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Chapter 1: What is O'Shea Jackson Jr.'s connection to his father's legacy?
Kings Network. Welcome to the West Coast edition of South Beach Sessions. Right here, we've got generations of Los Angeles in front of me. O'Shea Jackson Jr., your father's very Los Angeles. You're very Los Angeles. You know him from Den of Thieves. He played his father in his debut role in Straight Outta Compton. You got Godzilla. You got Cocaine Bear.
But the thing that's most important, the only thing that matters right now, the greatest pride that he has is his nerddom in wrestling.
Chapter 2: How did O'Shea's childhood experiences shape his career path?
Oh, yeah. No contest wrestling. You've got a podcast and you are immersed in all things wrestling. How have you not been dissuaded of this as an adult? The greatest arguments I had with my father was, dad, that's not fake. Jimmy Snuka, you can't, that's not fake. That can't be faked.
Yeah, it's, you definitely, I grew up having those arguments and, you know, things like that. But once you start to become a smarter wrestling fan, you know what you're looking at, but then you know what you're looking for, too. If you can, with everyone's knowledge of the business, for a split second, for however long, make them believe you got them. You got them in the palm of your hand. Yeah.
As an actor, I appreciate what they do because in my line of work, I get cuts, I get redos. It's not gonna be in the movie until it's perfect. But with them, it's live and they have to add to a character every week as opposed to waiting for a season. So yeah, I mean, and to go is so much better than watching on TV.
There's some things, some aspects that a television match can give you that you don't get from live, like you're not hearing the announcers or anything like that. But the energy of the crowd and just seeing people that might break a limb just for our applause, you got to admire them.
Want to keep talking to you about wrestling and we will but the screenwriter in you the screenwriter who went to USC Dreaming of what what is it that you were going to be when you start at the dream in college?
I wanted to everyone's there to write for TV and movies.
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Chapter 3: What challenges did O'Shea face while auditioning for roles?
I wanted to write for video games That was what I was gonna do at the time With my freshman year, I think Call of Duty made a billion in a weekend and I was like
You know? Your father's son, man.
Yeah, I can make you pay $16 a movie ticket, or I can make you pay $60 a game. So that's where I was headed. And then, you know, second year, Pops tells me, you know, they're taking this NWA movie series. And I didn't think that... The conversation was going to lead to my career path. I was just like, all right, cool. It's dope. I'm happy for you.
And he said, in a perfect world, I want you to play me. And I was not necessarily jumping for joy because there's not really a lot of good rap movies, especially at that time. And but the thing is, my dad's never asked me to do anything. You know, he's just just always been a provider. And this is the first time where I felt like he needed me. So I had to jump on it.
He said, we're going to have to make you audition. And I said, please make me audition because I've heard the. Godfather III stories, you know, Francis Ford Coppola's daughter and how that went.
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Chapter 4: How did O'Shea's passion for wrestling influence his career?
And if I don't get it in an audition, I'm just not good. It's not like I didn't try. So we auditioned, and Gary Gray saw something that he liked. From there, he got me an acting coach, Aaron Spicer, who I feel like I owe everything to. Aaron Spicer hooked me up with Susan Batson. I flew to New York to work with her for a few weeks.
Two years later of auditioning and watching my friends graduate without me on Instagram, got the part, here I am.
So it's an accident?
Kinda. It kinda just fell in my lap and I left school to pursue it. So now it's just about making it work. The one thing that I do wish I would've did differently When you go to college and you're in your major, you don't really grasp that college is about putting a bunch of people with the same idea in the same room together.
And you're supposed to make these connections with these people because you don't know who you're going to need or what as you go further in this career that you're choosing. And I didn't do that. I lost touch with my writer friends, and I wish I would have kept touch with them. Because now that I'm in the door, as far as the film industry goes, I still have my ideas for shows and everything.
And I wish we all would have stayed. I would have held them tighter because I would have had a team. I would have had a team of writers right there and people that I know can do it.
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Chapter 5: What lessons did O'Shea learn from his father about work ethic?
So, you know, I got to go on Instagram and hunt them all down, but I wish I would have had a better connection with them.
So take me through that, though. You're basically leaving school with your father's blessing to chase this, and you think your father is needing you, asking you for something for one of the few times.
Yeah. It's an amount of pressure that he's never vocally said, but just that as his son, I felt. And when you put all your, you know, you go all in. you put pressures on yourself and you put yourself in a situation where you have to, like we have to get this. A lot of times with second generation kids, the nipple babies,
The first generation, a lot of their want, need, or drive is external stuff. Whether that be, I don't want to live like this anymore, or I need to get out of this environment, I need to better myself, I need to be above all this. When you're a second generation, life is good. You look around life and it's like, what am I running from? You know, so you have to have.
