Righteous Kill interview with 50 and niro

[Shady'baby.]

Where’s Curtis?”

Curtis is stepping off the elevator, looking slim, not quite so superhero about the shoulders. As the bulbs begin to flash, the two of them are a little awkward—until Jackson picks up a bat, then a toy Oscar, at one point a tiny toy pistol. There is a menace to these two, or maybe it’s just unpredictability. Real or imagined, it’s what they bring, without half trying. One, even with his stature and millions, talks a whole lot, like he knows he’s still got something to prove as an actor. The other, perhaps the best actor of his generation, talks not much at all, sitting back with the poise of one who feels that a single raised eyebrow should say it all.


Robert Mario De Niro Jr. and Curtis James Jackson III. No matter what roles they play, no matter what else either of them do—have families, run businesses—De Niro and Jackson are both gangsters for life. They’ve both made lives of portraying them—50 in real life, onstage, and on- screen, De Niro mostly on-screen—perfecting the pose and madness and especially the cold souls of men who have street mentalities, who have little to no remorse about living lives infused with violence and crime, murder and mayhem. Jackson, based on his criminal record, his rap records, and the semi-autobiographical film Get Rich or Die Tryin’, apparently has more tangibles, as an actor, to draw from. But De Niro, most loved for playing men who kill at will, clearly has his mysteries.

De Niro and 50 Cent. One 64, the other, exactly half his age. De Niro was raised in New York City’s Little Italy by divorced parents (dad was a sculptor, painter, and poet; mom was a painter and printer). Jackson was an orphan by age 8, and brought up in his grandparents’ home in Queens, N.Y., with eight aunts and uncles. De Niro went to a performing arts high school and ran the streets a bit with a crew—people called him “Bobby Milk” because of his pale skin. Jackson, who boxed as a Junior Olympian, started selling drugs at 11, and served six months at a boot camp in 1994 for possession of heroin and crack.

Through his relationships with Jam Master Jay and Eminem, and after a string of now-legendary mixtapes, Jackson realized his dream of becoming a rich and world-famous MC. Among many other accolades, he’s been nominated for 13 Grammys, won three BET Awards, and two MTV Video Music Awards. He’s sold more than 22 million albums. And he was shot nine times before he turned 25.

By the time he was in his teens, De Niro was studying with the best drama teachers of the century, performing Chekhov on the stage. He was receiving wide acclaim when a young director named Brian De Palma cast him in 1969’s The Wedding Party. After winning the ’74 Oscar for The Godfather Part II (the first of two statuettes from six nominations), there was a little film called Taxi Driver, not to mention The Deer Hunter, Raging Bull, The Untouchables, Midnight Run, Cape Fear, A Bronx Tale, Casino, and Heat among many others. But it was his portrayal of Vito that made De Niro part of rap culture.

If not born of the The Godfather trilogy, hip hop was certainly raised on it. There are too many references from the films in hip hop songs to count.

Even Jay-Z has referred to himself as “Young Vito.” The only Hollywood icon who looms as large is Al Pacino in Scarface—in April 2005, 50 Cent even appeared on the cover of VIBE as Tony Montana. And now, the crisscrossing cross-references come to a head: This summer, 50 and De Niro, along with Pacino, star together in Righteous Kill, a $60 million film that, in shorthand, is about gangsta cops. Aside from being a probable blockbuster, Righteous Kill affords 50 the opportunity to check in on the larger-than-life archetypes he’s been adoring and mimicking all along.

Which begs the question: Why do black guys—shit, why do guys— identify with Hollywood’s Italian-American gangsters to the degree they do? Is it simply the idea of gaining—with finesse—power outside the mainstream? That’s something some young black men have been aspiring to do—and sometimes forced to do—since Emancipation and before. The ability to instill fear and to gain respect is power. Sometimes, killing is power. The idea of living without regret is seductive. It can also be death on the spirit.

Jackson is happy to be acting for a lot of reasons, one of the main ones being that, even when playing a thug, he can let go of having to always walk and talk like one. When asked if he’s ever going to shake his gangster stance, he speaks of wanting to “create something different” through his film projects. “I mean, hip hop, you have to understand, the art form itself is so competitive,” he says. “It doesn’t allow you to show any vulnerability.” The kind of vulnerability he showed once or twice as an actor in Get Rich. The kind he tentatively shows when talking about his son, or when chilling with De Niro’s admiring kids.

