It surprises even Ice Cube that audiences love his work in comedy movies more than his starring roles in action films, but the rapper/actor is not complaining. And speaking of comedy, Ice Cube returns to the genre in Are We Done Yet?, the sequel to the 2005 hit Are We There Yet co-starring Nia Long.
Deciding on the Storyline for Are We Done Yet?: In the first film Ice Cube’s character Nick was a confirmed bachelor who began the movie with absolutely no desire to get married or have kids. But by the end of Are We There Yet?, Nick had a complete change of heart. Ice Cube believed it was only right the sequel finds Nick and Suzanne (Long) married and settling into family life. “We had built this thing where we felt the story in the first movie was the fact that a guy who was basically a bachelor who could have any woman he chooses to pursue, is really in love with this girl or stuck on this girl enough to go through her kids,” explained Ice Cube. “And at the end of that, when he gets the prize, we thought that it was important for all that he went through to be married and to show the bachelor's progression. He kind of went through the gauntlet to get the prize and now let's look at his life after he's gotten the prize.
If you would have them just girlfriend and boyfriend, there's really no reason to stay - in a way. But married, we wanted to show a guy who was trying to keep his bachelor cool within a relationship but realized the best thing to do was to give it up and become a family, and that was the underlying thing. A house is just a structure until it's a family inside that loves each other and then it becomes a home. I think he learned that the bachelor life was over. It's really time to be the father that he should be, should step up his game and that's what he did.”
The Biggest Challenge of Starring in Are We Done Yet?: Not surprisingly, Ice Cube said the most difficult thing for him about working on this sequel was handling the kayak. “That was the challenge, me on that kayak. Boy, that kayak kind of kicked my a** out there. That was the hardest thing to do, to ride the damn kayak to the part where I have fish coming at me. That was just hard to do, to stay up on that damn kayak, but everything else was easy. Fun…a breeze. We shot this movie in the summer in Vancouver. The first one was in the winter, it rained every day, [it was a] road movie, it was grueling. This movie was on one location [and we] had a ball, like summer camp.”
Ice Cube on Acting: Ice Cube doesn’t find it intimidating to be the lead in films at this point in his career. “I have great people, smart people that are around me and we love the challenge. I guess it's like climbing a mountain or building a building. It's a challenge but you love every challenge that it brings or presents itself. I think that's the fun of it, that it is so big and that once you get on a movie, you can't get off. It's a marathon. You can't quit midway. After 20 days of shooting, you can't throw your hands up and say, ‘This is too hard.’ You gotta keep going, so I think we all like that. Everybody who makes movies and whoever are producers and really into this creative process from start to finish, I would hate - and I always hate - when a movie's over. I'm just acting in it and I'm not producing it, the movie's over and I've got to wait like everybody else to see what the outcome is going to be. I hate that. I love to go to the edit bay, check on scenes, look at the dailies. All that stuff to me is all part of the appeal that movies have on me.”
On His Dual Image as Rapper and Family Man: “My job to me is to show that that's the same people. It's the same people. If you talk to most people that are so called gangsters or in the pen or doing what they're doing, all of them want a car, house, kids, wife, picket fence. All of them. You're rarely going to find somebody who says, ‘Yeah, I want to take over the world. That's why I wanted to be a gangster. I want to run L.A.’ Most people are in the pursuit of happiness and that's what got them in there.
Most gangsters are gangsters because they're frustrated that society's not hearing them, society's not giving them or allowing them to get their piece of the pie and they go against society for that. When I was back in NWA and all these things, I'm screaming basically, ‘Give us our shot. Give us a share. Let us get our piece. That's why we're mad. That's why we do what we do.’ As a grown man I've gotten my piece and it's still my job, really, to speak for people who don't have nobody to speak for them because I have the opportunity to be heard. I just want people to know that it's the same person. Most guys when you get to meet them, they're people who are considered gangsters or hardcore, are usually the coolest dudes that you could ever know. You've just got to know who they are and if they know you, they love you. I'm no different, in a way.”
In the Works – A New Welcome Back, Kotter: The rumors are true. Ice Cube is involved in bringing Kotter back. “Yeah, I'm going to do a version of Welcome Back, Kotter. We're taking the name, we're taking the concept of the sweathogs and a bunch of kids nobody wants to teach, and seeing them for how intelligent [they are] and the things they do have to offer. We're basically taking that kind of feel and tailor-making it for me.”
Ice Cube describes the project as a dramedy. “If you look at Welcome Back, Kotter, there was a lot of real social commentary in with the jokes, so we're going to do that too.” Ice Cube’s also hoping the new Kotter will attract the old sweathogs. “We're trying to get cameos from everybody that was in the original somewhere in the movie,” said Ice Cube.
Ice Cube the Studio Head?: A successful actor, recording artist, and producer, Ice Cube has his eyes on the big prize. “I mean, I don't like to put my goals out there in the open but my dream is to have a studio. The game that filmmakers have to go through with execs, I want to cut out some of it. I want to do movies that should be made for the reasons of good filmmaking and not always a money decision. So that's a dream of mine and if we keep working hard, it'll happen.”
