Common

Positive-themed hip hop artist Common teams up with Queen Latifah to play a pro basketballer who, after a devastating on court injury find himself reassessing his career and love life, in the film ”Just Wright”.Queen Latifah plays the unlikely romantic match for Scott McKnight (Common), but finds herself helping the sports star recover as a physical therapist and watches her Cinderella dream come true.In his first leading role, Common changes it up and, as he says to Moviehole’s Tim Johnson in New York, plays his first character to not hold a gun on screen.

How was it to star in your first leading role, and in a romantic comedy, which is a departure from your previous films, which were action films?

C: Well I mean, I just wanted to make my first leading role something that could be impactful. I didn’t know which genre it might come in, but I just wanted it to be something that I could show another side of me. And this was the perfect vehicle, before I even thought about, ‘OK, should it be a romantic comedy?’ I was just looking for roles, and roles that had depth and roles that could really show some acting chops, show something! Like this role really embodied some sensitivity along with a certain masculine-like energy to it and I think it also had a character arc, because Scott McKnight was really caught up in to what the world said beauty is and this is how beauty should be, and these are the type of people you should be with. He was caught up in that, even though he was a good-hearted dude and loved his mother and really wanted to be in love, he thought love should come in a certain type of package. But then you see him develop and change, and I looked for those things in roles that I choose. Obviously a lot of the earlier roles I had didn’t have as much depth, you didn’t even know too much about the character. I just did the most I could with the space that I was given. But this one was a great opportunity, for it to be a romantic thing, I feel like it was a blessing given from the sky because it gives another side of like, ‘Oh, this dude has a romantic side, he’s a leading man’ type of thing. He is a leading man, that’s what it says.

Plus love is a big theme in your music as well, so was that a deciding factor also?

C: Yeah, definitely. And that’s what’s funny for a lot of people that don’t know me from my music background. They see me in the films, and they’re like, ‘Man, this like street-tough dude’, you know I come from Chicago, of course I’ve been around the street stuff. Those who know my music, know I put out positive love things. This is what I’m about. And it’s funny, the guy that was working on some of the ADR (automatic dialogue replacement) for this movie… he had been ADR for a lot of movies I’d done and he was like, ‘Man, Common this is the first time that I ever seen you smiling, it’s great, it looks good!’

You got teeth!

C: Yeah, basically! Yeah, exactly.

Is this your first film not holding a gun?

C: Yeah, this is my first role not holding a gun, and actually my daughter always said to me since probably my fourth movie, ‘Daddy, when are you going to play a good guy?’

You play a professional basketballer in the movie, how did you prepare your body for this role?

C: For me, I have definitely planned to live healthy and I like working out. I try to work out three to four times a week just because it gets my mind off of other things. But even for those I guess that don’t like to work out, obviously at a certain point, you’ve got to find something to do to keep your body moving and to keep it going. I mean, it’s healthy for you, and it helps your mind. For me, I just focused on weight training, but my trainers had me doing weight training that was more cardio driven too. So I would lift weights and do like different cardio exercises and agility exercises because they would train me like an athlete basically. Then, once I got to playing ball too, man that just really trimmed me down. And one of the most important things I can say, in my ‘Health Tips From Common’ is definitely eat healthy and don’t eat too late. I really seen a change in myself between cardio and not eating too late, I was like, ‘Man!’ I had to stop doing as much cardio because I was getting too thin. But the director, Sanaa Hamri, she was like, ‘Look, we want cut and you gonna have your shirt off’. I said, ‘OK, it’s cool, I’ll do it’.

What’s eating healthy for you?

Well, even before I started training or anything, I decided not to eat certain meats, which is pork and beef, and I only eat chicken. But I think even if you eat certain things, you’ve got to go and try and get the meats. Healthy is also finding out, you know I have been to nutritionists who say, ‘OK, this is what you need, this is what your body needs’ and I go to them and get that information and start eating that way. And some of that may mean, like I needed proteins, so I eat fish. And then I eat fish and vegetables, and healthy to me is not over-indulging in things. Every trainer I’ve been to say ‘You still got to enjoy yourself and eat certain things’ but I can tell you this, I stayed pretty focused and on that last day of filming they brought me some pizzas. I ate probably two pizzas! Yeah I was drinking and eating, I had a great time. The next day I went to Houston (Texas) and got a brownie and some ice cream.

You grew up as a ball boy for the Chicago Bulls?

C: Yeah.

You were around a lot of legendary players, is there anyone specific you were channeling in the film?

C: Well, that experience with the Bulls was like so much fun! It was like, I got to see Michael Jordan when he first came in to the league. I could remember when Michael came in with this radio and he was playing some music, and the general manager at the time, his name was Rod Thorn, Michael was playing the music in the locker room and Rod Thorn was like, ‘Nah, you gotta cut that off’, and then like three games later, Michael could play whatever he wanted. So I mean, I picked up from Mike, just come in and be as great as possible and I watched him. But I’ll be honest, mostly what I absorbed to do this film came from players of today like Baron Davis, I just followed him around, he plays for the (Los Angeles) Clippers, great point guard. Rajon Rondo was a point guard who I talked to, he plays for the (Boston) Celtics and then Dwayne Wade (Miami Heat). I talked to all these guys, but Baron Davis I really just hung out (with) and just got every nuance I could, and then took that and said, ‘Man, who is Scott McKnight in comparison with that?’ knowing what I know about NBA players now. So that’s really how I cooked up my character.

