Ludacris, the hip-hop star also known as Chris Bridges, had just wrapped filming on the movie “Crash” and was preparing to tour in February 2004 when he was informed that a white supremacist group had been protesting the “Disturbing tha Peace” tour stop in Casper, Wyo.
“My first reaction, was, ‘No big deal, no fuss,’ ” Ludacris says. “Then I thought, well, maybe this movie might be able to do some good, you know what I’m saying?”
What he’s saying is that “Crash,” which opened Friday, is that rare movie that looks dead-on at the elephant in America’s living room: racism.
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Set in Los Angeles, “Crash” uses a car crash to bring together people of various colors and political persuasions. Co-written and directed by Paul Haggis, who wrote the screenplay for Oscar-winner “Million Dollar Baby,” it is unflinchingly honest in addressing how blacks, whites and Asian and Arab-Americans see one another.
Ludacris plays a carjacker who has a strict code of ethics: He only steals from wealthy whites.
“When they offered me this movie, I wanted to do it for one reason only, and that was because of Don Cheadle,” Ludacris says. “It was working with Don that nailed it for me. I figured that could get my game up because I’m serious about having an acting career.
“But once we started shooting and I got into the character and the story, I realized I was part of something that really had something serious to say. This movie’s about looking in the mirror, you know, and asking yourself: ‘What do I really believe in when I’m not just running my mouth?’ “
Ludacris readily admits he has become a major star by running his mouth. Born in Champaign, Ill., in 1977, Ludacris grew up in Atlanta, where his love and knowledge of R&B and rap earned him a job as a radio personality while he was still a teenager. He first rapped on a track on Timbaland’s 1998 album and released his own independent album, “Incognegro,” in 2000. He sold 50,000 records, most of them, he says, “from the trunks of my car and friends’ cars.”
He had a hit with 2000’s “What’s Your Fantasy” from his major-label debut, “Back for the First Time.” The next year, he broke into the mainstream with “Word of Mouf.” It contained a hit whose title would put Fox News Channel scold Bill O’Reilly on a campaign that would end with Ludacris losing a multimillion-dollar deal with Pepsi.
“Media is a very powerful thing, and it can be a very dangerous thing,” Ludacris says.
Though Ludacris refers to himself as “the freshman” among the movie’s actors, producer Cathy Schulman calls him “the great discovery of this movie.”
“The camera loves him,” she says. “He worked his butt off to do this role and might really surprise his fans.”
Ludacris says fellow cast members helped him out.
“I walked into that wanting to learn, and, believe me, I got an education,” he says. “These people are serious, focused. … I had fooled around with it before this, but this was a whole different level. I had to take this as serious as I take making records, and anybody will tell you I take that very serious.”
Up next
Ludacris breaks his own rule about choosing film roles in the July release “Hustle & Flow.”
“When I put my toe in the movie business, I decided I didn’t want to play rappers or singers, but this part was so good I had to make an exception,” Ludacris says.
He plays Skinny Black, a superstar rapper who he says is a “real ass.” “This character … is so different from the one I play in ‘Crash,’ I think people will be able to see what I’m trying to do, to take this [acting] thing serious,” he says.–KRT.
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Edited by Curt Wagner ([email protected]) and Kris Karnopp ([email protected])