Marvin (Young MC) Young Takes Us Inside Justice Served
If you were a kid back in the late 80s-early 90’s, perhaps his stage name will ring a bell – Young MC, anyone? The song was “Bust A Move” and it was the biggest thing to hit the radio in some time. As we hop into the time-machine and leap forward to 2015, and Marvin Young (the MC’s real name) took his directorial leap with his first venture into the chair behind the lens with Justice Served, a thriller that’s gotten more than its share of praise as of yet. He was more than generous to give us a few minutes of his time to discuss the film, as well as what he’s got coming up next – settle in and enjoy!
DC: Can you give us a description of the film’s premise, as well as how the film’s inception came to be?
MY: JUSTICE SERVED begins with a therapy session for a Los Angeles widower named Luke Palmer. Galen Terry, the accused killer of Luke’s wife was found not guilty at trial due to legal technicalities, and Luke has needed therapy ever since. Luke wins a trip to a spa in Scottsdale for a three day weekend vacation. During the drive from the airport, Luke is kidnapped, drugged, and left unconscious. Luke wakes up in a mysterious room which is divided in two by a glass wall. Luke’s side of the room has a desk, a computer keyboard and an ominous looking red button on a podium. The other side of the room has a large wooden chair with handcuffs, restraints and wires attached to it. Suddenly a hooded man is dragged into the other side of the room and restrained in the chair. When the hood is removed, Luke recognizes him as Galen Terry, his wife’s accused killer. A mysterious voice comes over the loudspeaker and says: “Hello, my name is Justice. You have been brought here to retry the case of California vs. Terry for the murder of Corinne Palmer… The defendant’s chair is electrified. The electricity is controlled by the red button. Feel free to test it out.” It took me almost two years to come up with the draft of the script that we went to talent with. Within that two years there was some interest from directors and production companies, but in the typical Hollywood fashion none of those opportunities came to fruition. I was presented with the opportunity of working with the film school at Arizona State University to produce the film myself in Arizona. From there the decision was made for me to direct, and JUSTICE SERVED went into pre-production.
DC: You seemed like a natural in front of the camera, but did you find any difficulties in this being your first directorial venture?
MY: Directing a film is such a big job in its own right, and I ended up putting on numerous other hats as the production went on. On my first day, I said “action” too soon… twice. But I gained my footing pretty quickly because I found myself directing Lance Henriksen on my second day ever behind the camera. A few days later I was directing Gail O’Grady through a great performance of her own. Those experiences have made me a better director without doubt. I gave myself the rather large role of Troy because I was concerned that I wouldn’t get name talent for the other roles in JUSTICE SERVED. I wanted to make sure the audience saw a familiar face for enough of the film to keep their interest. This was obviously before Lance, Gail, Lochlyn, and the other experienced actors agreed to be in my movie. As far as my acting goes, I used the same approach that I do in my rap career. The strength of the performance starts with the writing. So I took two full days and did a Marvin/Troy polish on the script. Anything that Troy said which didn’t sound natural coming out of Marvin’s mouth was changed. By the end, I had nearly memorized all my lines verbatim, which was a big help for me and the other actors as well. Having said that, I will definitely write much smaller roles for myself in future projects. 
DC: With the insanely talented Lance Henriksen in your cast, did you just hand him the script and let him have his way with his character?
MY: My knee-jerk answer to that question would be “Was it that obvious?” But my honest answer is a little more nuanced than that. Of course I was watching the monitor saying to myself ‘Oh shit! I’m directing Lance Henriksen!’ But I also was relating to him and his approach from my perspective of being a Grammy winning rapper in the booth dealing with record producers. I’ve been in multiple situations where a producer has made me perform a dozen perfect takes of a verse, only to go back and use the first or second take as the master. In all of those situations I was more experienced than the producer, and he was just making me do the takes because he felt that was the thing to do. When I did my verse for “All In The Same Gang” with Dr. Dre, he had me do two takes and that was it. He knew he had it. Obviously I liked Dre’s approach better. 
So the first time that my script supervisor showed me where Lance deviated from my Bible script, I had a choice to make. I could yell “Cut!” and be the director who insisted on every ‘i’ being dotted and every ‘t’ being crossed. Or I could let Lance and Christina Rose complete the scene and see what new perspective they brought to it. In every case, Lance got me from my A to my Z and gave me what I needed. I didn’t have to change any other dialogue, plot points or scenes to accommodate Lance’s performance. Lance did his thing (brilliantly I must say) and I did mine.
DC: Lastly, after the release of Justice Served, what can fans expect to see from you down the road?
MY: The release of JUSTICE SERVED has actually taken longer than I expected because of my touring schedule. In 2016 I had well over 100 live performances. The vast majority were part of the “I Love The 90s Tour”. In 2017, the tour is going to Australia, New Zealand, the UK as well as over a dozen dates in Canada. I’m actually in a hotel room in Halifax, Nova Scotia at 5am in the Atlantic Time Zone. I have several script ideas that I am developing and I hope to shoot another film in 2018. Fans can expect a fun ride in whatever they see me do. Smart characters, plot twists and things you don’t see coming. I watch a lot of preview screenings with audiences and I pay attention to what people respond to from movies. Both positively and negatively. Ironically it feels very similar to the approach I’ve taken with my music over the years. Treat the audience with respect and they will respond to you in kind.
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