Found this on comingsoon.net
50 Cent: For A Few (Half) Dollars More
Source: Edward Douglas November 3, 2005
Sometimes, it's hard to believe that it's only been three years since 50 Cents' platinum selling debut album "Get Rich or Die Tryin'" hit the street. To many, he's still considered an overnight sensation, but then, you see Get Rich or Die Tryin', the movie based on 50's life, and you realize that the rapper has been working his whole life to get to this point. Much of that time spent doing some less than legal activities before finally turning legit thanks to his music.
The movie is already being compared favorably to 8 Mile starring one of 50's benefactors, Eminem, but as ComingSoon.net found out recently when we interviewed 50 Cents AKA Curtis Jackson, he's not quite as angry and a lot friendlier than his "partner in crime."
CS: Can you talk a bit about how this project came about, as far as who came up with the idea to turn your life story into a movie?
50 Cent: Actually [Interscope Records president] Jimmy Iovine approached me with that after the first week of sales on "Get Rich or Die Tryin'" and he probably had the projections for the next week that made him know that I was going to be big. And it was just an idea at that point, and up until I actually read the screenplay. He said "Let's just see what we come up with."
CS: Why did you want to do this film at this point in your life?
50 Cent: I feel like it gives everyone a really good description of what my life has been like. If they know the things that I've been through in my past, it'll help them make judgment on the things they see me do in the future.
CS: Did you personally pick Jim Sheridan and screenwriter Terence Winter to make this movie?
50 Cent: Actually, me and Jimmy Iovine picked Terry to do the script. After we got the screenplay, we was able to get Jim [Sheridan] involved.
CS: How closely did you work with Terence on the screenplay?
50 Cent: He actually traveled with me for two months, compiling information to create it.
CS: How close is the movie to your actual life?
50 Cent: It's about 75% factual.
CS: Since it's based on your life, why did you change the name of your character?
50 Cent: 75% of the facts that you see in the film are based on something that I told Terry Winters about my life, but it's not actually my life. We didn't go shoot in the areas where it actually took place. We didn't say things exactly the way I would have said them. I still had to learn the dialogue and come in and deliver it on point.
CS: When you were 12, did you really say you were going to be a gangster?
50 Cent: Not a gangster, but I'm going to get me some money.
CS: How accurate was the portrait of your mother? Did she really die that way?
50 Cent: Yeah, pretty accurate. They just put something in her drink and turned on the gas to cut off her oxygen. [In the movie], they used gasoline to make it more visual, 'cause you can't see the gas. I don't know exactly what they used.
CS: Did you ever figure out who your father was?
50 Cent: That's the inaccurate part. I really have no interest in meeting my father. My mother, when I was younger, she used to tell me things to make me feel special about not having my father be around, cause I'd ask questions, and she told me that I was born through the immaculate conception.
CS: What do you think your mother would think of this film if she were alive?
50 Cent: If she was here, it would be a different film, but I think she would appreciate it. She'd like it 'cause it immortalizes her.
CS: Someone mentioned that the movie had a lot of Shakespearean overtones. Is that something you were aware of?
50 Cent: That's the things that Jim brought to the film, the changes that he authored. He would make references to those things while he was actually doing it. Because he has such a strong history of it, he can modify things in a way where it's today, but it actually has those points to it and those qualities.
CS: How daunting is it to play yourself?
50 Cent: I think it's a great opportunity for me to draw my base closer to me and even broaden it, 'cause it's people who don't choose hip hop as a form of entertainment, they can watch a film loosely based on my life story.
CS: Is this movie a way for you to reinvent yourself?
50 Cent: Well, you know, it's an opportunity for me to let a lot of people judge me. I'd rather them judge me on this film than the information they've received prior to this.
CS: As a first time actor, what things were you nervous about going into this?
50 Cent: I was nervous about having to cry on queue. That's difficult.
CS: Was it painful to relive scenes from your life when making this movie?
50 Cent: I mean, it's therapeutic, not just the shooting part, more just dealing with feelings that you actually felt before, sitting there getting yourself back into that mood, into that zone. Some people may feel like it's easier to act in a film that's based on your life story, but it's more difficult to get away from those emotions once you've actually felt and actually been in that scenario. Cause the scenes are shot out of sequence, one scene you're doing something that's got you crying in the couch in the Poconos, and the next moment, it's comedy.
