Joseph Mazzello - Blog Posts

bop magazine, brad: saved by the teacher

if you're a fan of the cure's brad renfro, you may want to break out the thank-you cards and send one to laura lawson. after all, laura, brad's former fifth-grade teacher from knoxville, tennessee, is partly responsible for getting the 12-year-old to hollywood.

it all began near the end of the 1992-93 school year, when a casting director came to knoxville to find a feisty, southern street-smart kid to play mark sway in the client.

the casting director contacted a knoxville police officer involved in the community drug-fighting program dare. brad, then 10, was active in the group and seemed to fit the casting director's needs; so the officer conferred with laura. she agreed that her student would be perfect for the part and encouraged the policeman to tell the casting director about him. soon after, hollywood was interested in brad.

unfortunately, though, few people were interested or able to help brad get to hollywood. brad's parents are divorced; his mother wasn't really in the picture, and though brad is on good terms with his dad, who is remarried, his father couldn't help out, either. meanwhile, brad's guardian/grandmother, jo anne renfro, couldn't leave her church-secretary job to accompany brad to los angeles for a screen test. that left laura.

although she was only his teacher, laura knew brad, liked him and agreed to be hired on by the film company as his guardian.

she accompanied him to the screen test and, after he landed the part, to memphis, tennessee and new orleans, louisiana, where the movie was filmed.

laura's main duty as guardian was to keep brad entertained during the four-month shoot. "we'd tie each other up in chairs and then we'd time each other to see how fast we could get out," laura told the knoxville news sentinel, their hometown newspaper, of one way the two managed to keep themselves amused between takes.

asked about brad's future, laura has said that her former pupil will probably be tied up in acting for a long time. "i really think," she's said, "that this is kind of what he's meant to do."