By Tonisha Johnson

How long have you been a hip hop fan?

Jim Sheridan: Since 1981 or 2. From the time it was very influenced by all the Jamaican, reggae characters. From the time I came in, in the late 80s, there was a lot of New York R&B oriented rap. And I liked way back in the black culture, I liked all the narrative singers. Because I was a singer myself but I wasn’t as good a singer as Bono or nothing. So I liked to stay within certain notes. And Oscar Brown Jr. He was a great…you know, he wrote all these songs that were stolen and people adapted them. And he was unfortunate that he was a black writer on Broadway before it was acceptable. But he had all these songs that were like rap. So, I’ve been interested in it for a long time. Cause it was like stories. I like the rap from when I came here. I like Public Enemy and NWA.

Was there any concern that your vision of these worlds came from somebody who hasn’t walked in those shoes? How did you acquire the knowledge for putting this film together?

Jim Sheridan: See, I’m kind of an old socialist. See in Ireland we have a thing called Begergers. And Begergers are someone who don’t like you when you are successful. I was a great begerger. And I only learned it when I came to America. I saw this guy in a little car, you know, a convertible. And I saw 3 little girls with his arm around them; he was blond with long hair. And I said, look at that fucking idiot. And the guy in the car who was driving me from the airport said what do you mean? And I said that fella there. He said I want to be him. And I realized, God you know, he has a point. But in Ireland, that person in that car would have crossed two lines. Racial lines and class lines to be successful. So, the bregery is based on betrayal. And that happens in the black culture. That to get very successful, you have to deal with the white guy. There are similarities. But I think, you know, I’m probably closer to 50 because of growing up in similar neighborhoods. So, on a class level I understood, you know, what I mean? And I felt like when I was growing up with my grandmother, where we had a lodging house. So we weren’t poor. 50 wasn’t poor. I said to him you lived in Queens with a bloody garden. There’s a front garden. I can’t show that in the movies. In Europe they won’t understand, they’ll think you were well off.

In Hollywood, when there are big studio films, white directors are given the opportunity to direct black films but black directors aren’t given those opportunities. Any thoughts on why that is?

Jim Sheridan: I don’t think that’s true. Spike Lee directs a lot of studio movies and so does John Singleton. I think what hasn’t happened is that there isn’t the kind of…well, from where I come from there’s no directors from working class areas anyway. I was lucky enough to grow up in a working class area because my parents were insane enough to have a lodging house in a working class area. But, there are no working class people who direct movies. The movies in the hood are rap. The reason that those rap things are appealing to the kids is that nobodies making movies like that. All the narrative in a rap costs, what, a $100,000 to make a record. You can make a record for $10,000. To make a studio movie is $40 million. So attached to $40 Million is a lot of conservative; a lot of guys trying to get all the things right. A lot of people with opinions of we’d better get the mix right. And unfortunately what their doing is their making every movie like the last one. And as they make more videos and DVDs, kids can see them before their 15, towards PG-13, the kids already seen all the fucking movies. So now it’s catching up with the studios that their making the same regurgitated movie. So, the system of expectation of, you make the movie and you sell it on video or DVD had caught up. So the kids 10 years ago, used to go see it and say, it’s a terrible movie; it’s not as good as the Godfather or these other movies that I’ve ever seen, I’ve never saw that, this is the first time I’ve ever seen it. But now the kids have seen these movies. So, the system kind of catches up. I think the interesting things about 50 is, 50 never goes to the place of victimization. He always goes to the place of winning. It’s just the way he works. So, 50s attitude is kind of like, “Oh God! I’d better be in a movie with a white star next”. He doesn’t immediately have the attitude of like, somebody’s exploiting me. Everything has limits on constraint. And you operate within in them and you make them better and you make it easier for the next guy if it’s successful.

What was the budget for this film?

Jim Sheridan: This film was about $45 Million, same as the EMINEM movie.

When you’re working with a lead who has never acted before…how do you approach that? Did you make sure he was well prepared before making the film?

Jim Sheridan: No vice coaches. No acting coaches. No bullshit. There are so many things now that are putting things between the actor and the director that, you know…I just did 50 the first day. I got a video camera; we sat around the table and read a bit. I said you know if this movie fails…it won’t be because you can’t act. It will be because I didn’t direct you right. I take out the idea that you have to live up to something that I have. I take performance out of the equation. I just…it’s kind of like, go to the other side. Don’t worry about the performance. Like, if a six year old kid can act out through the screen, by being left alone, a lot of people can do it. So fear feeds the soul. Which is the best titan of any movie I’ve ever heard and the whole studio system based on fear. So there’s no soul. So the director’s job is to stop the fear process penetrating beyond them to the actors and technicians. And it’s hard to because everyday you’re getting notes and more fear. So, people are behaving out of fear. The whole systems becoming top heavy. People are paid so much at the top of America and it’s squeezing down on everybody else. It’s frightening. That’s my observation.

You mentioned that you had the same social background as 50, which given your resume is a very long time ago. But, did 50s story shock you? Because in Europe, they don’t have that kind of violence; the obvious, in your face, kind of violence.