CS: And you haven't cried since then?
50 Cent: It's been a long time. I've had reasons to… I just haven't done it 'cause I've kind of conditioned myself to deal with those feelings in another way.
CS: Did Jim Sheridan push you a lot?
50 Cent: Well, Jim, he worked with me. We only worked five days a week, two days we was off. I spent some of that time actually with Jim preparing for the next five days.
CS: Were you nervous about doing the shower scene?
50 Cent: Actually, they gave us these biker shorts, and we were supposed to do the scene from the waist up and then we came in and Jim shot it and was like "This is not going to work." He called me to the side and said "50, do you think you can take it off?" and I was like "What?" Then he said "50, just take it off. If you do it, then everybody else will do it" I did it, Terence was with it and we just did it.
CS: Do you work out a lot?
50 Cent: No, I didn't work out much while I was actually on the movie set cause of the hours. It was getting up so early, sometimes 6:30 and we were sitting there for a long period.
CS: What do you think about your status as a sex symbol?
50 Cent: I dunno. I think my love scenes and the nudity in the film will only enhance that.
CS: Are you at all worried about having your movie compared to Eminem's movie "8 Mile"?
50 Cent: I think it's always good to be compared to successful projects so being compared to Eminem's "8 Mile," I don't mind it at all.
CS: What do you think is the biggest misconception about you?
50 Cent: The biggest misconception is that I have bad intentions. By me not sugar coating it and giving a politically correct answer all the time, people pass judgment on me over and over. 'Cause different media outlets and publications publicize things about me, and people take those things for pure fact, and they read it and they assume who I am without actually experiencing being around me at any point.
CS: Jamie Foxx recently said that he enjoyed the music business more than movie business because his love life improved, and it's more fun. Do you think that's true?
50 Cent: I think that music touches people a little closer than film does, and I mean, I only say that because people will jump out of cars and other things and run behind the car when they see you when you're really generating a lot of interest through being a musician, but they don't do that after their favorite actors arrive. Because by the time you've become a great actor, you've been six or seven different people in front of them, so they don't quite know who you are. They just know they liked your performance in that actual film. In music, they interpret the things you say as if it's exactly you, so they like you when they see you.
CS: Are you thinking of doing any other movies after this?
50 Cent: There's a possibility if I come across a screenplay as exciting to me as my life story, I'll do it.
CS: So many rappers have made the transition to acting this year, and rappers like Ice Cube and LL Cool J have actually made careers for themselves as actors. Have you thought about making a career out of acting or do you want to continue rapping and just do it once a while?
50 Cent: This is a great film. If I find something else, I'll commit to it if it was a screenplay exciting enough, but I got the best selling album this year, and I'm comfortable with the success on the music level. This project is just an opportunity to show them something to make reference to of who I am.
CS: What's the first movie that you can remember seeing that made a big impression growing up?
50 Cent: It would have to be "Krush Groove" maybe, because back then I was really into Run-DMC. "Tougher than Leather," too.
CS: Was seeing rappers on the big screen convince you that it was something that maybe you'd want to do?
50 Cent: Not then. Back then it was just because I enjoyed it. I would do it, play with it. It wasn't until my son actually came into the picture that I decided to start writing music full-time.
CS: Do you think you'll see the day when you won't rap anymore?
50 Cent: It's a possibility, but not in my near future. Of course, in the future, there'll be a point where I'm not running around rapping. I'll be executive producing. That's why I set up all the companies I set up. I established G-Unit records after selling 11 Million Records with "Get Rich or Die Tryin'", then move forward to release "Beg For Mercy," scanned 3.5 Million Records, and I'm currently at 6.7 Million records sold on "The Massacre."
CS: Where do you get this confidence for your work that everyone always talks about?
50 Cent: At one point, I was the only one that believed I was good. For a LONG period of time. My grandparents, I love them to death, but they thought I was a little off. After losing the opportunity to write music through Columbia Records and just being by the radio mumbling, because sometimes I don't write the lyrics down so I say the phrases over and over to myself until I know them in my head. And they just see me over there just…"What is he doing?"
CS: What did it feel like when you were shot?
50 Cent: Your adrenaline is pumping. You know your life is in danger 'cause you just heard a gunshot.
CS: But is it really like your whole life flashes in front of you?