You weren't straight out of college.
I had to have an internal, you have to have like an internal thing of wanting more for yourself. And that comes from the conversations with my dad and my mom about whether that's, they never said anything like, you gotta stand on your own two feet, but just want more for yourself. And so I had to use things like that pressure of going all in and not having an option afterwards.
Because at USC, the screenwriting program is a four-year program. You can't just leave in your second and then just jump back in.
Hard to get into as well.
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Chapter 6: How did O'Shea's conversation with Kobe Bryant impact him?
So I kind of felt like if I don't make this work, I'm screwed. So that's that fire. Now I got to win the role. He didn't tell me this at the time, but I found out when he told the higher ups that he wanted me to play him, their response was, is this a joke? That would have been more fire for me. Wanting to do it for my siblings.
Wanting to do it for my siblings because when I win, I feel like we win. I do it for Daryl, Karima, and Sharif. And then you got my cousins like, well, you gotta get it. So it's all these things that I'm using to fuel my fire. And then once I did get the role, then all the nepotism talk starts. So I'm like, all right, now I'm gonna prove to you that I can do it.
And then when I do it, and it's great, then it was, well, of course he could play his dance. So you have to have, they tell you not to read comments and do all that stuff, but I use that as fuel. I use that bulletin board, and yeah, I gotta go at him.
Was the doing of it fun, or was it pressurized?
The first month, pressure. I was scared to death, you know? I had amazing chemistry with Jason Mitchell, Corey Hawkins, my man Aldis Hodge, Neil Brown Jr. That was the crew.
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Chapter 7: What are O'Shea's thoughts on the film industry and nepotism?
That was NWA. And if it wasn't for those guys and the chemistry we had and just being excited to work with them all the time, laugh with them all the time, I would have had a very hard time doing Straight Outta Compton, harder than I already did.
Well, which is the one that you're distrusting the most? The fact that Hollywood doesn't make very good hip hop movies or that you're not going to serve the legacy of your father the way that you or he would want it to be served in film?
Um. I knew auditioning and working and workshopping for two years on that role, I knew by the time that the first action, I was ready. I've been holding it and focused for two years straight. There was really nothing that was gonna stop me from portraying my dad, how I know him, and to make sure that what I put on the screen was true. you're always nervous that you want the movie to do good.
You want, you just, you, you want to, and when you're in it, everything feels good. But then once it, once you put it out, you're hoping and wishing and it, it, it crushed. So a lot of the fears were. I'm going to say more so whether or not I was getting it right from an acting perspective. I knew how I know how my dad would act in certain situations. But is it translating properly on the camera?
And I feel like it did.
How did your life change after that?
Well, I can't watch movies the same. Movies have been ruined for me. Every time I watch a movie now, I just think about how it was shot, how long that probably took, this probably sucked.
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Chapter 8: What future projects is O'Shea Jackson Jr. excited about?
Like, I was watching Godzilla vs. Kong, and that's a movie you're supposed to just kick back, turn your brain off, man. And there's a scene where Godzilla flips a ship that Kong is still chained up to, and somebody has to dive into the water, hit the button. And all I could think about was, do you know how annoying diving into that water was 13 times? So that type of stuff is a ruin for me.
That's a shame, you used to be a film buff, right?
Now I'm like, oh man, what a nightmare. Every time, or I'm impressed in a different way.
Yeah, you're not watching the movie, you're watching how it was made because it's now your life. It's funny to hear you say that it's an accident, though. So writing for video games, what was that going to be? Explain to me what writing for video games would have been as a career versus what it is you're presently doing. What was the path to?
Well, at USC, what I was really taking in is The art of storytelling. The difference between a popcorn movie and what they consider cinema. What things draw what emotions from people. The best video games have a story behind them, along with gameplay, because gameplay is important. But they have a story behind them that sticks with you forever.
When I was in, I was about 12, sixth grade, I played a game called Kingdom Hearts. And Kingdom Hearts is a mixture of a franchise, Final Fantasy, and mixed with Disney. And so on the surface, it's just, you know, it looks like a fun kids game. But you log in all these hours, like over 80 hours or whatever the game is.
you have this attachment to this character and what they're going through and you want the best for them. And when it doesn't work out, it crushes you. Or when you're left on a cliffhanger, I'm on that cliffhanger forever. And I wanted to do that for people. I wanted to create those feelings and those emotions that I'm having that
that never let go i wanted to do that for other people and so it was i was at usc learning how the greats did that through that media and doing whatever i can to translate a story of the magnitude of a movie and then form it into a video game
What's going on in your household that makes it so attracted to storytelling? Your father in hip hop, that's all it is, screenwriting, wrestling, it's all stories.
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