Jim Sheridan: We don’t have it now within music. But in the Irish tradition, it’s in the poetic tradition, that poets would slander people and get killed. And that if somebody did something to you, they would go do a hunger strike right outside their house. So within the victim culture, when you’re dominated by a superior force, you’re outnumbered. And you sometimes don’t have the resource of being right. You have only the resource of complaining. And in the black culture for a long time, they’ve only had the resource of complaining. And now they have the resource…and then they went through the Panthers movement; which is ridiculous. Your only 12% population, you’re only going to get your heads blown off. And then you go through “I’m black and I’m proud”. And then you go capitalism crazy where you accept America face value. “Where fucking rappers and we’re gonna get there anyway.” So were accepting your culture now at face value. Except you know, it’s like really weird. It’s like really weird. So rap represents something really odd. A lot of kids…why do white kids like it? A. There’s no way of growing up. There’s no initiation anymore. So, it’s in rap to get to exercise violence. It’s in rap to get to exercise their fear of women. Little boys, they go out there and they’re all scared shitless of the girls. And there’s no way of expressing this in culture anymore. And it filters up in the culture because there’s a lot of the Tupac, 50…a lot of them are single parent families. So, you got the mother as the only authority figure. So the only person you got to rebel against is a woman. So naturally it gets fucked up. There are stages of development. Because there expressing things that people don’t want to hear, doesn’t necessarily mean their wrong. If you don’t express them, it’s going to come out another way.


It’s sort of interesting when you mention capitalism because rap gets a bad rep for the violence. But what rap represents is an onset of capitalism. It’s all about making money and doing whatever it takes to make money. And that’s what this film represents. Can you comment on that?

Jim Sheridan: Yeah it is. At a certain point…I have yet to meet…I’ve actually have met successful people who’ve given away all their money. But very few. So, nobody’s a socialist when their rich. It’s hard to be socialist when you make money. So, therefore in human nature, there’s something odd. But the tragedy is, we’re like…get the money, get the money, get the money…and yet in Africa, you see the situation where its way way off there. And your like, there’s a place we need to make movies about. You know, like Hotel Rwanda.

The bathroom scene…originally it was set in a courtyard but why did you move it to the shower? 50 said, he was wearing biker shorts but they would change color when they got wet.

Jim Sheridan: Yeah. I was like fuck all that. Everybody was coming from the studio with notes to me, you know. Being reminded everyday that I had to shoot them above the waist and they had towels on. And I was like, alright alright. And then we started doing the scene and the man whose doing the stunt, we had it all worked out, but I was like, “I’ve seen that movie before”. Forget all that. And he’s like somebody will get hurt. And I’m like naw…cause we built foam on the ground. So see, fear again. So it’s got to be preplanned and worked out just like it was before. So I made up a little fucking stupid fight of reality that I’ve seen where I grow up. And I’ve been attacked with knives. And the feeling is like castration, you know. Your definitely gonna protect your dick. You are definitely gonna do it. So, you come to a scene, where I definitely wanted to get some fear. Otherwise, you’ve seen it in every movie. And now it brings up things that you don’t see in movies. Like you don’t see male nudity a lot. It’s ok in Psycho to cut up that woman in pieces. But this causes a stir because its men. So, you’re going to an opposite area. A lot of the movies I make…like this movie is about, the search for the father, I suppose is the search for God. And at the end of the movie he’s not there. And that’s not a comment that there is no God. Cause a woman rescue’s him. So maybe the woman is the God. So, here you’re in this rap culture, which is misogynistic and 50 is saying this woman is the God who saved me. So, it reverses everything quietly. Which I think is good. So I kind of just went to the opposite. It’s always good to do dramatic ideas.

What was the studios’ comment when they saw the cut?

Jim Sheridan: Surprised was the studio and that everybody thought when the MPAA sees this, it ain’t in the movie. And the Motion Picture Association of America saw it and said fine.

How did you get Terrence comfortable in that particular scene? He said he had never disrobed in a film before so you had gotten him comfortable.

Jim Sheridan: I don’t know. It’s a thing to do with protection. Its something God gives you. It’s like when my other brother, who died and God kinds of takes away my belief in him but gave me a thing where people…where I want to say that people think I won’t let them die. It’s just weird exchanges that happen in your physicality when you go through tragedy, you know?

Any comments on the removal of the ‘Get Rich or Die Tryin’ billboards?

Jim Sheridan: Because it’s about 50 Cent whose real he can’t kill somebody else because you don’t want to agitate violence. So, you lose something because he’s such a strong personality in his own light that the audience won’t accept that it’s not about him. That the gun is not real; he’s such a powerful personality that their like, that’s a real gun he has. But they watch Brad Pitt and go ‘oh, that doesn’t matter.’…Angelina Jolie. It doesn’t matter that she has a gun. But if 50 has a gun it’s not the same road. So I understand what they are saying a little bit. But I would just ask them to get rid of all real guns in America and leave the character ones alone.

Was it purposely done that there weren’t a lot of naked woman all over the place? The film seems very focused.

Jim Sheridan: Yeah, it was purposely done. I didn’t want to have a big sensational video.