures

Above, Sean Patrick Thomas as Derek, Julia Stiles as Sara and director Thomas Carter, left to right, on the set of "Save The Last Dance," which opens Jan. 12.