And your father too? He was a basketballer too right?

C: Yeah, my father was an ABA (American Basketball Association) player and he played a couple of years in the ABA and I would call him, and ask him about different things, but he kept telling me these old school moves, and I was like, ‘Man, dad I can’t pull out the old Rick Barry (New York Nets, 1970) moves! It’s got to be something new man’. But he still had good advice. I pay homage, but you got to bring something new and I think that’s what I loved about this script and this character too, well we stereotype NBA players, to me this is something new in a way that, first of all NBA players are not all the same, the NBA players that I know are all individuals and they’re not always flashy or they’re not always trying to womanize, it’s not always like that. I know dudes that are married, they’re chilled, some of them listen to different types of music. And I thought with Scott McKnight what we were able to do, and what I love with Sanaa Hamri (director) and the script demanded, was that this character be a unique individual. He likes jazz, he talks about Joni Mitchell, like I said he’s got a need to be loved. You can see he wants to be loved, he is a good guy. and I think those are things that I like portraying. And he had class, he’s well spoken. Sanaa Hamri made sure, like there were times when I would break off in to a little Chicago slang, and she was like, ‘Bring it on back!’ If you listen to Lebron James (player, Cleveland Cavaliers), he’s not trying to talk like he’s not black, but he’s well spoken. And it’s the same for a lot of other NBA dudes. For me, I feel very proud to see African-American characters that are classic and well spoken and at the same token, they can appeal to any nationality. This story is a universal story. And I’m happy about that.

Was it intimidating working on set with NBA players and having to play against them?

C: I had a certain nervousness initially, but I’m a competitor and because I play ball myself, you know somewhere in your mind, you always believe you could’ve been in the NBA! I was basically like, ‘Let me see how I face up against Dwyane Wade, how do I face up against Dwight Howard?’ And you know, I was playing my heart out even when they cut and we were just playing in between. You know I’m really trying to score! But them there was one time when Dwight Howard after a couple of takes, I went for a shot and he just smacked my shot to the stands. I guess he was letting me know that, ‘Hey, don’t think that this is really real!’

Do you think it was planned out for you to take this part, having such deep roots in the game?

C: Yeah, I really do feel that it was destiny and divine order for me to get this role and be in this part. The way I prepared my life for this role by playing basketball throughout my life and the relationship I have with my mother. And being a hip hop artist, I knew all the nuances of this character in many ways. So, the chemistry that Latifah and I have too, and it’s not even like we had a long time to build it, but it’s just a natural chemistry there. So, I feel that everything was God driven for us to work together, and to be here and I’m very grateful that she was like, ‘This is the guy that we should chose’ because I’ve heard her say that it was a short list of guys, but I feel like I was the only guy! But I feel grateful that I was the guy that they chose.

You and Queen Latifah are both musicians, if you were to do a duet together what would that sound like?

C: Man, it would probably be a hybrid of raw hip hop, and then it might go in to a jazz transition, because I love jazz music too, and with her I would like to explore every talent she has. So that means she can rap, she can sing, she might scat and I can do some spoken word over it. And because we both are actors, you don’t have to put as much pressure on the music. So we could just make the song for eleven minutes if we wanted to. So I think we could do some great stuff, and ironically we do have a song for this movie, we just did it mostly for a mix tape but now they put it at the end of the movie, it’s called ‘The Next Time’ and it’s a real hip hop oriented song with Latifah singing very soulful on it. But we plan to do some music together definitely at some point.

How was Latifah on set to work with?

C: Man, she was just fun, and very supportive – she’s so talented and just natural as far as her abilities go. But, she was a great leader too, in that when the set needed that pep talk, she would give that pep talk.

Like a coach?

C: Yeah, like a coach. She actually possessed some of the dimensions that Leslie Wright has. And she showed that with me too. Because there was time where I was going through some tough times in doing some of the filming with a lot of pressures and different things and she would just give me that, ‘Come on, you can do it!’ thing. And then sometimes she would be tough like, ‘Come one, come on, you can do it!’ So, it was those elements that she brought to the table. And we just had fun, like we would play cards. Like in scenes where we’re playing cards and drinking, we really were playing cards and drinking!

And what about playing opposite Phylicia Rashad?

C: Man, that was an experience. Man this woman, I grew up watching her and thinking she was just so beautiful and I already felt like she was my mother from watching the Cosby Show you just felt like the mother in her. But you still feel nervous meeting her because she’s a great actress and somebody you admire so much. So, after my heart stopped beating and I got cool and I got over it and I realized, ‘Hey, this is my mom in the film’ and you just get in to that mode. And she and I just had a great little connection. I still call he ‘ma sometimes.

And what’s next for Common?

C: I’m working on a new album called ‘The Believer’ which is being produced by No I.D. and Kanye West and Twilight Tone and also we put out some Just Wright mixtapes, music inspired by Just Wright but it’s really feel good music from all genres. It’s not just hip hop sounds. And I’m looking to do some new films, just the right roles when they come, or I seek them out and get them!

Is there any character in particular you would love to play if it were available?

C: Marvin Gaye would be somebody. I would love to play him.

Thanks Common, appreciate you taking the time.

C: Thanks a lot.