by:Bret Love

He may have started out as one-half of the critically-acclaimed hip-hop duo Outkast, but André Benjamin was tailor-made for Hollywood. From his suave sartorial style to the larger-than-life persona he brings to music videos such as the ubiquitous “Hey Ya,” the artist occasionally known as André 3000 may be music’s most distinctive talent since Prince, and his star seems destined to burn even brighter once audiences get a gander at his debut big screen performance in Be Cool, the long-awaited sequel to Get Shorty. We recently caught up with Benjamin in Beverly Hills to pick his brain on everything from acting opposite Hollywood heavyweights like Harvey Keitel and John Travolta to what role music plays in his future career plans.

Did you have any reservations about playing a gangster rapper given the fact that your own music doesn’t have any of those elements?

I’ve known [director F Gary Gray] since our first album , and if you know the history of Outkast, we’ve gone through a lot of changes.  Back then I was a knucklehead just like everybody else, fresh out of high school, doing the dastardly deeds. Gary directed the "Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik" video, and the next time we worked with him was the “Ms. Jackson” video. I was doing the close-up scenes and he was looking at the playback monitor. He said, “I think you’re going to have a great career in film if you ever go in that direction, so if something comes up, you know I’ll look out for you.” He called me with the Be Cool script and I thought the story was great.  But I didn’t like my character, so I told him I had to turn it down. I knew I wanted to get into films, but didn’t want to play a rapper, because that’s the obvious thing to do.  So he said, “Let’s have a meeting and talk about it,” So I went to a hotel, we sat down and he said, “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.” It was way over the top – baggy pants down to your knees, four or five pagers, and all these platinum chains and stuff– and he was like, “Try it out!”  On top of that, how the hell can you turn down being in a movie with these people?!

Gary said that this character started off with no name and one line.  How did you build and embellish it?

It wasn’t one line – it was three or four – but Gary said, “I’ll make it better.” We had a conversation after I read the script where he just asked me questions, like, “Where is Dabu from? Why does he act like this?’ We made up a back-story, where I said I was from the south and sell records out of my trunk. Cedric the Entertainer's character saw us perform, saw a little talent in the ‘hood, and he said, “I’ll be your producer, I’ll make you national.”  When that happens, which it does in music, that’s your man for life. You’ll do anything for that person ‘cause they got you out of the gutter. If you never had anything, once you get it you want everybody to know, so you get all the chains, beepers and pagers. So that’s how the character was created. 

What was it like to be in a movie with all these great people?  Who did you look forward to working with most?

I was excited to see Harvey Keitel.  I’ve been a fan of John Travolta since I was little, way back to Welcome Back Kotter. Uma (Thurman), for sure, and Vince Vaughn was always funny to me.  But you got to imagine, I’m a beginner and show up to work with all these people, so I was really timid and tiptoed through it, trying not to make mistakes. I had to ease into it and just sit down and talk to John (Travolta) and see that he’s a normal person, talking about flying airplanes and houses and all this type of stuff.  And then Cedric, man, we tripped the whole movie!  You get around these people and they become like a little family, then you just get into it and do your scenes and don’t think about.  That’s the best way to do it.

Did you base this role on someone you knew?

I have homeboys just like that. I know people in the rap game just like that. We joke and talk about each other, just playing and talking about how many chains you got on. I kinda channeled a certain type of rapper and kinda pumped it up. I do know people like that, and when they see the movie they’ll be like, “Yeah, I know you got that from me!”

Were you nervous about making the transition into acting?

Yes! It was natural for me to get into films, but the acting process was unnatural for me. I’m good on the screen, but I’m terrible in auditions because I hate having to prove myself.  To sit in a small room with five producers and they say, “GO!”  That’s so strange to me, but when I’m just acting– just doing it– that’s cool.  It was hard for me to not want to be perfect, but the more I do it, the more comfortable I get. 

Did you learn anything about acting?

