Vibe interviews T.I.

While on house arrest rapper T.I. called up Vibe recently to provide a brief update on future events, American Ganster and his thoughts on being an actor. Read a snippet of the interview after the cut. Thanks to Lexie for sending over the link.

VIBE: How do you feel about the reception American Gangster got? TI: Man, I think that it was definitely a phenomenal experience. I’m proud of the film. It was definitely a learning experience that I took away from it. It got me a lot of respect as an actor and it kind of overrode all of the doubt that comes with hiring a rap artist as an actor in a major motion picture. Most of the time when people consider casting rappers as actors, it’s not in a movie of this magnitude. You know, it’s very few of us that can really be taken seriously in a movie like American Gangster. I’m proud to be one of them. VIBE:What were some of the significant differences in terms of working on American Gangster as opposed to ATL? T.I:[For] one ATL kind of revolved around my character. American Gangster accented around my character. I think that it’s very important as an actor to do both. It’s important to show people that you can carry a movie and it’s important to show people that you can come in and spice up a movie no matter how big it is, no matter whom else is in it to show that intimidation isn’t a factor, and that the size of the role isn’t a factor, that you can still come in and do your thing VIBE:What did you learn from doing American Gangster? T.I.:[That] Ridley [Scott] is one of the coolest cats you could ever meet. A person of his accomplishments, you’d expect a totally different man then what you get. Like when you meet him and he’s so cool, and he’s got on a hoody and some cargo pants and he’s just chilling. It’s kind of like, "Damn, I wasn’t really expecting this." And how much humility he has and how much time he takes to actually convey what he wants to see on screen. You know, most people wouldn’t be bothered. People with half his accomplishments or a fraction of his accomplishments wouldn’t be bothered as much. So I was really impressed by that. I was real impressed by how efficient he was. It was times we had five or ten minutes to get a shot done and people was saying “Aight well, I know we ain’t gonna get this shot” and he’s like, “Nah, let’s go!” And he’d walk on set and he’d say, “Well your character’s gone do this, this, this and this and he’s feeling like this, this, this and this, ba da boom ba da bing, ACTION! Cut! GO!” It was just like working with the ultimate professional. It was definitely an experience. [Read More]

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