‘I was more afraid of my mom than kids who roughed me up’: 50 Cent on using his childhood on screen
Curtis Jackson also goes by the name 50 Cent, but despite the moniker suggesting otherwise it seems the star doesn’t do things by halves.
When he put out his first album Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ it became the best-selling debut hip-hop record ever, while his TV show Power has been one of the most successful series on premium pay television in the US, according to network Starz.
It led to four spin-off series being commissioned and the latest, Power Book III: Raising Kanan, focuses on how Jackson’s character in Power, drug dealer Kanan Stark, became the man he did.
Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson starred in the original Power series, and now narrates a spin-off. Pic: Myles Aronowitz/Starz
Jackson tells Sky News he requested to the show’s creator Courtney A Kemp that he wanted to play “the worst character that they’ve seen on television – so if I play a bad guy, I want to play a real bad guy”.
But the prequel shows how he ended up that way, with Jackson narrating the story of Kanan’s younger years.
“To go into the prequel on his character is to show all of his trauma and all of the things that he – the things you go through make you who you are, I believe that – and the things that he went through and his experiences that hardened him to the point that he was that guy that we saw in Power at the beginning,” he says. “So you kind of see the things that he’s gone through that turned him into that.”
In order to give the character authenticity, Jackson borrowed from his own experiences growing up in the borough of Queens in New York City.
Mekai Curtis stars plays a young version of Jackson’s character Kanan in Power Book III: Raising Kanan. Pic: Nicole Rivelli/ Starz
One of the show’s opening scenes sees a young Kanan running home to his mother after being beaten up, but instead of comforting him she tells him he needs to learn to fight back and accompanies him for the rematch.
“These are real things, like, I really experienced being roughed up in the park before my mom sent me back to the park, and I was just more afraid of her than the kids in the park, so I ended up going back to fight them instead of dealing with my mom,” he says.
“And you deal with that and it kind of changes your perspective, like, I’m not going to go back whining to my mother for her to send me back, I’ll just handle it before she finds out that I’m scared or afraid of the other person, so it kind of changed a part of my character in the very early stages.
“It was probably the biggest thing to describe what my relationship with my mom was like fairly early on, you know, because she was the only provider, so she was like the source of everything that’s good; if she’s angry with you then nothing good is around, you know what I’m saying, and you’re like, wow, no, just take me back to the park, I’d rather fight than deal with this.”
Jackson narrates the story of Kanan’s upbringing. Pic: Myles Aronowitz/Starz
As a father himself now, Jackson recognises that idolising of parents by their children from the other side of the relationship.
“There’s a point where kids view their parents as superheroes because they don’t understand everything else in life that they have to do, work and everything else to create the comforts.
“My little guy now, he sees me like that, he thinks, ‘my dad could do it – there’s no question my dad could do it’, like if somebody can jump further and he’ll say ‘my dad can jump that far’, he thinks I can do everything, and it’s amazing.”
Jackson’s own mother passed away when he was eight, and he went on to be raised by grandparents. There, he was one of nine and there wasn’t a lot of money to go around, but his mother’s friends kept him in their lives; the star says it was them who inspired him to do whatever it took to make money.
“I look at my journey, some of the decisions that my mom made have guided mine, and it’s because people from her life had what was a representation of financial freedom, they had those nice things in front of me,” he says.
“They got everything that you would want, so it kind of led me down the same path of the hustling and going to do different things, and, you know, I just hit the roof of that and wanted to do more, so I got involved in music and entertainment where we do things that exceed that level of success, completely.
“Like, that [what his mum’s friends had] is the smallest thing, you know what I mean, it just felt big at that point, when I was little.”
Subscribe to the Backstage podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker
Jackson has returned to the studio to make new music for Raising Kanan. The tracks see him collaborating with up-and-coming artists – mirroring his own experiences of starting out in the music industry, when he worked with Eminem and Dr Dre – but now it’s Jackson who’s the experienced one boosting the profile of others.