But would 50 be rich if he hadn’t been that indestructible shot-up criminal thug rapper since he was 11? No tears need to be shed for him, though, right? He’s often said that he needs us to hate him. But do we need him, like we’ve needed other rappers, to die —spiritually or actually—to make us feel better about bowing our heads and going along with the get-along? And we don’t want to give De Niro a break from it either: All we really want is to see Bobby Milk thug it out, bloody somebody with a bat, tell someone with his glare that life outside the lines is where life really is.

When was the first time you came in contact with Robert De Niro?

50: I grew up watching his movies, so many different ones. One of my favorites was [1990’s] Goodfellas. I could watch that over and over. He was amazing.

What was it about Goodfellas?

50: The characters are like real people. It’s a movie that’s interesting to people, even if they’re not in that lifestyle. If you tell people a film is based on a true story, it’s interesting to watch because you get to use your imagination, feel the person’s experience. It can make you feel like you’ve experienced a person’s entire life in that short period of time. Goodfellas was one of those films.

When did you come in contact with 50 Cent?
RD: I’d heard of him. There was another movie we almost did together—it never came together but we met just to read, you know. So it didn’t happen, and then Righteous Kill came up.

50: I actually spent a little bit of time with him at his house. That [film] didn’t happen, but I had a chance to actually meet him.

Are you guys friends?
50: We got a chance to see a little more of each other than a lot of the others who were working on the actual set. I got a chance to talk with him a little bit in the trailer when I was on the movie set.

What advice would you give Curtis about acting?

RD: Curtis, he’s very smart, so he’s got good instincts.

African-American actors are often criticized for portraying gangsters, and Italian Americans as well. I wonder how both of you guys feel about that?

50: Some of the [most] exciting stories come from that area, and I think there are stories from pretty much every ethnic background. Not a lot of movies are made about the Russian Mafia—they’re killers. [And] the Triads? [referring to Chinese organized-crime groups]. So it’s like I dare you to make a movie [about that], know what I mean?

What’s your definition of a gangster?

50: You have people who go to work everyday 9-to-5 that are gangster in my eyes. There’s a parallel between the CEO of a major company...and a guy who’s a boss in the neighborhood. They actually want to take over another person’s company the way the guy in the neighborhood wants to take over another person’s block. The only difference is one has psychotic means of accomplishing his goal, while the guy in corporate America does everything possible to do it without physically killing you.

What do you think?

RD: Well, I’m actually thinking of a documentary, The Smartest Guys in the Room, about Enron. They just about conned everybody.

Do you feel it’s okay to be playing a gangster?

50: Yeah. Actors are imitating life. That exists. People who don’t actually follow the rules. So for an actor to create a project to show people what actually happens, that’s cool. Even down to the music I create, I write about harsh realities, the environment I grew up in. To some people it may be too aggressive, and they feel like, Wow! And I understand it because they grew up in a more conservative space. I see where they’re coming from, but I’m not going to change based on that. They’d like things to be the way they experienced it, but there’s other life going on.

How do you feel about that?

RD: Well, I agree with 50...I also feel that movies are like dreams, an expression of people’s subconscious, what they feel, what they would want to do but wouldn’t do. So they’re like a release. And we all know the difference between reality and fiction.

Are you ever going to play that nice guy, that mailman Tupac played in Poetic Justice? Are you ever going to play that boy-next-door role?

50: When I read the screenplay that inspires me.

Both of you are fathers. What do your kids think about what you’re doing?

50: My son is excited, he thinks I’m a superhero. Now even more because me and his mom aren’t physically around each other anymore.

He’s proud of you.

50: Absolutely. And it’s impossible for him to miss me, because if he went through his regular day, there’d be references to me around, whether it’s music or when he goes to school and his school knows 50 Cent is his dad.

And what about you? Are they proud of you?

RD: No, they act like they don’t care, but...[laughter], but I think they do.

They’re proud of you.

RD: Yeah. And they see me in another way because I’m very...

Just dad.

RD: Yeah.

Both of you guys have starred in movies that people believe are based on your life stories. Mr. De Niro, I wonder if you’d speak a little bit about A Bronx Tale?Are you that young guy whose father is a bus driver and who fell in love with a sister from the Bronx?

RD: That’s Chazz Palminteri’s, that’s based on his...

Nobody believes that.

50: [laughs]
RD: I know they don’t [laughter].

Nobody believes that.

RD: No, but Chazz was born in the Bronx and he had that experience, his father was a bus driver, and I saw him do his one-man show and then we talked years ago, and that’s how the movie sort of came about. I mean, [as the director] I put a lot of things in that I understood, experienced—with the kids and so on. But that was Chazz’s story.