50 Cent: Well, not in mine. That's in the movies.
CS: Did you ever see the person who shot you afterwards?
50 Cent: Nah, karma caught up with him before I could meet him and he got shot himself.
CS: Do you think violence is going to continue being a part of your life where you're worried someone else might take a shot at you?
50 Cent: I know that I'm more relevant in the environment that I come from, because they know that I'm from that. Two things happen when you become successful and you're from the bottom. People either are inspired by it or they envy it. Those are the facts, you know, so knowing the possibilities, I take precautions that probably a person who hasn't come from there probably wouldn't bother to take.
CS: So do you think it's a joke that they took those billboards down near schools in L.A?
50 Cent: You know what? They'll pick those billboards. I like to think, for a moment, that they're just being prejudice towards music because music is an artform that has standards placed on it that no other form of entertainment has. You haven't seen a gun on the cover of a CD since 1997, KRS-One's "Criminal Minded," but if we go into our local Blockbuster or any place else where we rent DVD's and movies from, we'll see a firearm and other weapons used as marketing tools on the cover of these projects consistently all over the place. So when they pick me and say "Oh, this is violent because he has a gun" but they had nothing to say about "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" or anything else they've seen, I'll say that I'd like to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and sayin' that it's just being prejudice towards me comin' from music, and not prejudice to my skin complexion.
CS: After growing up in this poor area, how important is money to you nowadays?
50 Cent: Just as important as it is for you. When I wake up in the morning, when I'm at home, I wake up in a house that the man who owned it before me, earned $500 million in his career and he doesn't have that money anymore, so it reminds that I have to be conscious of everything that I'm doing, regardless of how successful you become.
CS: What's your next goal?
50 Cent: I just made new investments with a company called GamerGraffix.com. They actually come up with the new cool things for games. Just to brief you on what's going on with me at the end of this year: November 8th, the soundtrack to the film is released on G-Unit Records, my record company; November 9th, the film hits box office; November 10th, my new sneaker the G63 through RVK comes out; and November 15th, my video game "Bulletproof" hits stores.
50's movie Get Rich or Die Tryin' opens on Wednesday, November 9.
50 Cent: For A Few (Half) Dollars More
Source: Edward Douglas November 3, 2005
Sometimes, it's hard to believe that it's only been three years since 50 Cents' platinum selling debut album "Get Rich or Die Tryin'" hit the street. To many, he's still considered an overnight sensation, but then, you see Get Rich or Die Tryin', the movie based on 50's life, and you realize that the rapper has been working his whole life to get to this point. Much of that time spent doing some less than legal activities before finally turning legit thanks to his music.
The movie is already being compared favorably to 8 Mile starring one of 50's benefactors, Eminem, but as ComingSoon.net found out recently when we interviewed 50 Cents AKA Curtis Jackson, he's not quite as angry and a lot friendlier than his "partner in crime."
CS: Can you talk a bit about how this project came about, as far as who came up with the idea to turn your life story into a movie?
50 Cent: Actually [Interscope Records president] Jimmy Iovine approached me with that after the first week of sales on "Get Rich or Die Tryin'" and he probably had the projections for the next week that made him know that I was going to be big. And it was just an idea at that point, and up until I actually read the screenplay. He said "Let's just see what we come up with."
CS: Why did you want to do this film at this point in your life?
50 Cent: I feel like it gives everyone a really good description of what my life has been like. If they know the things that I've been through in my past, it'll help them make judgment on the things they see me do in the future.
CS: Did you personally pick Jim Sheridan and screenwriter Terence Winter to make this movie?
50 Cent: Actually, me and Jimmy Iovine picked Terry to do the script. After we got the screenplay, we was able to get Jim [Sheridan] involved.
CS: How closely did you work with Terence on the screenplay?
50 Cent: He actually traveled with me for two months, compiling information to create it.
CS: How close is the movie to your actual life?
50 Cent: It's about 75% factual.
CS: Since it's based on your life, why did you change the name of your character?
50 Cent: 75% of the facts that you see in the film are based on something that I told Terry Winters about my life, but it's not actually my life. We didn't go shoot in the areas where it actually took place. We didn't say things exactly the way I would have said them. I still had to learn the dialogue and come in and deliver it on point.
