My Deep Dive Into How Larry Clark Met Harmony Korine
Alright, so I got totally sucked into figuring out how Larry Clark and Harmony Korine actually connected. You hear about these legendary creative pairings, right? But the how always seems kinda fuzzy. I wasn’t expecting much more than “they met through mutual friends” or something basic. Boy, was I wrong.
I started simple. Just typed “How did Larry Clark meet Harmony Korine?” into the search bar. Got the usual filmographies, articles about Kids, Korine’s age when he wrote it… useful background, sure, but nothing juicy about the first meeting. The frustration started creeping in – you know that feeling when you know the info must be out there somewhere?
Digging deeper, I started clicking on older interviews, forum discussions, anything that looked like it might have a firsthand account. Remembered some obscure 90s film zine site I used to lurk on ages ago. Went hunting for it. Found a cached page – goldmine! An interview with Clark talking about casting Kids. He wasn’t using polished PR talk; it was raw and real. He mentioned hanging out at Washington Square Park in New York City. Noticing the kids there. Specifically wanting real skater kids, not actors.
This was the key. He talked about how he’d just approach teenagers hanging out in the park. Literally walk up to them, explain he was making a movie about their world, and ask if they wanted to be in it. No agents, no casting calls, just straight-up street casting. My brain was buzzing. This felt genuine.
Okay, so now I knew how he was finding people. But where did Harmony Korine fit in? Kept scrolling, reading another interview snippet. Clark described one specific day. He saw a group of skater kids. Among them was this loud, hyper, super smart kid holding court, telling wild stories. That kid was Harmony Korine. Clark went straight up to him, like he did with everyone else.
This is the surprising bit, the part you wouldn’t make up: Clark pitched Korine on being in the film. He wanted him to act! Imagine Clark thinking, “This kid’s got energy, he’s perfect.” But Korine, typical Harmony style, apparently wasn’t that interested in acting. Instead, he hit Clark back with: “I write better than I act. You should read my stuff.” Bold move, right?
Clark, probably intrigued (or maybe just humoring him?), said yeah, okay. Korine gave him his number. Clark phoned him later. Korine showed up – not with polished scripts, but with a notebook full of raw scenes, dialogue, character sketches. He just laid it all out. Clark flipped through it and saw immediately what Korine had: a real, unfiltered voice capturing that specific teenage subculture. The rest is history. The acting pitch died, and Korine got hired to write Kids.
Finding that chain of events felt like piecing together a puzzle. It wasn’t Hollywood networking. It wasn’t film school connections. It was:
- Clark taking his camera to the streets.
- Hitting up random skater kids in a park.
- Spotting Korine’s chaotic energy.
- Asking him to act.
- Korine countering: “Nah, but read my scribbles.”
- Clark actually reading them and saying YES.
Pure New York City chaos magic. Two creative forces colliding because one guy was brave enough to approach strangers in a park, and the other kid was confident enough to push his writing instead. Makes the whole Kids story feel even more grounded and nuts at the same time. The universe works in weird ways sometimes.