The gritty LA cop drama STREET KINGS stars Keanu Reeves and Forest Whitaker as police officers caught up in violence and corruption in Los Angeles. 

The film also stars actor/rapper Common and actor/comedian Cedric The Entertainer who both bring a sense of hard realism to the film. Common plays a thuggish, dark character involved in serious crime, while Cedric portrays a hustler who finds himself unwittingly used as a pawn between the police and his own community. 

Pyroradio.com spoke with Common and Cedric The Entertainer

Q: Tell me about your characters.

Common: “I play Coates, a guy from the street who has actually taken on the identity of someone named Coates. We don’t know till later who he really is. I am a street dude who has got some power and is becoming wilder on the streets than he was growing up. Without giving the story away, he is part of a drug ring, killing people. He has become an evil type of guy.”

Q: What is it like playing someone evil and ruthless?  How do you attempt to understand him?

A: “I worked to understand him. There are people I know who might be similar to him, who are dark, and I do know some people who are killers so I tuned into them a little bit, picking up information from people like that, going around South Central LA, going around Compton and Watts and just absorbing the street life of LA as much as I could. That was it really. I did connect with him and through that process I really understood where my character came from and who he was.”

Q: Without giving the plot away, what is this character’s motivation?

Common: “I made the decision that Coates is definitely out for himself. It wasn’t hard for me to work out which side he is on. In the script, I had already been denoted as a ‘beast’ so I knew where I was going.  I knew the destination and just had to get there.”

Q: Is this film a realistic image of LA?

Common: “I believe it is a realistic image of that portion of LA. LA is a diverse place, like a country.  It has sunshine and mountains and water and beaches and Hollywood and South Central and gangs and drugs and violence. In South Central though, you also have churches and communities and good things so neighborhoods are diverse. But you have to remember, the corrupt part of the police department exists not only in LA but also in Chicago and Detroit and many other cities. Politics and corrupt police and corporations exist everywhere.”

Q:  Cedric how do you view your character?

Cedric: “My character Scribble is a low level, street hustler criminal. Basically I am being used in this movie. I am a pawn between the good guys to connect them with the bad guys.  I know everybody.  I am a guy who is just trying to find out how to make a buck. I feel that all cops are bad and Keanu’s character is looking for some guys that I know and if I hook them up, then I will be a part of that business deal just by making a connection and of course it goes awry. It turns out very differently from the way I expect.  These guys have been planning to kill each other from the beginning and I don’t even know that.  Scribble is being used by both parties and end up being in the middle when it all goes bad. In a fairly dark movie, out of all the dark characters (who are various shades of gray), I am probably a good dude in a way; you want me to stay alive.   My character lets you know that when you are dealing in this really dirty underworld.  There are no safe areas and nobody is safe.”

Q: How did you come up with the style and look of your character?

Cedric: “The whole idea was to take those hood guys who are trying to be as ‘fresh’ (cool) as they possibly can so I have the little velour sweat suit. The thing about people who live in that crime world though is that not everyone is mean and cruel.  Many are just what we call hustlers.  They do illegal things, but they do them with a certain flair and you kind of find them likeable even though they are involved in criminal enterprise. So I took that attitude towards Scribble and how he got pulled in. He is not a bad guy and is a little bit unaware of the really grimy stuff that is going on. He just wants to make a quick hustle.  All the other guys want to murder. Scribble is not a murderer.  He doesn’t kill folks. My character is very interesting.”

Q: What do you think this film has to say about LA and the corruption and the police?

Common: “I think more than anything, it is just showing that this kind of behavior exists and I think if you look at Keanu’s character, he is someone who is trying to do good.  He’s been messed up from situations he has found himself in. His wife has died and he has been through a lot. Ludlow has become a policeman and wanted to do right when he set out in his career but he figured that he sometimes had to do wrong in order to do what he thought was right. So he was shooting dudes and doing bad things. It shows that everything is not just black and white and also it is entertainment. It’s a good cop drama.”

Cedric: “The other thing, which is kind of subliminal, is that in this movie you get to see how people in power often abuse their authority.  You can take this theme out of the police force and put it right into corporate America or ‘Big Government’ and see how people who have power start to abuse their power and start to justify the abuse of power, just as they do in this film, simply because it is okay and they can get away with it. It is easy to tell that story in a cop drama, especially in an LA cop drama. You see Forest Whitaker’s character get off balance.  He starts off as a pretty good guy.  People believe in him.  But then he starts making one bad choice and covers that choice with another bad choice. When that happens to people who may have the best intentions, often just out of self-preservation they end up committing more and more crimes so they don’t get caught for that one initial infraction.  The interesting thing about this movie is that you can find parallels in the Iraq War or any political situation.”

Q: David Ayer says the set was open.  What was that like for you? Were fans coming up chatting to you all the time?

Cedric: “That was pretty good, it was fun. Filming in South Central LA, people know me; they’ll have my album; they know me from my TV show; I am so familiar so they see me and come up to talk. I was caught off guard because they would come up and shout: “hey man, how you doing?’ We shot at a liquor store, I park there in the movie and it was an actual working store. People were in and out of there all day and that was funny. One guy came up and started talking and he insisted that he knew me.  He couldn’t believe I was an actor and just kept telling me about folks we supposedly both knew but I didn’t know them. He talked about Rich; I said I don’t know Rich! (laughs)  ”

Q: Was there a lot of specific firearms training for the role?

Common: “We did have some sessions of gun training.  We learned to shoot from a police perspective too.  We had police officers training us. I learned how to shoot with a rifle and sub machine gun because in other films, I had just used handguns.  I learned a lot in terms of technique. “

Q: Did it give you a different perspective on cops in L.A?

Common: “It definitely did because I grew with the attitude ‘forget the police; they are no good’. So that was my mentality for a long time. Even though this is a corrupt cop story, I would talk to police while we were researching and making the film and I would find out what motivated them, why they want to do the job and I met some cool cops. There are bad cops and good ones, like there are cool teachers and bad ones and the same with politicians: there’s good and bad in every aspect of life.”     

Q: Do you have to put a distance between you and your fans because of safety?

Cedric: “It is best to embrace it to a certain degree I think. You learn to keep things moving, not stay too long talking but be accommodating because when you are in a situation like that, you don’t want people to feel that you are not showing the love and appreciation that they are showing you. They may be a little over the top and overly enthusiastic when they talk to you but they just want to show you that they love your work and respect you and like what you do. It can be a little scary sometimes but you have to learn how to be engaging and just don’t let yourself be trapped in long conversations. You go ‘what’s up man’ and move on.”

Q:  How do you each have time for everything you both do: music, films, charity work, writing, family?

Common:  “For me it is just about focusing on each project and enjoying what I do. I like writing songs, doing films, creating something great and being on the set. I love to do it so when I am making a film, that’s where my focus is. I make sure I balance my work with spending plenty of time with my family. That’s how I balance everything because that is the foundation of my life and spirituality is the foundation of all of it. So I make sure I have a little time for recreation, I enjoy going to the movies. These days there is a little less ‘kicking it’ (relaxing) until I get those multi millions in the bank (laughs) and there is more   focus on work.”

Cedric: “I think the key is really having the great opportunity to enjoy the work you do. I am shooting a movie and directing it at the same time right now   so I have a lot going on. But it is all exciting. ”

Street Kings is released in UK cinemas on 18th April 2008