The creative process of making a movie really turned me on. I’d started getting behind the scenes with a camcorder and VHS tape when making music videos.
Can’t step from one movie set to the next. Only Samuel L. Jackson can do that. All us mere mortals can’t do that!
I been all around the world and I haven’t found a city that I’d rather be from or rather come back to than Los Angeles.
Some people have a taboo about doing advertising in the States. You know, where they kind of make their bread and butter. But to me, that’s crazy.
I think rap music is the sole reason for a lot of black acceptance in pop culture; because the music is very popular, it gets our image out in other ways than in movies.
Usually people who attack the rap are people who aren’t even fans.
I’ve never really taken myself too serious. That’s everybody else, listening to the music or whatever. I’ve always said what I’ve felt, said what I thought was right, but I’ve always had a comedic bone.
I’m not trying to turn into Eddie Murphy, and just do kids movies the rest of my career. I’m going to still do a wide variety of movies, as well as do hardcore rap.
A lot of movies will deliver on the promotion but when you go see them, everything you laughed at was in the trailer.
When you have a good movie, it’s hard to categorize it. It’s everything. It makes you laugh, makes you cry and makes you think.
Hollywood is obsessed with police stories.
To me, it’s my job not to laugh, no matter what’s said. By the time we shoot, I’m ready for all that’s coming. I probably do most of my breaking in rehearsals, when I know that I can.
The hardest period for a writer is the period in-between writing. That’s when you can go crazy if you don’t allow the creative juices to flow.
I know I ain’t too old. I always think of my fans about 10 years older and 10 years younger than me.
If you really think back to the culture or just black America before rap music took off, New York could have been Paris.
With comedies, I like to be a producer, because comedies can get corny and go off track real fast.
I don’t do much cooking, but one of my favorite dishes to eat is my wife’s macaroni and cheese.
I always tell people that if you gave me a pen and a piece of paper when I was a teenager and said, “Write out how you’d like your career to go,” I would have probably short changed myself compared to what it’s been for real. I’m just extremely excited about what I’ve accomplished.
Most actors have to sit by the phone and wait for somebody to call them up to audition and stuff. I don’t think I can exist in Hollywood just on that. I think I need to be proactive and making sure that things I really want to do are being developed to the point where somebody wants to make them.
Everybody that wants to be successful should always be careful of what you wish for. A lot of artists and entertainers want to put the genie back in the bottle and wish they could go back to being what they were.
I’m a good counter comedian. I can just work it off with looks, or have something crazy to say back. That works for me.