50 Cent‘s first outing in films wasn’t exactly a successful one. Amidst poor reviews, many of them pointing at his ability as an actor, and only $30 million at the box-office it’s safe to say Get Rich or Die Tryin’ sort of died tryin’. With his second effort we meet a film called Home of the Brave, centering on the war in Iraq and what happens when the soldiers return home. 50’s role as Jamal isn’t an easy one, but it looks like he has made a few improvements in his acting and in talking to him it seems like he isn’t about to give up as an actor.
What was it about this movie that made you really pursue it?
50 Cent: It was the action in it that I really wanted to be a part of and it was different than everything I had seen so far from a war perspective. A lot of war films are set during the war and that’s it and this film is about re-entering society after the experience of war.
I actually enjoy war films. Prior to doing the research for my character I just watched the films that I had seen that had those types of action scenes in them as entertainment. It’s after you start to do the research and you start to see people and images even more graphic than what you have seen in film. You start to have a different outlook on it.
And you were just really focused on the acting side of it, outside of the music…
50 Cent: Absolutely, that’s why I didn’t create the single for the soundtrack.
Talk about filming in Morocco and your experiences there.
How about filming in Spokane?
50 Cent: After I left from there I went home for about a week and then they called me to Spokane, Washington. Have any of you been to Spokane, Washington before? Try not to ever go to Spokane, Washington. It was so quiet, when they would say “cut” you just wanna say, “Wait, can we just try that one more time?” Because it’s only like six o’clock and we were going to be there and I am going to go back to the hotel and do nothing until it’s time to come back here. It worked out though, it gave me plenty of time to be focused on everything else that I had to do.
Irwin Winkler wasn’t keen to cast you at first, what was it that you did to impress him?
Your character seemed a little more aggressive when he got home, was that a conscious thing on your part?
50 Cent: Absolutely, that was just choices that I made. When you build so much anticipation toward getting home, Jamal he was looking forward to being back with Keisha, then when he gets home nothing’s right after the experience. Everything is not happening on his time, whether it’s his discharge, the girl wouldn’t talk to him, eight weeks and wouldn’t kiss him. He’s got issues and he is feeling like it is from the actual experience of the war.
They tell you that it’s a legitimate kill, but you are still a human being killing another human being. Some people don’t adjust to that very well. I have had the opportunity to perform in front of the soldiers in Iraq and I’m sure the people that I met there weren’t the people that their loved ones missed back here. I believe a spirit changes with that much death around you. If you start in a platoon of 50 people and then the platoon is 47, and then the platoon is 30 and then the room is filled up again. Majority of them have death notes that they wrote to the people when they die, because they have to be conscious that any one of these days I could not come back in here.
I think that changes your entire perspective on everything.
After everything Sam Jackson said in the past did you know he was in this movie when you went after the part?
What was the reason to use your real name instead of just 50 Cent in association with the movie?
50 Cent: Yeah, I think when people see 50 Cent they directly associate it to the music and the aggressive content of the music. They may be disappointed when they see my character and he doesn’t have that same aggressive edge that they’re familiar with from the music. So I told them to put 50 Cent in the middle so they would know it was me still… [laughing]
Did you have the opportunity to speak with people that had similar experiences to you in the war?
50 Cent: I haven’t had the opportunity to speak with people directly that have lost their minds from the experience of the war. I mean my character actually gets killed in a hostage situation so it would be difficult to find people who have already done that. I did get a chance to speak with people that were in war before.
What were the differences and similarities in the lives you came in contact with compared to yours?
Do you think hip hop should play a larger role in speaking out about the war?
50 Cent: You can’t say hip hop in general because it is more than just hip hop as a genre of music that has a responsibility to be a part of it. When I travel, music has taken me all over the world, I get a chance to see how different news is broadcast in different areas and it makes me feel like even news is entertainment instead of the condition of the minds in the public. So in the U.S. they’ll give us a certain picture of the U.S. and then when you get outside of the country you see the craziest stuff, the craziest things… unbelievable what their perception is of the U.S.
Since Get Rich or Die Tryin’ what have been some of the scripts that you’ve read and want to pursue?
50 Cent: This film called New Orleans [now titled Microwave Park] is my next project, me and Robert De Niro and following that it was a screenplay called The Dance, which is myself and Nicolas Cage and I play a fighter in an Angola State Prison he plays a founder of the boxing program in it.
Home of the Brave opens in theaters on December 15, for more on the film click here.