CS: When you were 12, did you really say you were going to be a gangster?
50 Cent: Not a gangster, but I'm going to get me some money.
CS: How accurate was the portrait of your mother? Did she really die that way?
50 Cent: Yeah, pretty accurate. They just put something in her drink and turned on the gas to cut off her oxygen. [In the movie], they used gasoline to make it more visual, 'cause you can't see the gas. I don't know exactly what they used.
CS: Did you ever figure out who your father was?
50 Cent: That's the inaccurate part. I really have no interest in meeting my father. My mother, when I was younger, she used to tell me things to make me feel special about not having my father be around, cause I'd ask questions, and she told me that I was born through the immaculate conception.
CS: What do you think your mother would think of this film if she were alive?
50 Cent: If she was here, it would be a different film, but I think she would appreciate it. She'd like it 'cause it immortalizes her.
CS: Someone mentioned that the movie had a lot of Shakespearean overtones. Is that something you were aware of?
50 Cent: That's the things that Jim brought to the film, the changes that he authored. He would make references to those things while he was actually doing it. Because he has such a strong history of it, he can modify things in a way where it's today, but it actually has those points to it and those qualities.
CS: How daunting is it to play yourself?
50 Cent: I think it's a great opportunity for me to draw my base closer to me and even broaden it, 'cause it's people who don't choose hip hop as a form of entertainment, they can watch a film loosely based on my life story.
CS: Is this movie a way for you to reinvent yourself?
50 Cent: Well, you know, it's an opportunity for me to let a lot of people judge me. I'd rather them judge me on this film than the information they've received prior to this.
CS: As a first time actor, what things were you nervous about going into this?
50 Cent: I was nervous about having to cry on queue. That's difficult.
CS: Was it painful to relive scenes from your life when making this movie?
50 Cent: I mean, it's therapeutic, not just the shooting part, more just dealing with feelings that you actually felt before, sitting there getting yourself back into that mood, into that zone. Some people may feel like it's easier to act in a film that's based on your life story, but it's more difficult to get away from those emotions once you've actually felt and actually been in that scenario. Cause the scenes are shot out of sequence, one scene you're doing something that's got you crying in the couch in the Poconos, and the next moment, it's comedy.
CS: And you haven't cried since then?
50 Cent: It's been a long time. I've had reasons to… I just haven't done it 'cause I've kind of conditioned myself to deal with those feelings in another way.
CS: Did Jim Sheridan push you a lot?
50 Cent: Well, Jim, he worked with me. We only worked five days a week, two days we was off. I spent some of that time actually with Jim preparing for the next five days.
CS: Were you nervous about doing the shower scene?
50 Cent: Actually, they gave us these biker shorts, and we were supposed to do the scene from the waist up and then we came in and Jim shot it and was like "This is not going to work." He called me to the side and said "50, do you think you can take it off?" and I was like "What?" Then he said "50, just take it off. If you do it, then everybody else will do it" I did it, Terence was with it and we just did it.
CS: Do you work out a lot?
50 Cent: No, I didn't work out much while I was actually on the movie set cause of the hours. It was getting up so early, sometimes 6:30 and we were sitting there for a long period.
CS: What do you think about your status as a sex symbol?
50 Cent: I dunno. I think my love scenes and the nudity in the film will only enhance that.
CS: Are you at all worried about having your movie compared to Eminem's movie "8 Mile"?
50 Cent: I think it's always good to be compared to successful projects so being compared to Eminem's "8 Mile," I don't mind it at all.
CS: What do you think is the biggest misconception about you?
50 Cent: The biggest misconception is that I have bad intentions. By me not sugar coating it and giving a politically correct answer all the time, people pass judgment on me over and over. 'Cause different media outlets and publications publicize things about me, and people take those things for pure fact, and they read it and they assume who I am without actually experiencing being around me at any point.
CS: Jamie Foxx recently said that he enjoyed the music business more than movie business because his love life improved, and it's more fun. Do you think that's true?
50 Cent: I think that music touches people a little closer than film does, and I mean, I only say that because people will jump out of cars and other things and run behind the car when they see you when you're really generating a lot of interest through being a musician, but they don't do that after their favorite actors arrive. Because by the time you've become a great actor, you've been six or seven different people in front of them, so they don't quite know who you are. They just know they liked your performance in that actual film. In music, they interpret the things you say as if it's exactly you, so they like you when they see you.
