RZA’s latest film “Brick Mansions” hits theaters this Friday, April 25.
Film Synopsis: In a dystopian Detroit, abandoned brick mansions left from better times now house only the most dangerous criminals. Unable to control the crime, the police constructed a colossal containment wall around this area to protect the rest of the city. Undercover cop Damien Collier (Paul Walker) is determined to bring his father’s killer, Tremaine (RZA) to justice and every day is a battle against corruption. For Lino (David Belle), every day is a fight to live an honest life. Their paths never should have crossed, but when Tremaine kidnaps Lino’s girlfriend, Damien reluctantly accepts the help of the fearless ex-convict, and together they must stop a sinister plot to devastate the entire city. With stylized action featuring thrilling Parkour stunts (David Belle is the co-founder of this physical training discipline), “Brick Mansions” puts an entertaining twist on the action genre.
We spoke with RZA about playing the villain in this film and he also gave us some exclusive scoop on the inspiration behind the limited edition Wu-Tang album “Once Upon A Time In Shaolin.”
Q: Congratulations on “Brick Mansions.” Can you talk a little bit about your character, Tremaine?
RZA: Yeah, Tremaine Alexander … kind of like a futuristic Nino Brown, right. It’s a guy, he runs the drug operations and criminal activities of “Brick Mansions.” He’s about that paper, of course. A smart guy. He starts the film off as a guy who just lost 20 kilos and it’s taken by Lino played by David Belle and that’s a lot of money. You know what I mean? So he’s really pissed off about that. And then there’s another character played by Paul Walker, who’s the detective, second generation, who lost his father to protecting and serving the community. And the man responsible for that death is Tremaine Alexander and so the movie goes on to have Paul and David’s character break into Brick Mansions to bring down Tremaine … you know how drug guys are, when drug dealers get a AK, you know what I mean…he’s gonna terrorize the neighborhood. Well Tremaine Alexander has a nuclear missile, yo.
Q: Wow.
RZA: So imagine how he’s feeling right now.
Q: How much fun was it playing the role of a villain in the movie?
RZA: It was kind of fun, especially for me after the process of growing up, you know, with my youthful days of Wu-Tang, wanting to take over the world, and I didn’t care about nobody else, you know what I mean? And then growing up to be a man and realizing certain things about life that humbles you, and then as an actor you get to go and kind of put on different personalities and, you know, Tremaine is like, “Strap up! Brick mansion gangstas!” All that was good to get that energy back out, I had fun being in that position as that character. It’s pretty cool for me.
Q: You think you could see yourself taking on another villain role in the future?
RZA: Yeah! I’m really enjoying acting and hopefully the audiences are enjoying me as I do it and growing with me as an artist and take chances to see me put on different hats. When I did “The Man with the Iron Fists,” you know, here’s a humble guy who is working hard everyday to help his girl and it’s a personality that you’ve gotta absorb. And then here, I’m a guy right now who will shoot you for saying the wrong words. You always as an actor want to bring these different characters’ energies out of yourself and I’m having fun doing it and I’m looking forward to…maybe one day making you cry on screen. How about that? How about the RZA that makes your ass cry? Would you enjoy that?
Q: I think that’d be pretty interesting.
RZA: Yeah. I’m confident enough and secure in my skin that I’m willing to go out there and try to portray energies like that. … Getting on stage as a performer is a naked experience. You’re on stage, thousands of kids in the audience, and you are through your song or your music, you’re expressing yourself and letting it be known how you feel. You know whether you’re talking about “Protect Ya Neck!” or something, you’re still expressing it to thousands of people. But then as an actor you’re also expressing it to many people, but in a different medium…it’s like a closed circuit of a crew of people trying to capture you being something. It’s real, real cool and real challenging but I’m having fun!
Q: Is there any medium you prefer more? Whether it’s music or acting or even directing?
RZA: I think my most preferred medium to date has been directing as far as like, really fulfillment of all the creative juices you get, you know? Directing has been my favorite.
Q: In “Brick Mansions,” you worked alongside the late Paul Walker. Can you talk about what it was like working with him and just what made him special as both an actor and a human being?