The start of his career was strange to negotiate, he says. “My first album Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ was the largest debuting hip-hop album – still – 13 million records sold on the first album. If your first record is that big – you know that saying, you never have a second chance at a first impression – so people will never really appreciate you as much as they did at that point.”
With a second series of Power Book III: Raising Kanan commissioned before the first even aired, another Starz show called Black Mafia Family and a series for Netflix in the works, Jackson has plenty to keep him busy.
He says that in terms of his TV career, he was inspired to make his own shows by someone he looks up to.
“Sylvester Stallone’s career is my hero career, and it’s because he made the projects that made his career work. He made Rocky, he made Rambo, made Escape Plan – he makes these franchises himself, comes up with the right idea that could work for him and writes the project and everything.”
“So I like that, to develop the things that I’m involved in, that I feel passionate enough about the project after I’ve gone through it step by step.”
Power Book III: Raising Kanan is out now on streaming service Starzplay
Richard Osman has revealed three out of four of the lead characters for the forthcoming big screen adaptation of The Thursday Murder Club.
Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan and Ben Kingsley will take on the roles of Elizabeth Best, Ron Ritchie and Ibrahim Arif respectively.
Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan and Ben Kingsley. Pic: AP
The Pointless host shared the names of the key cast members on his bi-weekly podcast The Rest Is Entertainment, which he presents with journalist Marina Hyde.
Chris Columbus – the man behind Home Alone, Mrs Doubtfire and two Harry Potter movies – is set to write and direct the film, which is being produced by Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment.
The movie is based on Osman’s debut novel of the same name which follows a group of friends in a retirement home who solve cold cases for fun, but become entangled in a real murder.
It is set in a retirement home Cooper’s Chase, in the fictitious village of Fairhaven in Kent.
Osman said the production will take place from “the end of June to September” in the UK.
The fourth main character, a retired nurse called Joyce Meadowcroft, has not yet been confirmed.
Osman hinted at the casting, saying: “Joyce, we’re still in negotiations but again the name is the one that people most shout at me in the street”.
He teased: “Lots more casting to come in the following weeks.”
Read more on Sky News:
Actress describes ‘gross’ audition where she had to kiss 10 men
Designer jailed for smuggling crocodile handbags into US
An adaptation of the novel was first confirmed in 2020 after Amblin Partners secured rights in a competitive auction.
The fastest-selling adult crime debut, Osman has since written three more books in the series, with a fifth due out next year.
Before becoming a well-known face on quiz shows including Pointless and Richard Osman’s House Of Games, the quiz master and author worked as a TV entertainment executive, producing shows including 8 Out Of 10 Cats, Deal Or No Deal and Whose Line Is It Anyway?
Entertainment
Deadpool 3: Ryan Reynolds teases cameo of Wrexham striker Ollie Palmer in new Marvel film
Ryan Reynolds appears to have confirmed that Wrexham striker Ollie Palmer is in his next film, Deadpool 3.
The Hollywood star, an owner of the Welsh football club, shared the trailer on social media, writing: “Found the guy who killed Bambi’s mom”.
A still from the Deadpool 3 trailer. Pic: Marvel/Disney
An eagle-eyed Wrexham fan, who calls himself Beardy on Twitter, quickly noticed a man wearing a denim jacket in the background of one of the scenes, identifying him as “one Ollie Palmer”.
A podcast dedicated to the football club, Fearless In Devotion, backed up his claim, sharing the still from the trailer along with a screenshot of Palmer, 32, commenting on Reynold’s post: “If you squint…”
Reynolds, 47, commented on the podcast’s post: “Keen eyesight”.
The podcast team went on to say they had verified the claim, saying in another comment on the post: “I’ve asked him. He’s confirmed it is him”.
The new Marvel film – which will be out in the UK on 26 July – brings Deadpool and Wolverine (played by Hugh Jackman) together to defeat a common enemy.
Palmer appears to make his brief background appearance in the first scene of the trailer, in which Deadpool walks over to Wolverine at a bar.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
He’s wearing a white shirt, jeans and denim jacket, and has dark hair and a bushy dark beard.
