50 Cent: Gettin' Rich

Curtis Jackson had a rough start in life but he's living large now with multiple rap hits on the charts and a new film role in the semi-autobiographical Get Rich or Die Tryin'.50 has lived what most rappers can only imagine...born in tough Jamaica, Queens New York, thrust into the drug life as a kid, stabbings, shootings, gang wars..you name it all before his first album. With new hits like "The Massacre" and his contributions to the soundtrack of his new film, the hard-livin' rapper is successfully expanding his entertainment career.

50 felt that the recent controversy over the billboards for the film was much ado about nothing but Paramount has pulled the pics of the rapper holding a gun in one hand and a microphone in the other and replaced them with shots of 50 holding the baby his character has in the film. It's a strong image..big, tattooed 50 tenderly cuddling a little bundle of joy. Well, he stands to make a bundle with Get Rich or Die Tryin'. Whether you like 50's rap or not, he's an interesting character and quite intelligent and charismatic to talk to so pull up a chair and tune in as 50 spills all about his music, his film co-stars, the soundtrack and doing his first big love scene........

TeenHollywood: Did this film feel like therapy for you to relive some of your life again?

50 Cent: It was therapeutic. There were things in my life that I hadn't put a lot of thought into. The film forces you to go back to certain places in order to make reference to the emotion, which you are supposed to display on the actual screen. Some people think it should be easier to play a role based on your actual experiences but I think it might be more difficult to get out of it and go to the next thing because it's a real experience.

TeenHollywood: There's a line in the film when the guy who shoots your character goes, "I shot him nine times". That scene is about you and folks are laughing. How do you feel about that scene?

50 Cent: It's something to smile about once you get past it. For me, I lost something before I got shot and I found out afterwards. My grandparents had raised me Baptist and bringing up religion in any form would be a good way to run me out the room. My lifestyle wasn't coinciding with the way I was raised to believe; so being shot nine times leads you to believe in the higher power at that point.

TeenHollywood: Your relationship with Eminem is very powerful. I'm sure you have watched "8 Mile". Did you find that you and he have a similar background in terms of growing up?

50 Cent: The biggest similarity I think is both of us not having a relationship with our fathers and not having finances early on. It's a big thing to adjust to. When you come from where the both of us come from, two things happen. When you're from the bottom and you become successful, either people are inspired by it or they envy you. That's why D12, his rap group, is so important to him. If they couldn't rap half as good as they rap now, he would still support them and be with them constantly because they are more than a group to him. It's actually his support system; those are his friends.

TeenHollywood: Although the film is a fictional story, how much of your life is in the movie?

50 Cent: It's about 75% factual.

TeenHollywood: What part isn't true?

50 Cent: What's fictional is the part where I'm so much in search for my father. The things that my father would have been able to help me at probably would have been when I made the decision to go out and hustle. He wasn't physically present to provide guidance at that point and I don't think it's necessary at this point. I'm a grown man now.

TeenHollywood. You have an older Irish guy directing this film? Who would have guessed. How many Jim Sheridan films had you seen before you knew he would be the director of this film?

50 Cent: I watched My Left Foot and The Boxer. After they told me it was possible that he would be the director, I wanted to look at his work and then after watching it, I was confident having him lead me. I didn't butt in when they started to do casting. I let it be based on his judgment.

TeenHollywood: But didn't you think it was kind of funny to have an Irish guy direct your life story?

50 Cent: Well, no because we spent so much time around each other talking. [For example] there's actually a scene in the film that comes from us just having a conversation. I was telling him my tongue was feeling funny because... you know how it feels when you have a lemon in your mouth? My tastebuds do that because I have a fragment from the bullet I still have in my tongue and I put a finger in my mouth and I showed him. He felt it and said, "Ooo" and that's where the scene with Joy (Bryant) [doing that] comes from before the love scene starts.

TeenHollywood: How do you feel about your performance?

50 Cent: I feel great about it. I know that it's not 50 Cent up there. Me as a writer, I haven't shown many dimensions as I show in the actual film. They haven't seen me in vulnerable points. I'm usually aggressive. Hip-hop is aggressive; the nature of it, the battling and stuff like that so you don't get a chance to show that portion of you.