CS: Are you thinking of doing any other movies after this?
50 Cent: There's a possibility if I come across a screenplay as exciting to me as my life story, I'll do it.
CS: So many rappers have made the transition to acting this year, and rappers like Ice Cube and LL Cool J have actually made careers for themselves as actors. Have you thought about making a career out of acting or do you want to continue rapping and just do it once a while?
50 Cent: This is a great film. If I find something else, I'll commit to it if it was a screenplay exciting enough, but I got the best selling album this year, and I'm comfortable with the success on the music level. This project is just an opportunity to show them something to make reference to of who I am.
CS: What's the first movie that you can remember seeing that made a big impression growing up?
50 Cent: It would have to be "Krush Groove" maybe, because back then I was really into Run-DMC. "Tougher than Leather," too.
CS: Was seeing rappers on the big screen convince you that it was something that maybe you'd want to do?
50 Cent: Not then. Back then it was just because I enjoyed it. I would do it, play with it. It wasn't until my son actually came into the picture that I decided to start writing music full-time.
CS: Do you think you'll see the day when you won't rap anymore?
50 Cent: It's a possibility, but not in my near future. Of course, in the future, there'll be a point where I'm not running around rapping. I'll be executive producing. That's why I set up all the companies I set up. I established G-Unit records after selling 11 Million Records with "Get Rich or Die Tryin'", then move forward to release "Beg For Mercy," scanned 3.5 Million Records, and I'm currently at 6.7 Million records sold on "The Massacre."
CS: Where do you get this confidence for your work that everyone always talks about?
50 Cent: At one point, I was the only one that believed I was good. For a LONG period of time. My grandparents, I love them to death, but they thought I was a little off. After losing the opportunity to write music through Columbia Records and just being by the radio mumbling, because sometimes I don't write the lyrics down so I say the phrases over and over to myself until I know them in my head. And they just see me over there just…"What is he doing?"
CS: What did it feel like when you were shot?
50 Cent: Your adrenaline is pumping. You know your life is in danger 'cause you just heard a gunshot.
CS: But is it really like your whole life flashes in front of you?
50 Cent: Well, not in mine. That's in the movies.
CS: Did you ever see the person who shot you afterwards?
50 Cent: Nah, karma caught up with him before I could meet him and he got shot himself.
CS: Do you think violence is going to continue being a part of your life where you're worried someone else might take a shot at you?
50 Cent: I know that I'm more relevant in the environment that I come from, because they know that I'm from that. Two things happen when you become successful and you're from the bottom. People either are inspired by it or they envy it. Those are the facts, you know, so knowing the possibilities, I take precautions that probably a person who hasn't come from there probably wouldn't bother to take.
CS: So do you think it's a joke that they took those billboards down near schools in L.A?
50 Cent: You know what? They'll pick those billboards. I like to think, for a moment, that they're just being prejudice towards music because music is an artform that has standards placed on it that no other form of entertainment has. You haven't seen a gun on the cover of a CD since 1997, KRS-One's "Criminal Minded," but if we go into our local Blockbuster or any place else where we rent DVD's and movies from, we'll see a firearm and other weapons used as marketing tools on the cover of these projects consistently all over the place. So when they pick me and say "Oh, this is violent because he has a gun" but they had nothing to say about "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" or anything else they've seen, I'll say that I'd like to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and sayin' that it's just being prejudice towards me comin' from music, and not prejudice to my skin complexion.
CS: After growing up in this poor area, how important is money to you nowadays?
50 Cent: Just as important as it is for you. When I wake up in the morning, when I'm at home, I wake up in a house that the man who owned it before me, earned $500 million in his career and he doesn't have that money anymore, so it reminds that I have to be conscious of everything that I'm doing, regardless of how successful you become.
CS: What's your next goal?
50 Cent: I just made new investments with a company called GamerGraffix.com. They actually come up with the new cool things for games. Just to brief you on what's going on with me at the end of this year: November 8th, the soundtrack to the film is released on G-Unit Records, my record company; November 9th, the film hits box office; November 10th, my new sneaker the G63 through RVK comes out; and November 15th, my video game "Bulletproof" hits stores.
50's movie Get Rich or Die Tryin' opens on Wednesday, November 9.