Palmer joined Wrexham from AFC Wimbledon in January 2022, a year after Reynolds and It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia co-creator Rob McElhenney, 46, took over the club.
Since then, the Welsh football club has secured two successive promotions, which along with the popular Welcome To Wrexham docuseries, has propelled it into the global spotlight.
Read more on Sky News:
Man whose body produces its own alcohol cleared of drink driving
Actress describes ‘gross’ audition where she had to kiss 10 men
Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds celebrate with the National League trophy. Pic: Reuters
In 2022, Reynolds and McElhenney were honoured by the Welsh government, the Football Association of Wales and S4C for promoting the country and its language with the Dragon Award.
They’ve also met with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the King and Queen and the Prince of Wales.
Sky News has contacted Palmer’s representative for comment.
Oscar-winning actress Anne Hathaway has described a “gross” past audition where she had to “make out” with 10 men.
The 41-year-old star described the experience which she said happened in the early 2000s as “a very different time”.
She told V Magazine: “Back in the 2000s – and this did happen to me – it was considered normal to ask an actor to make out with other actors to test for chemistry, which is actually the worst way to do it.
“I was told, ‘We have 10 guys coming today and you’re cast. Aren’t you excited to make out with all of them?’ And I thought, ‘Is there something wrong with me?’ because I wasn’t excited. I thought it sounded gross.
“And I was so young and terribly aware how easy it was to lose everything by being labelled ‘difficult’, so I just pretended I was excited and got on with it. It wasn’t a power play, no one was trying to be awful or hurt me.
“It was just a very different time and now we know better.”
Hathaway did not specify which film the audition was for or who any of the male actors were.
She compared the casting process with that of her upcoming romantic comedy The Idea Of You, in which she plays a 40-year-old single mum who becomes involved with a 24-year-old boy band singer.
“We asked each of the actors coming in to choose a song that they felt their character would love, that they would put on to get my character to dance, and then we’d do a short little [improvisation]”, Hathaway said.
Describing the casting with 29-year-old British actor Nicholas Galitzine – who won the role – she said he chose a song by Alabama Shakes and the audition was “just easy”.
(R-L) Nicholas Galitzine and Hathaway in The Idea Of You. Pic: PA
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
She explained: “I heard [the lead singer of Alabama Shakes] Brittany’s voice and I just started smiling. And he saw me smile, so he relaxed, and we just started dancing.
“Nobody was showing off. Nobody was trying to get the gig. We were just in a space dancing. I looked over and Michael Showalter, our director, was beaming. Spark!”
Galitzine has previously starred in Sky Atlantic’s Mary & George opposite Oscar-winner Julianne Moore, Prime Video comedy Red, White & Royal Blue playing Prince Henry.
Read more on Sky News:
Designer jailed for smuggling crocodile handbags into US
Kevin Bacon visits scene of Footloose four decades later
(R-L) Ella Rubin and Hathaway in The Idea Of You. Pic: PA
Hathaway first made her name in 2001 after the release of the original The Princess Diaries film opposite Dame Julie Andrews. In the interview, she addressed rumours of a third film in the franchise.
“We’re in a good place…That’s all I can say. There’s nothing to announce yet. But we’re in a good place,” she said.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
March: Anne Hathaway on her ‘worst fear’
The sequel to the original – The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement – came out three years after the first in 2004.
Hathaway also said “there’s no hiding” the fact that she would love to appear on Broadway during her career.
“[Being on Broadway] was my first dream, you know? And so many amazing, extraordinary things have happened to me but not that one yet. It’s a goal that is very, very much alive inside of me,” she added.
The Idea Of You is streaming from Thursday 2 May on Prime Video.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Environment11 months agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Sports6 months agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Environment1 year agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Technology3 years ago
Game consoles were once banned in China. Now Chinese developers want a slice of the $49 billion pie
-
Politics2 years ago
Have the last few wobbly weeks seen a turning point for Johnson as PM?