RZA: Yeah, for the short time I got to know Paul … he became a dear friend quickly because he had such a grounded, down to earth personality. He was a very caring individual, focused, open minded. A rare gem. You know, it’s a great loss, physically for us to lose a guy like this because … wherever you go to work at, like you may go to work and you may have ten guys on the job that’s assholes or work guys that you look forward to seeing everyday–working over there, it’s door number three. Everyday you guys can hang out have a coffee or a doughnut together…he’s one of those good guys … that when he came to work he made it a joy to be on the set and to be working with … He’s a good dude and we took a great loss losing him physically. But we do have him here on the screen with us, and that’s the magic of film being able to capture us and show us back to ourselves and have us interacting and get audiences feel to us … that’s what we’re trained to do.
Q: We also wanted to ask you about “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin.”
RZA: Shaolin is the place where all Kung fu springs from. It’s like, the well of Kung fu. The origin of Shaolin in China is where many martial artists from around through Asia had came in and all the books were all collected and held at this temple and it became the foundation of martial arts and we took that name and applied it to us as musicians and as a crew. You know, Wu-Tang Clan, coming from Shaolin and “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” is continuing that Wu-Tang saga.
Q: Is Kung fu what inspired the title “One Upon A Time in Shaolin”?
RZA: Well, this particular tile – there’s a fan who grew up to become a colleague and a brother of mine named Cilvaringz, who had a dream as a fan, you know, and his dream came to reality, actually. Which is actually a remarkable story, if you think about a young guy wanting to meet the Wu-Tang Clan, and does meet them and then he gets tutored by the RZA and taught and told to go to school and focus on certain things and learn how to make music and beats by hanging around the RZA and then he grows up to make beats that his heroes will one day rap on. It is a “once upon a time story,” you know what I mean?
The reality of life it’s recorded and made into a form of art and I think there’s something cool about that. I’m gonna do a big a press release pretty release soon, to go in depth, but for The Source Magazine I could say this because The Source has been there for years, you know? Me watching – I remember The Source’s whole growth in the grove of hip hop and it’s a similar story. I remember The Source started off with Dave Mays and these guys as a newsletter! And it grew to become a magazine, and then the TV shows produced The Source Awards … so that all starts from a dream, from some young guy taking a chance. And in hip hop, you know the Wu-Tang had inspired some people. Here’s a kid who was inspired by us and then gets 15 years later to grow up and have a dream come true … it’s kind of remarkable in its own way. There’s something magical about that.
Q: So, besides there being only one copy of the album, what makes it sonically unique compared to some of the other work Wu-Tang has done?
RZA: It’s a lot of different elements to it. I will talk more about it, but you know, I would say… we did an album called “Wu-Tang Forever” and millions of people have got a change to buy this album and put it in their collection and play it to themselves and children and grow up with it and then, me as an artist, I’ve moved on to so many other ways of expressing myself. But this particular project is a return back to that spirit, so I think that alone makes it a very interesting collection. You know, when you watch a movie like remember “The Godfather”?
Q: Yes!
RZA: There’s “Godfather 1” and “Godfather 2,” right? And then it took years for “Godfather 3” to come out, you know what I mean? But when it came out, we were happy to see how this family had developed. They started from a street crime family, a guy who only had an apple when he came home from work for his wife, to a guy who ended up becoming a multimillionaire influential gangster, to a guy who now … you always knew this family would go into politics or something cool and here it is in “Godfather 3,” you watch this family grow to investing into The Vatican. These types of stories in art are always entertaining to us and I think it’s the same thing with the Wu-Tang Saga. You see these nine guys who were considered to be high school dropouts, felons, ex-felons, a lot of ex-cons, but you hear their saga of life growing up through the hood … New York crime side, just trying to stay alive and making it and then becoming successful hip hop icons and then continuing on. There’s something magical about that. Where are they at nowadays? That’s what this album was able to capture. Everything I’m doing artistically is capturing this growth and hopefully I’ll try to inspire young people from where I come from that sometimes we are trapped in the small projects, small four walls around you, where you feel like that’s the only world. But there’s a big world out there, if you take that faith and chance and step into it and explore it, you can become a part of it and you can maybe even become an inspiration to it.
