Hello Brooklyn #12 - Gee Linton

Like a sledgehammer to the gut, Gee Linton entered the den. In 2014, Hollywood had come knocking, and sure enough, the lions were in wait. His feature film debut, Daughter of God distributed by Lionsgate and headlined by Ana de Armas and Keanu Reeves, was supposed to be a Dominican American mystic thriller, about the melancholy of miracles and the ugliness of trauma. By post production, it had been re-named, (Exposed) re-edited, and re-branded as something else entirely. The message had been lost, and Linton took his name off the project.

But if there's one lesson to be learned from Linton's run in with the politics of whitewashed Hollywood cinema, it's that you can't keep a good celebrity fitness guru, screenwriting, film directing astrophysicist down. I know, you can't keep up. Nevertheless, I tried.

#1 Was Hollywood writer and director ultimately the title you'd always been vying for your professional life?

No. Astrophysicist was the title I always craved and imagined I'd one day receive. And then I thought I'd take a few years and explore writing fiction and screenplays, before inevitably returning to physics and academia. But I never returned, I fell in love with writing. Regarding directing, it's simply the most logical next step in visual storytelling, and I wanted to be able to tell stories from start to finish.

#2 Do you have any insider fitness tips to share from your days as a high-powered celebrity fitness and concierge owner?

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Consistency is better than intensity. That was my line to all my clients [i.e. royalty, Silicon Valley execs, the cast of The Dark Knight Rises and Spider-Man]. And that's how I approach my own personal fitness. It's better to get to the gym five days a week and have five less than perfect workouts than to have one really perfect workout once every two weeks. 

#3 After the scandal with Lionsgate, you are one of few directors to completely remove your name from your film. Has your experience in the film industry soured your desire to continue working on new projects?

Soured? Not in the least, but also, I'm a chronic optimist. However, it has made me more careful about the producers and film companies I work with in the future. I also don't think that Hollywood owns the movie industry. There are amazing movies getting made all over the world, and many times they surpass their Hollywood counterparts because the filmmakers are allowed to completely embrace their creativity and imagination. Much of that sentiment is missing in Hollywood filmmaking. I'm shooting a prison movie in Paris this fall about a mime with producer, Philippe Carcassonne that I don't believe could ever get made through the traditional Hollywood system, because it's very hard for producers and executives to accept new ideas that don't follow some proven formula. 

#4 How do you think the movie would've been different if, as intended, Phillip Seymour Hoffman had played Detective Galban? Would you have allowed some screen time between Isabel (Ana de Armas) and Galban?

Well, Phillip was a completely different kind of actor, so I imagine he might have brought a different feel to the role. I loved Keanu [Reeves] in the role. I thought he did a great job being a regular middle-aged New York cop who wasn't particularly good looking. And I loved his fragility as Galban. I think because we know him as Neo and this huge action star, I think he actually brought something more unexpected to the role than Phillip might have. 

Regarding screen time with Ana, no, it would have been the same had Phillip played the role. The idea was to go through the entire film and these two main characters never cross paths. Only to find out in the end that they had been crossing paths the entire movie. 

#5 Gentrification is nothing new to New York City, especially Brooklyn, where did you grow up? What changed and what do you wish hadn't since your childhood?

I grew up primarily in the East New York/Brownsville section of Brooklyn. So much has changed in New York, in the city, but for local-yocal New Yorkers in the boroughs, life is still very similar to the way it used to be. I live in Crown Heights now, and that's changed quite a bit from when I was a kid, back when Crown Heights was known for the race riots, but it still feels like New York. But most local-yocal New Yorkers don't consider the new super gentrified areas in the city and downtown Brooklyn and Williamsburg, really New York. It's like New York-ish, but definitely not the real thing. You can only find real New York in the boroughs. But that said, I'm a big fan of this cleaner version of New York. It was a smelly dirty place when I was a kid. 

#6 In a city that never sleeps, how do you unplug?

My wife and I, and our two boys, we all love the water, so whether it's the Brooklyn docks, or the beach in the Hamptons, or a boat ride up the Hudson, that's how we chill and relax. And I like playing pool a lot too. 

Photo credits Tom Concordia / Zane Gan