TeenHollywood: Joy Bryant is really pretty. How was it working with her and then doing the love scene?

50 Cent: I got comfortable working with Joy on the other scenes and then when we got to the love scene, it was a little different. It's almost like being in this room naked with a bunch of people around you. In that case, it was 34 people on the set.

TeenHollywood: You have a couple of scenes in the buff in this film. What was more difficult, doing the love scene or the fight in the prison shower with all the guys?

50 Cent: The bathroom scene. Being naked with a woman is better than being naked with five men. (laughs) You know what I mean? We were supposed to shoot the scene above the waist and they had us put on these biker shorts that was exactly the same color as our skin and we went and got in the water and what happened is even if the fabric was matching your skin complexion, once it gets wet, it gets darker and changes. Jim was like, "This is not going to work." And he said to me, "You think you can take it off?" I was like, "You gotta be kidding me, right?" He then said, "Listen, if you do it, everybody would do it."

TeenHollywood: Do you think the rough sides of New York are one of the hardest places to live in the world?

50 Cent: I've been to some places that are a lot harder. I've been to Nigeria and it's a lot less there. I think that when you go places and you see people that have less financially, the whole setup is just less; and the living is hard. When you watch a bootlegger on the streets selling CDs and cassettes, they are doing the same thing in Africa, but it's a bowl full of fruit. It's the same concept. That's why as soon as they get $3, they are mailing it home.

TeenHollywood: Were you driven by money as a kid?

50 Cent: Well, when you grow up without finances, finances seem like the answer to all you problems. It's not until you acquire it, that you realize that there are always obstacles in life. Your argument between you and your girlfriend could stem from bills or her deciding to buy shoes when you don't think it was the right time to do that. With finances, if you are rich, you don't have those arguments.

TeenHollywood: What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about you?

50 Cent: That I have bad intentions. Just telling the truth makes me the worst person that they have seen so far. If I could just take one week and pick the two hospitals in my neighborhood and keep track of everyone who comes in with gun shot wounds or stab wounds or any type of violent crime, you will understand why music is so aggressive.

TeenHollywood: If you couldn't play the role of Marcus, what other actor do you think could have played the part and why?

50 Cent: Jamie Foxx. I've met him and I think he's cool, but I would want him to spend time with me so he understands the actual role he would be walking into.

TeenHollywood: Terrence Howard is pretty hot right now. How was working with him?

50 Cent: Terrence is incredible, but don't tell him cause his head would get big. (Laughs) He's exciting to work with. I think he has a lot of information people don't know.

TeenHollywood; Do you think this film glorifies violence to a certain degree?

50 Cent: No. I think it tells the truth to a point of what actually goes on from time to time.

TeenHollywood: How did you balance being a gangster and a rapper?

50 Cent: When I'm writing my music, I'm writing from Curtis Jackson's perspective and in the film, if the dialogue says I'm a gangster, then I'm a gangster. There are points that I'm saying and doing things in the film that I wouldn't do. If not, then I wouldn't be acting at all. There's a scene in the film where I tell my grandparents that it's their fault, well, in my head, I felt like it was their fault. If I didn't have to hide the gun, then I wouldn't have brought it to school and got caught, but I would never say those things to my grandparents because I was raised to respect my elders.

TeenHollywood: What can you tell us about the soundtrack?

50 Cent: The soundtrack is great. I actually took concepts for the records from the scenes. I didn't just go ahead and write what I wanted to write just to make a good record. The overall mood of the film and the actual title I had for it before Get Rich or die Tryin was Hustler's Ambition and we ended up not using it because of Terrence Howard's Hustle and Flow, and we went with the current title. There's a scene in the film with the younger version of my character is looking through a storefront at sneakers. At the point, he's window shopping. I based the song, "Window Shopping" on that. I just didn't write it from the artist's perspective. I wrote it from 50 Cent's perspective.

TeenHollywood: Well you don't have to just window shop for sneakers now. How many pairs do you think you have?

50 Cent: [smiling] I own a million pairs.

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.