Yes, I did. You show up to work and you have all these vets around. I’m new to the game, so I’m real quiet, watching everybody. I watched Vince Vaughn, and it’s the scene where we take him into the office and he’s getting beat up. Two minutes before we do the scene he’s in the corner actually beating himself up, getting into it, and I’m looking at him and I’m like, THAT’S how you do it!  I learned how to get into character before it’s time to go.

What advice would you give to other hip-hop artists who want to make the transition into acting?

I think the reason it’s hard for a lot of entertainers to get into film and be believable is because you spend your whole life coming to interviews and being on television, and people make it where you have to be perfect and never make mistakes. Some people go to class to learn how to do interviews, how to sit up straight and not say “um” and that type of stuff, so you spend your whole time trying to be perfect. In film, it’s the total opposite. Vanity is gone. You can’t be conscious of yourself. For a lot of entertainers, it’s hard to make that switch to not thinking about themselves, so it’s hard for them to be believable. If you are going to do it, you have to make the full step. You will either spit when you talk, cry, trip up or somehow make a fool of yourself. It took me a while, because growing up, I was never really a talkative person. Being an entertainer, I’d still get stupid nervous, so in film I had to learn to say “Fuck it.”

Do you think you’ll ever give up music for acting?

I think I’ll always do music in some way. But I can’t juggle the two, so when I’m doing film I’m doing film, and when I’m doing music I’m concentrating on music. It’s hard to give100% to each one. After I finish Four Brothers, I’m back in the studio recording. I’m always thinking of concepts when I come home from the set. In conversations sometimes, you get song ideas. I may be around the set talking to people and think of a song. So I will always do music.
 
In the music world these days, you’re the definition of cool. What’s cool to you?

It’s not one type of cool. Cool is confidence– knowing what you are and being fine with it. Some people can be what others call nerds, and they’re cool with it ‘cause they know what they are. They’re so confident in knowing themselves, and that makes them cool.

You have a great sense of style: Did you choose your own clothes?

Yeah, I don’t have a stylist.  I like going shopping and picking my own stuff. Not that having a stylist is bad, because some people don’t have time or don’t know what they want to do with themselves.  A lot of entertainers are put together by a team. But I love going shopping and finding little stuff.  I get inspiration from movies, old people I see walking down the street, everybody I meet.

What can we expect on Four Brothers?

John Singleton is directing.  It’s a story about four brothers who were adopted as kids– myself, Mark Wahlberg, Tyrese Gibson and Garrett Hedlund. It takes place in Detroit, and my brothers all left town, so I’m the only one that stayed and made something of myself.  Someone kills our mother, and my brothers come back for the funeral and do a little investigation to see if the cops’ story– that it was a random shooting in a convenience store– is true. It wasn’t, so we have to find out who did it, and there’s a lot of twist and turns. That’s all I can really tell you right now, but it’s fun. We’re in Toronto shooting on the frozen lake right now.

What can you tell us about the Outkast movie?

It’s finished, but I haven’t seen it. It’s a musical, it takes place in the 1930s, and it’s a love story mixed with a gangster story.  I play a mortician who comes from a long line of morticians, and Big Boi’s character is this hustler who ends up taking over this little juke joint type of club and gets mixed up in smuggling liquor.  I fall in love with this girl who comes to town, blah blah blah… I ‘m not going to tell the whole story, but they’re trying to decide right now if they’re going to release it in theaters or not.  HBO wants to release it in theaters, but we’ll see once the final cut is done.  They’ve only seen one cut of it– the music wasn’t even in it– but it got a standing ovation.

How many songs are in it?

I don’t know, but it’s a musical, so I may be sitting in a room and start going off into a song. 
 
What style of music?

Hmm… I can’t tell you that. You got to see it.  It may have touches of the period, or it may be new.  It’s not straight ‘30’s music– it’s still Outkast–but it’s a perfect fit.