LOS ANGELES, Oct. 12, 2000 — You’ve seen the trailers and the posters explaining the concept: Help three people, and instead of paying you back, they pay it forward — each helping out three more people on their own.
And while “Pay It Forward” owes most of its buzz to its star power — Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt and Haley Joel Osment — the story has transcended from a screenplay to an inspirational “what if”?
“Random acts of kindness are all fragments of ‘pay it forward,'” star Osment philosophizes. “It doesn’t have to be one huge thing, just stuff every day. I try to fill my daily life with opportunities like that. Even opening the door for somebody is a fragment of ‘pay it forward.'”
Osment stars as a seventh-grader named Trevor who, as a class assignment given by his teacher (Spacey), invents the concept, which leads to a citywide movement. One of Trevor’s goals, however, is to help his mother (Hunt) and his teacher by bringing them together.
Spacey, who wears emotional and physical scars in the film, says of his character: “He’s been proposing this assignment year after year after year. Maybe all that ever happens is some kids clean up graffiti or do a carwash or do something locally. So I think there’s a slight cynicism in the way that he gives it. He doesn’t expect that much.”
“It’s really Trevor who teaches the teacher that reminds him why he does what he’s doing,” Spacey adds. “I think he’s got a good heart; he gets a chance to not only be introduced to it again but to find a whole new part of it.”
Hunt, for her part, took the role because of “a combination of Kevin and Haley and the story,” she says. “I felt these characters were fascinating and weird and loving and adorable.”
Also attending the premiere were Liv Tyler, Leelee Sobieski, Corbin Bernsen, Stephen Dorff, Claire Forlani and Catherine Ryan Hyde, author of the novel.
Says director Mimi Leder (“Deep Impact”): “I think [‘pay it forward’] really could happen. … I think that it’s possible and the film is saying it’s possible to change the world a little bit.”
“Pay It Forward” opens Oct. 20.
