Eminem made 8 Mile and hasn't really tried to expand his acting horizons. Right after Get Rich or Die Tryin', 50 Cent took another acting gig. Home of the Brave lets him play a character with far fewer ties to his real life persona. Sure, it's a disaffected youth prone to violence, but this is an Iraqi war veteran in real trouble.
"I'm proud of it," he said. "I felt good. For me, it's definitely to be a challenge to be a part of a film project, because I'm conditioned to music, so it isn't that difficult for me to create any more on that level. Just create a new goal for myself, and moving in those directions. That used to be a dream, but now taking steps towards making my dreams come true, so I'll call it a vision. And I see myself doing things even greater than I've done so far, even though I've accomplished a lot in a short period of time, I feel like I can do so much more. Home of the Brave is just me putting one foot forward."
Jamal Atkins (50) kills an Iraqi woman in combat, but learns that she was unarmed. That psychological trauma makes his readjustment back to civilian life impossible. This is a different side of war films than even 50 knew.
"I actually enjoy war films. The action, the cinema's incredible. It was a different thing to me prior to doing the research, just watching the film from an entertainment perspective, to actually doing the research and seeing the real motivation behind some of those films, changed my perspective on it totally. I think death is a large form of entertainment for humans. It's all of our fate. So in a lot of ways, people are intrigued or interested in it, without making note of it. Like, we have an accident off the road, we'll still have a traffic jam because they're gonna slow down to look."
The film comes out in a heated political time with the public divided, even edging towards the majority against the war. The filmmakers and 50 hope to shift the focus to the people.
"I think this particular film is so different, because it's more about the return. It gets past the actual war itself. Like if you was putting out a film right now about war, when Jamie Foxx was in Jarhead and it was basically about not getting a shot off, the entire film, like I watched it, I was getting ready to do a war film, I absolutely had to see it. I don't know how well or how bad that film actually did, you know, because I was from a tour straight into shooting my portion of the film that was filmed in Morocco, so I just think that when they realized that the content in the film that is not in the average war film, it'll be extremely entertaining, for people to see."
50 costars with Samuel L. Jackson, who famously refused to act in a movie propping up a rap star making his transition. Participating in the ensemble let 50 ease in with Jackson, and learn to respect the craft that Jackson defends. Jackson plays a doctor equally traumatized in his return home, and 50 wouldn't touch that level of performance.
"At this moment? It would've taken a lot more time for me to get old enough. It would've definitely been a hair and make up but Sam is a huge talent, man. It's tough to say I could compare to him. You're talking about my second film. How many films has Samuel Jackson been in?"
Home of the Brave begins in limited release Friday.