And how close is Get Rich or Die Tryin’ to who you really are?

50: Pretty close. But in some areas, they expand the situation to make it exciting. So that wasn’t exactly what the experience was for me, but it was exciting to watch in the movie theater. I still think Get Rich or Die Tryin’ is the best representation of my life so far. I’ve created two books that show me at different time periods, but Get Rich...allows someone who doesn’t actually enjoy hip hop to get a sense of who I was as a person. A lot of things that people misinterpret as your experience just shows the struggle that you came through. Some people only hear the aggressive content in the music, so they match up the aggressive scenes in the film with the aggressive music and say: That’s who 50 Cent is.

50, why do you think people of our generation are into De Niro?

50: They appreciate his work. And it’s like, I’d hang out with Robert on Thursdays and Fridays...if I could. Because I get a chance to feel normal when I’m around Robert. His celebrity is so strong that I get a chance to feel like a normal person for a little bit. People get nervous around him. We had a table read, and it was amazing because there were people who came in who were like, all recognizable faces...and Robert comes in and Al comes in and it’s almost like, their knees are going shaky under the table. It’s great.

Is it all Goodfellas and Heat?

50: It’s a certain power, because they’ve lived the art form, so we get up and want
to reach that pocket where both Robert and Al are. Because they are bulletproof. There’s no question—hands down, the best actors in the world.

Do you ever get tired of gangsters being what you’re most famous for?

RD: Those characters are more exciting. People like to watch and identify with them in some ways. It’s a fantasy. The other side is, for an actor, [those parts are] more fun, in a way, to do.

Are you that cold-blooded?

50: Yeah.

Mr. De Niro?

RD: No. I don’t know. I’m actually...more sensitive.
50: [Laughs] You know what it is? The conditions that I grew up in.... It just
doesn’t go over well if you decide to cry because things aren’t going your way. You appear weak, and the weak, they’re supposed to be victims, they’re supposed to be walked over because only the strong actually survive. So, you ask me if I’m cold-blooded: I have good intentions, but from [others’] perceptions, absolutely. They’d perceive me that way.

When you’re a method actor, you pull from your own experiences, the things that have affected you—are you pulling from those things?

50: Absolutely. I mean...I’ve chosen [roles] I can actually relate to.

And do you still, after these many years, pull from it?

RD: I think you have to. It’s whatever you can use effectively. And that’s part of the experience, part of expression—whatever is usable from your own experience, you put into the part. That’s very valid, more than valid—it’s the only way I see it. And then it’s the way you can make it more personal. People can identify with the character, [then] make it specific, based on their own experience. Imagine that you’ve, not killed somebody, but you imagine the details, the specifics of that, that’s what makes it special. Everyone makes their own choices. As my teacher Stella Adler said: Acting is about your choice, however you get there, whatever, drawing on your own experience, if it’s valid and applicable to the work.

Are we going to get another classic gangster character out of you, before you decide not to do this anymore?

RD: Yeah, I have one that I’m going to do. [Frankie Machine, which is based on Don Winslow’s book about a retired hit man.] I was supposed to do it with Scorsese, we just decided to go on to something else.

50 has made clear the hard times he’s gone through, and how they led him to be the gangster rapper he is and to play the kind of roles he plays. Your upbringing was more artistic. I wonder—to where are you reaching?

RD: Well, I’ve had other experiences in my life that were, in spite of that, were very, for want of a better way of putting it, street-oriented.

Wait a minute, is Robert De Niro saying he was running the streets?

50: Orientated...no, he said he’s street-orientated.

[Laughs] What does that mean?

50: It means he’s a little savvy, understands, knows what’s going on out there.

Have you guys spoken about this?

50: You can tell he does. He has to draw from somewhere to create these characters.

This is what I’m saying. Where is this coming from? I’m saying, the coldness you can project, it’s not even a gangster film, but, um, Cape Fear?

RD: [Smiles] I thought that was a touching part...

I can’t even watch that movie. I watched Godfather II over the holidays; I’ve seen it a million times, but people forget how cold the Godfather series is. And you’re so compellingly mean on the screen.

RD: Everybody’s got their own mishegas. It’s Yiddish [for craziness].

And you just have it in here [points at heart]?

RD: And wherever.

Source:Vibe.com

[Emadyville]

Didn't read the interview but what I did read was good, looks like a good movie, props