| By Fred Topel
In Theaters April 29
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We thought we’d seen Ice Cube do it all. After breaking into acting with his hardcore rap persona, he showed a lighter side in the Barbershop films and played with some kids in Are We There Yet? Now, we know he can kick ass, so XXX: State of the Union seems like a natural. But did you know he looks damn good in a suit?
“I grew up on James Bond,” Cube said. “My favorite one was Roger Moore. I mean, I’m a little young. I don’t remember Sean Connery. When I got into James Bond, Roger Moore was the man in the ’70s. After that, I kind of fell off with them, but with movies like XXX and the Die Hards, movies like that and Matrix, if you’re in this game, you definitely want to get one of these under your belt somewhere.”
Cube then quickly pointed out that the suit thing is for movies only. “I’m a T-shirt and jean man. I can keep it simple. I don’t have to get messed up unless I really have to.”
XXX: State of the Union casts Cube as a former Special Ops soldier now serving time in prison. Augustus Gibbons (Samuel L. Jackson) helps him escape so he can become the new XXX and take down a conspiracy in Washington, D.C. With all the film’s anti-establishment themes and a plot about government corruption, Cube has a few of his own words to share.
“I’ve got a lot of thoughts on the government. There are a lot of improvements. I don't know if America’s ever going to live up to its promise until it really stops preying on its own citizens in so many ways. I never wanted to throw away the government. I just wanted to change it and adjust its policies a little bit.”
To play a former Special Ops agent, Cube knew he’d have to bulk up. He began working out while making his previous film. “I started training when I was on Are We There Yet? So every day after we would shoot, I would go down into the hotel gym and train for an hour, hour and a half or as much as I could get in. So I had it in the back of my mind, I didn’t really think about XXX until I finished Are We There Yet? in a way. Only thing I did was worked out and I’m glad I did because I needed some of that even shooting Are We There Yet? because Are We There Yet? is a physical movie too.”
And lest anyone think he’s gone soft, Ice Cube thinks XXX: State of the Union will show his fans that he’s still got it. “I was glad that I had XXX coming because I knew that my fans or people that are just into my career would think I’m about to flip and try to be Eddie Murphy and do these kids movies. So this is a way to say, ‘Okay, that first one was something for the kids and this is something for the big kids.’”
XXX: State of the Union comes at a great time for movies starring African-American leads. Cube’s own Are We There Yet? was part of 2005’s trend of number one grossing movies opening from Coach Carter to Diary of a Mad Black Woman.
“The audience through DVDs have shown the industry that it really doesn’t matter what color you are,” Cube explained. “People want to see good entertainment. Before, they could really only judge you at the box office, but when they see DVD sales and people were showing that they just want to see good entertainment no matter where it comes from, that gives the industry courage to put us in these roles knowing that if we do a good job and we have a good movie, people are going to come out, not care what color we are. We’ve been fighting to get to a position like this. So to have Coach Carter come out and go number one and Are We There Yet? go number one and Hitch go number one and even Diary of a Mad Black Woman go number one, it really shows that what we’ve been screaming for the last few years in all these meetings is true. You serve good product, the audience will come.”
Also, many of the lead characters in those films are not racially specific. “Each role is different of course, but this role really has no color. But that’s not like I’m looking to play parts like that. I’d definitely go back and do a movie like a Barbershop or kind of what I call hood classics. Neighborhood classics like a Barbershop or even a Friday movie because I like those kind of movies. I’m not going to get on this whole roll of a certain movie I don’t want to accept now because I’m at a certain level. I’m going to do movies wherever and seek and find them. If they’re good and I think I can make them better, I’m going to jump in there.”
Yet Cube has a sense of humor about himself. When Chris Rock joked at the Oscars that Barbershop is not a title, it’s a place, Cube laughed.
“I thought it was funny. You know, we keep our titles simple. There ain’t nothing wrong with that because you can either have a simple title where people know what you’re about to show or you can have I Heart Hucakbees which is like what? So I’d rather have a title that basically tells me what the movie’s about. The Predator. The Terminator. I don’t need these crazy titles that really tell you nothing about the movie and I don't think they help any way whatsoever in the marketing of movie when you have these crazy titles.”
As one of the most successful rappers turned actors in Hollywood history, Cube can now pass the torch to other up and coming stars. XXX: State of the Union features Xzibit, and Cube sees even more following in his footsteps.
“I see Ludicris starting to dibble and dabble a lot. Nelly, now he’s in Longest Yard. It really matters on how serious these guys take the craft, take the art of putting movies together will determine how long they stay in it or how far they go. But if they’re just in it just because I’m going to go over here and get the side money, because I can, not because I love film and I want to and I want to do this, then they’ll probably phase out at a certain point because they’re not going to take the steps that they need to take to start moving up the chain in Hollywood so to speak.”
XXX: State of the Union opens Friday. |
