Brings Plenty takes culture to Hollywood

By Jim Holland, Journal Staff Writer | Tuesday, February 04, 2003

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Moses Brings Plenty remembers being told he would not get anywhere looking like an Indian.

After playing two movie roles in less than two months - one of them because he resembles an American Indian - the Rapid City man is looking ahead, not just to Hollywood

and the silver screen, but far beyond.

"This whole movie stuff is just for now," he said. "I'm thinking about forever."

Brings Plenty was working for a local construction firm when he and a brother, Joe, decided to be extras during filming of the movie "Hidalgo" south of Hot Springs in November.

Producers were looking for Indians, especially those with long hair, to recreate scenes depicting the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee.

Brings Plenty had once cut his hair, worn long by American

Indians as a spiritual expression, to suit a former employer. But the act had left him miserable, feeling as if he had not been true to his heritage.

"I sat in the basement and cried all day," he said. "I vowed never to cut my hair again."

With his hair long again, movie producers liked what they saw. He was chosen to portray a Lakota warrior.

When the first day of filming arrived last November, he was surprised to receive a different role.

"The producers saw your photo," he was told. "They want you to be a medicine man."

He said playing a bit part in another movie, "Thunderheart," prepared him for the rigors of movie work.

The weeklong filming gave him a chance to visit with old friends and relatives and make new friends.

"It was neat to see people other than Lakota understand what happened at Wounded Knee," he said. "I had people come up to me and tell me they couldn't believe people did this to each other."

Filming massacre scenes was emotional, he said.

In one scene, his character is shot in the back by a cavalry trooper. Doing the stunt in one take left him lying on the ground with a blanket covering his head.

He could hear the sounds of the recreated massacre around him. Shouting. Screaming. Gunfire.

"It was like I was there for real," he said. "I had tears in my eyes."

The Walt Disney/Touchstone Pictures movie is set for release in August of this year or early 2004.

A few weeks after his work in "Hidalgo," Disney called again and offered him a role in the Jerry Bruckheimer production of "Pirates of the Caribbean."

According to the movie's Web site, "Pirates" is set for release on July 9 and stars Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush and Orlando Bloom.

Brings Plenty plays a pirate.

"I should be in the movie, because there were plenty of times when I was between the camera and Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom," he said.

He hasn't had a speaking role yet, and in spite of his lack of acting experience beyond his roles as extras, he is looking for an agent.

Working independently in the construction business keeps his schedule flexible if other movie roles come up.

He said his wife, Chris, stepson, Zach Sibal, 13, and son, Layne Brings Plenty, 8, have been supportive, as has Vincent Colandra, a Hollywood agent who has been helping him learn how to deal with the realities of show business.

"He doesn't beat around the bush," Brings Plenty said of Colandra. "Vincent always tells it like it is."

"There are a lot of people who will tell you anything. A lot of them don't give a rat's rear-end what happens to you."

He said he has been told not to worry about his lack of acting experience.

"Acting isn't about acting. It's more about life experiences," he said.

That premise was put into practice during filming of "Pirates."

"They told us to act like we were on a three-day drunk and we're just having a good old time," he said. "I've been drunk before, so I knew how to do that."

He said he has been told that Hollywood is in a phase of doing historically based movies that might last five or six years.

"With the right people, I'm told, I could stay busy for a while," he said.

Brings Plenty knows Hollywood is driven on illusion, the center of an industry charged with recreating that which doesn't exist, a town seemingly filled with people trying to be something they're not.

He wants to use the experience to help communicate with young people and promote the Lakota culture.

"I want to be a positive role model, someone who doesn't smoke or drink or chew," he said. "In so many movies, we were always the bad guys. I want to show the world that we're not bad people.

But he is also quick to point out that promoting one culture over another is not his goal.

"It's not about one race. We are all equals," he said. "I'm a warrior for God and the

children," he said. "All of the children are precious."

Contact Jim Holland at 394-8415 or jim.holland@rapidcityjournal.com