I listened in on Ice Cube and Anthony Anderson discussing their new movie “Barbershop: The Next Cut.” This next installment in the “Barbershop” series finds Calvin (Ice Cube) and his wacky employees facing street violence in their Chicago neighborhood. The series is filmed right here in South Atlanta.
College students around the country asked about inspirations, Hollywood, and navigating the tricky balance between comedy and tragedy. Here’s what the two actors had to say:
Q: I like the aspect of the community banding together in this movie, and I was wondering if it was inspired by any recent political movements like Black Lives Matter.
Ice Cube: Well it was actually inspired by an article that I read before we did the movie, and it was about a guy who was dealing with… he had a barber shop and he was dealing with violence in the community and he offered free cuts for people who would stop the violence, a ceasefire type of thing. Yeah I just thought it was a good idea, you know, to have the movie wrapped around things that are really going on in Chicago so that’s kinda how that worked out.
Q: Being that it’s been twelve years since the last “Barbershop” film, obviously so many things have changed in our world but what do you think it is about the “Barbershop” series that makes it so timeless that it can pick up more than a decade later and still work so well on screen?
IC: You know what’s interesting, it’s been twelve years since the last installment and the world has changed so differently but the barber shop never changes, you know, Eddie, Cedric the Entertainer’s character since the original movie says the barbershop is the cornerstone of the community. That’s exactly what it is, you know, it’s part therapy session, part marriage counselor, part rites of passage for young men, you know, we’ve all gone through that going to a shop. I’m going to it now with my sixteen year old son, you know, I take him to the shop and I let him sit in there and hear what’s being talked about and have him get in on the discussion, just to help shape him outside of what I’m doing at home with him. But the barbershop is something that never changes.
Q: How is it different working with actors than working with people who are musicians and comedians and actors?
IC: “Well you know, I think if you’re talented and really you either have it or you don’t when it comes to acting, so I feel like if somebody’s doing their thing there’s no difference with acting with somebody like Common… I just think either you’re on or you’re off, you either have it or you don’t. Of course there’s degrees of talent and degrees of range that you’ll probably get more of with an actor but as far as performance I think, you know, you can get a great performance from anybody who has it on that day and that time and that place.
Q: The ‘Barbershop’ series has grown and changed from movie to movie. Do you think the current change is going to appeal to the same audience or do you think it will bring in a new generation of younger people who are really interested in seeing how it plays out?
Anthony Anderson: I think both. You know it’s definitely gonna bring in an audience that’s curious about what the barbershop is about but I think we have a movie that satisfies our core audience. First, people who saw Barbershop back in 2002, they’re still gonna love this movie and be behind it and interested in where the characters have evolved to, so I think we got a movie that, you know, hopefully will appeal to a lot of different demographics.
Q: You guys are making the third of a predominantly African American series, so what are your thoughts on Hollywood right now and the film industry, especially in light of the Oscars?
IC: Why you gotta be all controversial, Hank? You go to Texas Christian, I wasn’t even gonna cuss in the interview, now you got me thinking about cussing you out! What was your question again, now, hold on?
I mean Hollywood, it is what it is. You know I think you’ve got a few gatekeepers but for the most part Hollywood is all about green, you know, it’s just–what we’re fighting for is the opportunities to show that we can make money with these movies and people enjoy them and our audience is big enough to invest into. As far as the Oscars, you know, to me that’s a different kind of club thing, you know it’s not really representing Hollywood at the starting point, it’s representing Hollywood at the end point, so whether we make strides in the Oscars to me is not as important as whether we making strides in these studios and in these meetings to get movies made… start at the beginning of the line and not at the end of the line.
AA: Cube made an interesting point earlier in his answer to your question, you know, he said ‘gatekeeper’, and that’s where it all begins, it begins with the gatekeepers…who control what’s being made, how it’s being made and who it’s being made with. You know the Oscars are just a byproduct of that, you know, but it’s up to the gatekeepers and us…to convince them that this is the movie they should make and these are the people they should make it with and they should allow us to tell our stories because our stories are just as entertaining and valuable as the stories being told, as the other stories being told so that’s where change is made, in the beginning and with these gatekeepers who are controlling the money in order for us to make these movies and distribute these movies because they’re stories that people wanna hear, that people want to be entertained by and see.
IC: Alright go home and read your Bible.
Q: It’s been a long time since the last movie, over ten years I believe, and I was wondering what made you guys want to come back and revisit the series?
IC: We had a good reason to make this movie, you know, this movie is dealing with the situation in Chicago right now with the gun violence, you know, Calvin’s son is 14 at this point and he’s at that crossroads, is he gonna, you know, stay a good kid or is he gonna start hanging out in the streets. So we felt like, ‘aw man this is a great reason to do Barbershop,’ and as far as 10 years, we knew we had 10 years of celebrities to clown and have fun with so we just felt like it’s right, the world is ready for another Barbershop, the world needs another Barbershop.
Q: How does your lyric writing influence your screenwriting and also the messages that are in the films you’re in?
IC: Well I think, you know, the way my lyric writing has helped my screenwriting is, you know, being able to tell a story, being able to take your thoughts and, you know, put them on paper and being able to take your thoughts and project them so another person can understand what you’re talking about. I think that outa help in writing because it’s virtually the same thing in a way, as far as tryin’ get the right thing out your head, onto paper where people can understand what you’re talking about so I think it helps a lot. Matter of fact when I first started writing it was John Singleton who directed me in “Boyz in the Hood,” he looked at me one day and he was like, ‘Yo when you gonna write a script?” And I was like “What you talking about? You know, I don’t know how to write a script” and he was like well you can write those lyrics, you can write those records, I know you can write a script if you put your mind to it and it was the best thing I’ve ever done in the industry, even over acting, is writing because everything starts with the material. You can sit back and want people to give you good stuff or you can go write you some good stuff. You can want somebody to put you in the movie, or you can go write a movie that you know you in already so those to me are the keys to trying to solidify your career in Hollywood especially as a black actor.
Q: “What was it like researching safe zones in these neighborhoods and then implementing that to a comedic film?”
IC: Well I think [director] Malcolm Lee is just a master at being able to have real situations but that you’re still entertained and laughing and you feel good about it even though it may be a tragedy, you know, he for some reason has an instinct on how to get that across. So I think we were lucky to have Malcolm Lee do the film because I felt like the laughs might be there but the story won’t be as deep or in depth. So it was just great to have him to be able to make sure the story was in depth and real but also made it where you felt good and were laughing and it’s really a feel good movie and to me it takes a special person to be able to put that together.
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“Barbershop: The Next Cut” comes to Atlanta April 14th.
