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For Anders, having real ''gangbangers'' on the set meant not only advice on how to roll cuffs on six-sizes-too-big Ben Davis jeans but also halting production when the teens walked off to stare down a rival cruising by in an Impala low- rider. And it meant funeral scenes where the tears were as real as their memories. Anders got this authenticity by being herself. One 19-year-old mother of two says: ''She'd meet us in the street. She wasn't fake. She didn't set us up with the cops.'' While Mi Vida Loca is pretty true to their lives, Whisper, 18, says it won't change her fate: ''I'm still gonna get shot. What, somebody's gonna say, 'Wait, I saw her in a movie, don't shoot her'?''


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Posted Jul 22, 1994 | Published in issue #232 Jul 22, 1994 | Order Article Reprints