By Andrew Coen
School of Rock, which stars Jack Black and Joan Cusack, hit theaters three weeks ago. It was an immediate hit, becoming the country's top-grossing movie after its opening weekend and garnering positive reviews from critics.
Hassan played the role of Tomika, a shy, heavyset student with impressive singing ability. Ironically, Hassan's character in some ways resembles her real life. It is like me a lot, she said, because a lot of times in my school, people used to call me names and everything because of my size, so I didn't take [the role] as a big deal at all.
The movie marked Hassan's professional singing and acting debut. She has promoted the movie on Live With Regis and Kelly, The Tonight Show and Sharon Osbourne's and Ellen Degeneres' talk shows.
Hassan won the role by singing Jennifer Holliday's solo number from the Broadway show Dreamgirls. There were a lot of kids, and it was really hectic with so many people waiting in line, she recalled of the tryout.
Hassan said it was a lot of fun working with Black, and that he was just as funny off the set as he was on it. He was really fun during the movie, she said. During breaks he liked to take out the mic and start telling jokes and playing around with the kids.
Hassan began her singing and acting experience when she lived in Brooklyn, playing the lead role of Dorothy in an elementary-school play called, The Witch Comes to Bushwick.
During School of Rock's filming, from November 2002 to February 2003 in New Jersey, Manhattan, Queens and Long Island, Hassan, who skipped second grade, was able to keep up in her school work with regulated classroom time. If you weren't on set and you weren't doing one of your scenes, you had tutors who all taught different grades, so they could help with different problems you needed help with, she said.
Hassan saw the movie for the first time when the entire cast flew to Los Angeles for the premiere last month. It was pretty cool because it was like seeing me on screen and feeling like I'm going to be in this movie, she said.
Hassan has managed to stay in contact with many of the children in the movie. A lot of them I see on-line, she said, and we talk with each other and we meet a few times.
Hassan sings in the chorus at Lawrence Middle School, where a holiday concert is planned for December. It is her first year in the Lawrence school system, since her family moved to Inwood from Brooklyn two months ago. Hassan was joined by 100 chorus- and classmates at the Long Island debut of School of Rock at the Fantasy Theater in Rockville Centre.
Her mother, Khadejah Daniels, has been overwhelmed by the whole process. It's just all been unbelievable, said Daniels. I never thought from the time when they said that Maryam had the part that it would escalate to what it has. You really have to change your regimen, especially when [the movie] gets to number one status, because you're running West Coast, East Coast, West Coast, so it's different but it's exciting. Everywhere she goes, I go.
Since the movie has come out, Hassan has been receiving offers for other projects, so this will likely not be the last time that she appears on the big screen.
