In a phone press conference set up by Screen Gems Studios to promote upcoming action film “Takers,” star and producer Tip “T.I.” Harris answered questions for a handful of collegiate newspapers from around the U.S. about his life, his music and where his career is headed. The Daily Gamecock was fortunate enough to be in attendance and talk with the award-winning rapper.
Harris has enjoyed a long and successful rapping career, having been nominated for 15 Grammy awards and winning three, and “Takers” marks only his third film, after “ATL” (2006) and “American Gangster” (2007). The interview began, predictably enough, with a question regarding the difficulty of the transition from music to film.
The rapper-turned-actor was quick to point out the differences between the two media.
“Music is all of your thoughts, your opinions, your views and based on your principles,” T.I. said, “whereas in film, your personal views take a backseat to the views of the story, told by either the writer or the director. So you’re just an instrument. As a musician you play the instrument; in a movie, as an actor, you are an instrument.”
He pointed out that the transition is what one makes of it. “As long as you’ve got a real passion for what you’re doing, if you love the story that you are a part of telling, it’s a piece of cake,” he said.
One reporter insinuated that T.I.’s recent music and MTV show, “T.I.’s Road to Redemption offers contrasting messages to the characters he’s portrayed in movies, such as bad-boy lawbreakers in both “American Gangster” and “Takers.”
Asked what message he wants his fans to receive, he reiterated the difference between his music — focusing on his views and opinions — and film — interpreting those of the writer and director. Emphasizing his point, T.I. stated, “I don’t think that I should be held any more accountable to the characters that I play in my films, like ‘American Gangster’ or this new movie ‘Takers’ … than Arnold Schwarzenegger should be held for him playing the Terminator or for him playing Commando, or any of these other violent characters that any other actor has played or has been playing for years. No one questions [Al] Pacino for playing Scarface, no one questions [Robert] De Niro’s values for playing the gangsters he played in ‘Goodfellas’ and ‘Casino.’ What did they do any different?” he asked incredulously. “This is not T.I. or Clifford Harris’ message. I’m just accurately portraying what the story calls for. I’m taking what’s on the script and putting it on the screen.”
Asked where he finds inspiration for his films, T.I. lauded his acting mentors. “I have been blessed and fortunate. My first two films, I got to work alongside two of the greatest actors in the game. My first film, ‘ATL,’ was produced by Will Smith … I got to really learn the ropes from the biggest box office superstar in the world. And the lessons I learned there, I took with me to the set of ‘American Gangster,’ where I got to share the screen and got to pick the brain of … arguably one of the greatest black actors ever, in Denzel Washington,” he said. “One thing that Denzel told me that stuck with me, and always will stick with me … he said, ‘Now don’t ever let the camera catch you up. Don’t act, just be.’”
As to whether T.I.’s greatest joy still lay in music or film, he conceded that while music is his first love, and he remains very passionate about it, “film is something new and fresh and exciting.”
He elaborated, “To me, right now, music is oversaturated … back when I began, back in ‘88, ‘89, when I first decided that I wanted to be a rapper, if you were to make it and become a rapper and get a video and a record deal and go platinum or go gold, man, you were something special. You were a cut above the rest,” he said. “But nowadays … you tell somebody, ‘I’m a rapper,’ [they say] ‘Yeah, of course you are, everybody’s a rapper.’ You tell somebody, ‘Yeah, my video’s coming on MTV,’ [they respond] ‘Yeah, everybody’s video’s on MTV, YouTube, too.’ There’s no exclusivity to the artistry anymore. It’s sort of like it’s been diluted and oversaturated so much that if you want to be special, you’ve got to find another way to be special. You’ve got to step outside of this and do something else,” he said. “You know I’m still going to do it because I love to do it, but the side of me that yearns to be special and exclusive and different, the side of me that wants to travel another path, I got to get out and find something that I can do that everybody else can’t do.
Everybody just can’t hop into a box office smash and earn $25 million up the first weekend,” he boasted. “Everybody just can’t do that.”
When Mallory Brewer of Kennesaw State University’s Sentinel joked that 2009 had been a rough year for T.I. and his “Takers” co-star Chris Brown, he laughed a bit in agreement. Then, responding to her query as to whether the film would make them look heroic or contribute to the bad-boy image, T.I. said, “You’re gonna think about a person whatever you choose to think about that person … I don’t think that, even if Chris was to come out tomorrow with a romantic comedy where he swept a woman off of her feet, you know, a ‘Pretty Woman’-type of comedy, it still would not take away from what people think and believe about him — what they choose to think and believe about him.”
In talking about “Takers,” Harris couldn’t decide on a single most memorable moment during filming and finally concluded that the experience as a whole and interacting with his co-stars on a daily basis were his favorites. “Just the camaraderie of the guys — we were just showing up and hanging out, and we just happened to shoot a movie in the process,” T.I. said. “Everybody got along well. It was an experience above all others.”
Then, seriously, but to the amusement of everyone present, he added, “I can tell you the day my least favorite moment was when they had me in that cop suit. It was hot and tight. And the heat — it seemed like the day went on forever. It was one of the hottest days in California history; it had to be. That was my least favorite day.”
“Takers” premieres nationwide August 27.