{"id":92103,"date":"2017-03-02T03:02:46","date_gmt":"2017-03-02T08:02:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=92103"},"modified":"2017-03-02T03:02:46","modified_gmt":"2017-03-02T08:02:46","slug":"young-moonlight-stars-return-from-oscars-to-middle-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/03\/02\/young-moonlight-stars-return-from-oscars-to-middle-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Young ‘Moonlight’ stars return from Oscars to middle school"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Seventh-graders<\/a>
Seventh-graders Alex Hibbert and Jaden Piner returned to middle school Wednesday as Oscar winners, but the \u201cMoonlight\u201d stars still had to go back to basics with their classmates in drama class. (Photo: The Immanuel Temple\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MIAMI\u2014Seventh-graders Alex Hibbert and Jaden Piner returned to middle school Wednesday as Oscar winners, but the \u201cMoonlight\u201d stars still had to go back to basics with their classmates in drama class.<\/p>\n

At Norland Middle School, they followed acting teacher Tanisha Cidel’s directions to crawl on the floor like lions and recite the tongue-twister \u201cred leather, yellow leather\u201d faster and faster.<\/p>\n

Cidel played a principal in the film that also won Oscars for best supporting actor and best adapted screenplay.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe key here is not to pretend,\u201d she told her students. \u201cThe key here is to be real. Honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the communities where \u201cMoonlight\u201d was filmed, the movie has been lauded this week for its honest representation of life in black Miami, long overshadowed by the city’s glitzy hotels and hipster neighbourhoods.<\/p>\n

Writer-director Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney, whose play \u201cMoonlight\u201d is based on, both grew up in the Liberty City streets and schools depicted on screen.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt shows that Liberty City is not really a bad place and you can’t judge it by the news,\u201d 12-year-old Alex said. \u201cWhen you watch ‘Moonlight,’ you find the beauty of Liberty City.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMoonlight\u201d follows the life of a young black man _ played as a child by Alex _ as he grows up in poverty and comes to terms with his own homosexuality. Jaden plays his classmate.<\/p>\n

Thirteen-year-old Jaden said he could relate to his character’s desire to help a friend, but Alex said the bullying his character suffers fortunately wasn’t something he had experienced.<\/p>\n

Both boys said they figured it was a joke when the audience was belatedly told the top award went to \u201cMoonlight\u201d and not \u201cLa La Land.\u201d In the confusion, they had to jump over other audience members to join the rest of their cast onstage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI jumped over this guy, and he was screaming, ‘What the –?’ and I was like, ‘I’m sorry, I just won an award!\u201d’ Alex said.<\/p>\n

An Oscars highlight for both boys: meeting \u201cThe Amazing Spider-Man\u201d actor Andrew Garfield.<\/p>\n

Jaden said \u201cMoonlight\u201d \u201cshows Miami kids are talented not only in sports.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex said he’ll next act in a television series in Chicago, starting in April.<\/p>\n

Alex, Jaden and their teacher walked down a \u201cred carpet\u201d’ taped to a classroom floor to talk with reporters, but they weren’t alone in the limelight: About a dozen other Norland students had roles as extras in the film.<\/p>\n

Cidel said her students shouldn’t be the only ones inspired by the movie’s success.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want the parents to understand that if your child has any talent or shows an interest in the arts, take it seriously,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MIAMI\u2014Seventh-graders Alex Hibbert and Jaden Piner returned to middle school Wednesday as Oscar winners, but the \u201cMoonlight\u201d stars still had …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":92104,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,106],"tags":[16049,16050],"class_list":["post-92103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","category-hollywood","tag-alex-hibbert","tag-jaden-piner","mauthors-jennifer-kay","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}