In a dystopian near-future brickmansions-posterDetroit, abandoned homes house the city’s most dangerous criminals. These are the grim, apocalyptic housing projects known as Brick Mansions.  Unable to control the rampant crime, the authorities have walled Brick Mansions in, supposedly to protect the rest of the city from its lawless, violent, degenerate inhabitants. In Camille Delamarre’s Brick Mansions, co-written by Luc Besson based on his French-language hit District 13, only the strong survive. In this dog-eat-dog society, the ruthless, deadly drug kingpin Tremaine (RZA of Wu-Tang Clan) is at the top of the food chain.  One of his recent heists puts him in the crosshairs of undercover cop Damien Collier (Paul Walker, in one of his last film roles before his untimely death last November). For Damien, every day is a fight against corruption and although it isn’t apparent at first, he finds an unlikely ally in one of the last good souls of Brick Mansions, Lino (Parkour expert David Belle). Stuck in the unpredictable and dangerous concrete jungle of Brick Mansions, Lino battles everyday to live an honest life. A vigilante in his own right, he fights for a better overall community. When Tremaine kidnaps Lino’s girlfriend, it sets in motion a chain of adrenaline-spiking events, many highlighting the truly amazing Parkour stunts that Belle brought to the original film. Damien reluctantly accepts the help of the fearless, acrobatic ex-convict, and together they attempt to stop a sinister plot to devastate the entire city.

Rapper RZA has been acting for over ten years and is extremely effective here as Tremaine.  I sat down with the multi-talented performer, musician, producer, and writer/director in Los Angeles.

Danny Miller: You’ve already achieved such enormous success in the music industry. Do you see a lot of parallels between that world and the process of making films?

RZA: As an artist, I definitely see parallels. Music and film both have a rhythm, they both have a tempo that you can feel. I think art is a wavelength that can go through any instrument. So whether I’m making music or acting or writing a story or drawing, it’s all the same wavelength.

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When I watched this film, set in Detroit in the near future, I could almost see something like the walling in of the Brick Mansions housing project really happening.

It is happening, man. I grew up in the Park Hill projects on Staten Island. That whole area is gated now. It wasn’t when I was a kid. Now there’s only one way in and one way out, it’s pretty bleak. I don’t know how the city even allows it.

I hope this film helps continue the dialogue about that. I have to say that I really loved your entourage in this film, especially Gouchy Boy as K2, and Ayisha Issa as Rayzah. Now that is one tough woman!

Ayisha has a lot of potential — she’s nothing like that character! She is very physical, though. She took me to her boxing classes when I was training. That girl is talented, yo! She wanted to do jujitsu with me, too, but I was like, you gotta roll around on the ground for that. I told her I couldn’t do that with her, I’m married! (Laughs.)

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Do you think it’s more fun to play the heavy in a film?

It’s a lot of fun! I always try to choose a role that I haven’t done before or something that will take me to new places as an actor. Coming from hip hop, I still feel like I have to prove myself as actor, you know what I mean? Samuel Jackson said it once and, you know, I agree with him. He said he didn’t like all of these rappers coming over to acting because they’re not trained. They come over and take jobs from people who do this for a living. I understand that perspective. I think those of us who do move into that really need study the craft no matter how much natural presence we might have. I made sure I wasn’t one of those guys. I respect Uncle Sam and I want to hear him say, “No, man, I ain’t talking about RZA, he’s studying this shit, he’s taking it very seriously!” I’ve been acting for ten years now so maybe I’m getting there.

I’m sure he’d be very impressed with your acting. I loved how your character was always cooking in those scenes. Apart from desperately wanting to eat every single dish that you were making, I thought it must be hard to act while doing all of that.

I like to cook a lot. Anyone who knows me knows I’m a huge fan of Asian movies. And in Asian movies they always have a lot of food! Watching those movies always made me hungry as a kid, and I was the kid in the theater who couldn’t afford the popcorn. I’d be in there starving looking at that shit!

I wondered if that cool cleaver you use as you’re cooking in this film was an homage to your love of Asian cinema.

Yeah, definitely. I had that in my mind!

RZA-WalkerPaul Walker gives such a moving performance in this film. It must be poignant to watch the movie now.

It’s really sad. I was a huge Paul Walker fan even from his earliest days. He really knows how to give a director what he wants. It was great making this movie with him and seeing him hitting all those notes.

I don’t know how there are enough hours in the day to do all that you do in music, film and elsewhere. Did you always have a desire to make movies?

I remember the first movie I ever saw in a movie theater was Huckleberry Finn. The second movie I saw was Star Wars. The third movie was The Swarm! After that, I remember seeing a Bruce Lee double feature. There are things I remember from all of these films, man. The killer bees, the lightsabers — I was only a little kid but these movies changed my life. You can see them in my work.

I’ve gotta say this, Danny. Film is the medium that fulfills all of my artistic wavelengths. It’s a place for music, it’s a place for writing, it’s a place for color and design, it’s a place for producing, it’s a place for acting and becoming someone that you’re not — it’s a place to fly! I want to make movie magic.

Brick Mansions opens today nationwide.