Freddie Gibbs’ feature film debut is set to premiere on Sunday, July 11 at the Cannes Film Festival, and leading up to the movie’s screening this weekend, the acclaimed rapper chopped it up with Complex to share some insights into his first foray into acting.
Apparently, Down With The King isn’t the first movie opportunity that has landed on Freddie Gibbs’ lap. However, most of the previous roles that he was offered were gangsta roles in “hood movies,” but the Alfredo rapper’s desire to do “avant-garde, artistic” movies led him to turn them all down. Eventually, Gibbs landed a lead role in the Diego Ongaro-directed film about a rapper seeking to make his departure from the music industry, and the rest is history.
Deeper into the interview, Complex’s Deputy Pop Culture Editor Khal asks the Grammy-nominated rapper into some of the wilder moments from the film, specifically mentioning a scene in which Gibbs’ character skins a pig. “The entire film has a looser vibe, and I know it’s a movie, but your character is skinning pigs and there are a lot of blunts being rolled in the film. What was real?” he asks the rapper.
“Man, I got to leave some of that to your imagination,” Gibbs replies while laughing at the question. “I will say this: I was in the thick of it. If you want to call this sh*t Method acting, I definitely did that. I became that sh*t.”
Although he doesn’t exactly confirm whether or not he actually skinned a pig for his role as Mercury Maxwell in Down With The King, his use of the term “method acting” does imply that he fully immersed himself into the character’s life. With the film set to premiere on Sunday, no news has yet been revealed about any widespread theatrical releases for Down With The King, so stay tuned for more details regarding Freddie Gibbs’ new flick.
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