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        <title><![CDATA[New HBO series ‘Betty’ shows unbridled joy of NYC female skateboarders]]></title>
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            <media:title type="html">New HBO series ‘Betty’ shows unbridled joy of NYC female skateboarders</media:title>
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        <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>In the opening scene of <strong>the new HBO series &#8220;Betty,&#8221;</strong> premiering Friday at 11 p.m., a young female skateboarder (Nina Moran) weaves around cars and through the traffic down Madison Avenue — unmasked, unbothered and unafraid.</p><p>There&#8217;s a sense of freedom that, since we&#8217;ve been on <strong>coronavirus lockdown</strong>, feels like light-years ago now. But the show — about a diverse group of five young women cruising around New York City on their skateboards — was just shot last summer.</p><p>&#8220;I think there&#8217;ll be a real nostalgia for this city that we love so much,&#8221; says &#8220;Betty&#8221; director Crystal Moselle about the series, which is based on <strong>her 2018 film &#8220;Skate Kitchen.&#8221;</strong> &#8220;In the show, New York City is its own character. And it&#8217;s sad to not be able to connect with the city like we once were. Now it&#8217;s almost, like, scary.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Betty&#8221; — which stars Moran, Dede Lovelace, Moonbear, Ajani Russell and <strong>Rachelle Vinberg</strong> playing fictionalized versions of themselves — will definitely make you long for the good ol&#8217; days when we could all be outside and enjoy the city in all its gritty glory. And if you don&#8217;t already live in New York, it just might even make you want to move here post-pandemic.</p><figure id="attachment_15585452"  class="wp-caption aligncenter"><strong><noscript><img data- data-src="/uploads/2020/04/betty-05.jpg" class="lazyload" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" /><noscript><img  data-src="/uploads/2020/04/betty-05.jpg" /></noscript></noscript><img class="lazyload" src='data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%20210%20140%22%3E%3C/svg%3E' data- data-src="/uploads/2020/04/betty-05.jpg" /></strong><figcaption class="wp-caption-text"><span>Nina Moran in &#8220;Betty.&#8221;</span><span class="credit">HBO/Alison Cohen Rosa</span></figcaption></figure><p>&#8220;I think anything that portrays New York in a romantic kind of way always gets people wanting to come here,&#8221; says Moonbear, 26, who plays Honeybear on the show. But staying at home now, the Brooklyn resident, whose real name is <strong>Kabrina Adams</strong>, admits that she is missing the city that she knows. &#8220;I would be out more, because I like to start skating again around spring,&#8221; she says.</p><p>But &#8220;Betty&#8221; — which refers to &#8220;a girl who skateboards or surfs, so it&#8217;s like a Surf Betty or a Skate Betty,&#8221; explains Moselle — captures a lot of what we&#8217;ve all been missing, in scenes that go from Washington Square Park to the Williamsburg Bridge. A big setting for the four-wheeling action is the LES Skate Park.</p><p>&#8220;We shot there so many times, and it is the most difficult place to shoot at because there&#8217;s a train going overhead every 30 seconds and there&#8217;s the traffic on the [Manhattan] Bridge,&#8221; says Moselle, 39. &#8220;It&#8217;s so loud that it, like, vibrates in your head. At first, we&#8217;d try to shoot in between the trains, so that the audio would be good. And then we just said, &#8216;F - - k it&#8217; and we just [kept] shooting, and we&#8217;d bring in dialogue later. But it&#8217;s like a cathedral of skateboarding.&#8221;</p><figure id="attachment_15585455"  class="wp-caption aligncenter"><strong><noscript><img data- data-src="/uploads/2020/04/betty-03.jpg" class="lazyload" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" /><noscript><img  data-src="/uploads/2020/04/betty-03.jpg" /></noscript></noscript><img class="lazyload" src='data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%20210%20140%22%3E%3C/svg%3E' data- data-src="/uploads/2020/04/betty-03.jpg" /></strong><figcaption class="wp-caption-text"><span>Moonbear in &#8220;Betty.&#8221;</span><span class="credit">HBO/Alison Cohen Rosa</span></figcaption></figure><p>Another &#8220;epic&#8221; place where they shot was the Maloof Skate Park in Queens, with the Unisphere providing a backdrop in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. &#8220;It was beautiful,&#8221; says <strong>the Brooklyn-based director</strong>. &#8220;A lot of the boys in our [show], they grew up in that area, so they would skate there. The angles of the park are incredibly big, so that&#8217;s why that group of kids, they&#8217;re really good, because it&#8217;s challenging.&#8221;</p><p>They continued to location-hop around the city to Golconda Skate Park, also known as Fat Kid, under the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. &#8220;That&#8217;s a beautiful park as well. It&#8217;s, like, very gritty,&#8221; says Moselle, who made sure to respect the skateboarders&#8217; space.</p><p>&#8220;I didn&#8217;t want to just take over somebody&#8217;s park and tell them they had to leave,&#8221; she adds. &#8220;We were constantly working with the locals from each of the parks and hiring them [as extras] for background, so they got to skate for the day and get paid. I wanted to make sure that we would bring people from the park into the show, so that we were giving back to the community.&#8221;</p><figure id="attachment_15585462"  class="wp-caption aligncenter"><strong><noscript><img data- data-src="/uploads/2020/04/betty-04.jpg" class="lazyload" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==" /><noscript><img  data-src="/uploads/2020/04/betty-04.jpg" /></noscript></noscript><img class="lazyload" src='data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%20210%20140%22%3E%3C/svg%3E' data- data-src="/uploads/2020/04/betty-04.jpg" /></strong><figcaption class="wp-caption-text"><span>Rachelle Vinberg, Ardelia &#8220;Dede&#8221; Lovelace, Nina Moran, Moonbear and Raekwon Haynes in &#8220;Betty.&#8221;</span><span class="credit">HBO/Alison Cohen Rosa</span></figcaption></figure><p>For Moonbear, a special location was Chelsea Skate Park, where they shot under the lights at night. &#8220;I used to go to that park a lot, but didn&#8217;t really go too much right before filming that, so it was kinda like, &#8216;Oh, we&#8217;re back here again!&#8217; &#8221; she says. &#8220;When we were filming the overnight scene, I was actually really tired, so that part where I fell asleep, I was basically sleeping.&#8221;</p><p>But Moonbear&#8217;s favorite moment to film took place at Maria Hernandez Park in Bushwick, where the girls were grooving instead of skating. &#8220;We&#8217;re all dancing in the park,&#8221; she says of the scene that was inspired by the <strong>Soul Summit</strong> outdoor parties. &#8220;And it was my birthday that day.&#8221;</p><p>At the end of the day, though, &#8220;Betty&#8221; comes back to the girls on their skateboards riding through the concrete jungle without worrying about social distancing.</p><p>&#8220;The girls have such a connection to the concrete, the shapes of buildings and the shapes of curves and grates and all these things that they can play with on their skateboards,&#8221; says Moselle. &#8220;I hope that people can get lost in it and feel the love that they have for the concrete and being outdoors and connecting with people. You know, being around people.&#8221;</p>]]></content:encoded>
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