He calls me with the ‘Be Cool’ script and I read it and I thought the story was great. I didn’t like my character so I told him I really had to turn it down. I really don’t want to play it because I knew I wanted to get into film, but I knew I didn’t want to play a rapper. You know, it’s the obvious thing to do. He said, ‘Well, let’s have a meeting, man. Let’s talk about it.’ And I thought, ‘Alright, cool.’
We went to a hotel and we sat down and talked about it and he said, ‘You gotta think about it. It’s not really playing a rapper. Well, you’re playing a rapper, but you’re playing against type. People don’t see you as that and you’re really playing a parody of what people think rap is. So it’s way over the top. It’s baggy pants down to your knees, pagers, and two-ways and all these platinum chains. Try it out. And on top of that how in the hell can you turn down being in a movie with these people? That would be great for your career.’ ‘You’re right, so let me try it.’”
Building the Character from One Line Into a Co-Starring Role: “I’m not really comfortable with guns, but I mean you gotta protect yourself so you gotta protect yourself. It wasn’t one line, maybe three or four. Gary said, ‘You know I’ll embellish the character, make it better.’ We sat down and had a conversation after I read the script. He just asked me questions. He said, ‘So, where’s Dabu from? Why is he like this? Why does he act like this?’ We made up a back story. I said I was from the south. I sell records out of my trunk. Sin, Cedric the Entertainer’s character, came down and saw us perform and saw us making it in the hood selling out tapes and he said I’ll be your producer and make you national and when that happens, which it does happen in music, that’s your man for life. You’ll do anything for that person because they got you out of the gutter.
Our whole thing is to protect Sin. If you’ve never had anything, once you get it you want everybody to know so you wear all the chains, and all the beepers, and all pagers. That’s how the character was created. And the name, we knew we wanted a real soul, ghetto name, but we didn’t know what it was. Gary said, ‘I’ll give $200 to the first person in the cast who comes up with the most ghetto name,” and Cedric the Entertainer came up with Dabu.”
Working with the “Be Cool” Cast: “I think I was excited to see Harvey Keitel. I’ve been a fan of John Travolta’s since I was little, way back to ‘Welcome Back Kotter.’ Vince Vaughn, you know he was always funny to me. But you gotta imagine I’m a beginner to it, so you show up to work with all these people. I was really timid and tip-toeing just trying not to make mistakes and trying to be real perfect. And in acting, that will kill you if you’re thinking about it too much. So I had to ease into it and just sit down and talk to John and just know he’s a normal person. Talk about flying airplanes and houses and that kind of stuff. And me and Cedric, man we tripped the whole movie. We had a good time. You get around these people and they become like a little family. You get into it and go into your scenes and don’t think about it. And that’s the best way to do it. Don’t think about it.”
On What is Cool: “Cool is not just one type of cool. Cool is confidence and knowing, I guess, what you are and being fine with it. Some people can be what people call ‘nerds’ and they’re cool because they know they’re nerds. They know what they are and they’re so confident in knowing what they are that that makes them cool, and somebody aspires to be like them, because they’re fine with it. It’s confidence, you know.”
