COOLER THAN ICE
Rapper-actor royalty makes his own way in new cinematic shootout
HE’S still only 26, but O’Shea Jackson Jr. is already an old hand when it comes to getting roughed up on screen.
In 2015, he played his father, Ice Cube (O’Shea Jackson), in “Straight Outta Compton” — the biopic of gangstarap legends NWA that depicted the often brutal policing tactics employed in Los Angeles during the late 1980s. In the new heist thriller “Den of Thieves,” opening Friday, Jackson plays a bartender caught between the worlds of bank robbers and the detectives charged with catching them. If anything, he takes an even worse beating, including a vicious chokehold administered by co-star Gerard Butler.
“It was brutal, but I loved it,” he tells The Post. “I’m used to being choked out. Me and my older brother Darrell used to play live-action ‘Mortal Kombat’ — he’d be Liu Kang, I’d be Sub-Zero. One time, I got my two front teeth knocked out!”
Clearly, he’d be first in line for a “Mortal Kombat” reboot, but with roles in the comedy “Flarsky” (featuring Seth Rogen) and the monster-movie sequel “Godzilla: King of Monsters,” both out next year, Jackson is already showing an intention to broaden his range. We talked to him about the new movie, his dad and the secrets people tell
bartenders. “Den of Thieves” is partly based on the premise that people tell bartenders things that they wouldn’t tell anyone else. Is that something you can attest to? Yeah, because the director, Christian Gudegast, actually had me bartend [at O’Brien in Los Angeles] for a couple of weeks. He didn’t want me to just be cleaning glasses, he wanted it to be natural. I’d hear the stories about the kids having bad grades, the multiple girlfriends or whatever. There was one dude who was planning to quit his job around Christmas, because he was waiting for a check or a bonus to clear! I learned that a lot of people really don’t like their jobs. Did people recognize you at the bar?
There were a couple of times that people said, “So I guess the movie thing didn’t work out, huh?” There was one time my dad was actually on the screen on ESPN while I was working there. I saw some people look at the screen, look at me, and slowly work up the courage to ask me. I let a couple of people know I was working on a role, and I let others believe what they believe. Have you gently pointed out to your father that by playing him in “Straight Outta Compton,” you helped spark a resurgence of interest in NWA?
[Laughs] He got his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame last year. I said to him, “You know, they wouldn’t be paying attention to you if it wasn’t for me!” But he always comes back at me with that “You wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for me” stuff, so that’s always gonna be his trump card. I can’t beat that!