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 Written by [ Richard Sharp ] When I think of Ice Cube, the first thing that comes to mind is being 12 or 13 years old, with NWA's Straight Outta Compton playing on my headphones late at night, as loud as I could play it without alerting my parents to the full-bore, hardcore profanity-laced vitriol spewed by the biggest, baddest, meanest sounding black men I'd ever heard. This was not music that felt like it was intended for my ears, but nobody else dared say the kinds of things they were saying in public, let alone on an album, which is exactly why me and every other suburban teenage white kid I knew had a copy of the album lying around somewhere in their tape collection. Leading the charge on the album's high point - Fuck the Police - was Cube, and the shit he was talking sounded like it would get most men killed: Ice Cube will swarm On any muthafucka in a blue uniform Just 'cuz I'm from the CPT, punk police are afraid of me A young nigga on a warpath And when I'm finished, it's gonna be a bloodbath Of cops, dyin' in LA Luckily, LAPD's finest cut Cube some slack on account of the good ol' First Amendment and he went on to change the course of music history with a monumental rap career, both with NWA and as a prolific solo artist. Icon status achieved, he simultaneously launched a film career, achieving both critical and commercial success as an actor in films like "Boyz in the Hood," "Higher Learning," "Three Kings" and "Ghost of Mars." Spurred on by success in front of the camera, Cube took to writing (the "Friday" series), directing ("Player's Club"), and founding a production company (Cube Vision) to create the filmed-in-Chicago "Barbershop" and "Barbershop 2" and a slew of other films. While not all of his work has received critical acclaim, even the bombs ("All About the Benjamins," "Player's Club") have more than made their money back, with the "Barbershop" franchise alone grossing close to $150 million in combined box office receipts worldwide. Ice Cube came to Chicago recently on a press junket in support of his latest film, a PG-rated children's comedy entitles "Are We There Yet?" Originally slated to star Adam Sandler, the film features Cube as a player trying to win over a woman by taking her kids on a road trip. We joined the roundtable interview with local press to talk to him about his work with John Singleton, making films in Chicago and the long, improbable journey from AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted to warm and fuzzy father figure. Before a lot of people knew you as an actor, they knew you from your hip-hop career. What elements of being a rapper do you take into the acting field? Well, most rappers write their own lyrics. To do that, to be clever, to be good enough for people to care about what you're saying, you have to be naturally observant. Of people, of situations - our job is to find those ironic things in life, to be witty about them and give them back to you. I think that's helped me in acting. Adapting to situations, understanding how people will react in these situations. You know, I don't take no training from no school or nuttin', so maybe my approach is all wrong, but it's working for me, so I'm gonna keep it. Do you think that lack of training affects how you take on a role? Well, each role is a challenge, each project is a challenge. It's not a piece of cake. If the time comes where I think I need, not school, but workshops, just tune-ups to keep me sharp at acting for that heavy dramatic role, I'll always prepare for a movie the way the role commands me to. If I know it's gonna be something kinda tough for me to pull off, I'll get together with some of my friends that's in the business and just kinda get the chops down outside of waiting the for filming to start. You always seem to have this underlying sense of anger. Whether it's in drama or comedy, you look sort of pissed off all the time. Where does that come from? Are you pissed off about something? Naw man, I'm not pissed off at all. Certain things piss me off, but for me personally, I have nothing to be pissed about at all. I get pissed off about people who come from the same neighborhood as me getting the shaft so to speak. Things that really piss me off are the government preying on its own citizens, the things that happen in this country all the time. For me though, I've been blessed and I ain’t got nothing to be pissed off about. You've talked in the past about some of the heavier dramatic roles you’ve taken on and hope to take on again. Some of your best work has been the projects you’ve worked with John Singleton. Talk a little bit about working with him... I consider John as one of my biggest mentors in this business. I kind of owe it all, everything I'm doing in this business, to him. He put me in my first movie of course, "Boyz in the Hood." He encouraged me to write scripts. He encouraged me to try to get on the other side of the camera as well. To try and make sure the stories I wanted to tell are getting out there. So I owe a lot to him. I want to work with him again. I'd jump at it in a heartbeat when the situation is right for the both of us. What made you decide to be an actor in the first place? John Singleton. Period. He pursued me to be an actor in "Boyz in the Hood" when I met him in '88. He was a Junior at USC and I met him backstage. He was an intern for the Arsenio Hall Show and I was up there on stage with Public Enemy and here he come, runnin' up...he's like 'Man I got this script, it's perfect for you' and I'm looking at this kid, this intern... Did you know at the time that you had it in you? Naw, not until I started auditioning, rehearsing, doing camera tests. After the first day I shot, I bugged him. He was on this thing where 'Spike Lee don't show nobody dailies, I don't show nobody my dailies.' I was like 'I gotta see if this look like a movie' - you know what I mean? If you put me in it I gotta be convinced that I can do it. I said 'I'm not coming tomorrow unless you let me see I'm not making a fool of myself.' I'd be done. 'Cause my head was into rapping, man. Nuttin' else. To be the best MC in the world. How'd you feel when he was the first black director nominated for an Academy Award? That let me know I could do it. Because here go a young kid my age, coming from my neighborhood, doin' a story about the 'hood. Watching him go through that let me know that if I applied myself I could make a movie. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] |
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