50 Cent On His Hollywood Firsts: From 'Get Rich or Die Tryin' To 'Power' & Why He Doesn't Trust LA | THR Video
50 Cent sat down on the set of his Hollywood Reporter cover shoot to reflect on his "Hollywood Firsts," from attending his first red carpet after 'Get Rich or Die Tryin' to working on 'Power' and more.
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00:00Don't trust nobody, in Hollywood specifically when you get there, a lot of people don't know
00:04how to say no. That's the difference between New York City and California. New Yorkers will tell
00:09you no and in California they don't know how to tell you no. So you'll talk to the person and say
00:14yeah let's work on this project together it'd be fucking great guy and the next thing you know
00:18the movie is actually shooting. Nobody called to tell you that you're not in the movie.
00:23Hey what's up this is 50 Cent hanging with The Hollywood Reporter
00:26and you're about to hear my Hollywood first.
00:30Well the first movie I saw that made me want to make movies was Scarface. I watched the movie,
00:35it was exciting, it's like it's one of those things where in urban culture they would look
00:40at it and say insert me here in the role that Pacino was playing in the film but it's really
00:44about trust issues but he developed trust issues through his whole journey and it was like it's
00:50one of those cool films because it was real human activity and behaviors and imperfections in it
00:55that made me relate to it. The first song soundtrack I listened to was Superfly. It was
01:00Curtis Mayfield's soundtrack for Superfly. That was probably the best soundtrack made to a film.
01:06The first television show I watched over and over was Dukes of Hazzard. That was what Fast
01:11and Furious is now for these kids. That was my Fast and Furious back then. First time I acted
01:18oh I was getting ready to get my ass whooped for my grandmother and I was acting like I didn't do
01:23what she said I did. That was the first time I gave a great performance and it spared me.
01:32The first time I stepped on the set was, it wasn't my video, it was someone else's music video.
01:37I was just there to see what was going on. It was React, it was with Onyx.
01:43The first time Curtis became 50 Cent was when, it's in the music, it's in the process of
01:50because you start to put your best foot forward first. Like when we meet people,
01:55they don't see your imperfections. They see what you're presenting, the best part of you. And
02:01through the music, I was doing that. Instinctively, we do it, all of us.
02:05The first time I attended a red carpet was, that was after Get Rich or Die Tryin'. It was actually
02:11the award shows for that album. Get Rich or Die Tryin' was that. That was my story.
02:17And it was easy for me to put it together because I was in a camp that had already had the success
02:23of 8 Mile. I had Terry Winters, he went on to write the Sopranos and Wolf on Wall Street,
02:29like Jim Sheridan. You know, my left foot only in America. The first collaborator I worked with
02:34that I was most in sync with, it was easily for me to sync up with Mobb Deep. We could take the
02:41same track, go in two different rooms and we would be writing things that fit if we put them onto a
02:46song. Because their music was Queens-based, we could not even hear what each other did,
02:52take it and put it together on a song and it would match. The first person I met that left
02:57me starstruck was, I've been starstruck a lot of times because there's certain people that was
03:04big to me that didn't matter to other people, like Roger from What's Happening. I remember I
03:09ran into him, it was me, Wester Snipes, Don Cheadle, and Roger from What's Happening.
03:15First time I spent a lot of money on something was my grandmother. When I got, when I did the
03:20deal with Em this time, I had money before and it kind of got away from me. So as soon as I did
03:28the deal this time, the first thing I did was buy her a car. And then my grandfather said,
03:33he went to work, he worked hard, and your mama brainwashed my kids. Because I got her a car and
03:40I didn't get him a car, so I ended up going to get him a car. I took care of people who took care of
03:44me when I couldn't take care of myself. And it was more valuable to me to be able to do that.
03:50Well, the first time I realized I could pursue things outside of music, you couldn't pursue
03:56things outside. The first time I realized that you couldn't pursue things outside of music,
04:02for there's a point that you have a, your career works in that way and entertainment looks at you
04:09that way. So you kind of got to stay in that box for a little while. And then it took time,
04:14it took for me not to release music for a while for people to even take the things that I was
04:18doing behind the camera seriously. The first project that I took on to surprise everyone was
04:24Power. And it's because, you know, it's number one in African American and Latino households for 10
04:29years now, the series isn't losing any momentum. I was looking for a title that represented me
04:37overall. And it was for Fragrance. Later when it came time to name the series,
04:44I named it Power, but it could have been Choices. Like that was, it was the life choices.
04:49I've received bad reviews through my entire career. Like everything that I've done has
04:53received bad reviews. They wanted to be what they'd like it to be in pop culture. And
05:00the culture loves things that have been damaged or bruised by the experience.
05:04The first opportunity I turned down and I regret it.
05:10Man, it was a Spanish woman I met. I can't believe I did that. I am so stupid.
05:17I don't know what I was thinking.
05:21I don't know. I make a lot of mistakes. I just don't stick to them. I just don't
05:24carry them with me to feel like I regret them. Don't trust nobody. In Hollywood,
05:29specifically, when you get there, a lot of people don't know how to say no. That's the
05:32difference between New York City and California, specifically, because New Yorkers will tell you
05:38no. And so many people on top of people, they'll just avoid you. Like they don't even want your
05:43conversation. You know, like you go to Southern markets, they're like, Hey, how you doing? Like
05:48that hospitality thing. It doesn't exist in New York the same. In California, they don't know how
05:55to tell you no. So you'll talk to the person and say, yeah, let's work on this project together.
05:59Be fucking great guy. And the next thing you know, the movie is actually shooting. Nobody
06:03called to tell you that you're not in the movie. But this is the truth. They don't want you to
06:08remember them as the person that they said no to when you could potentially be the next person.
06:14And then you hold it against them because they told you no. I understand it, but I'll just say
06:20no when I'm not going to do it. I'm just going to say no. But I would say the first moment that
06:25you feel like you've accomplished something in Hollywood is a point that you haven't actually
06:31made it. You just got something going. So if you just have one, it's just one. You have to
06:39have consistency for it to mean something. All right. Thanks for listening to my Hollywood first.
06:45Catch you later. Hollywood Reporter.