Rapper and actor RZA’s latest movie, Brick Mansions, hits theaters nationwide Friday.
RZA stars alongside the late Paul Walker in the film about abandoned Detroit projects that house the most dangerous criminals.
RZA plays a drug lord, Tremaine Alexander, and opened up in an interview with theGrio’s Chris Witherspoon about he’s avoided being typecast as a criminal or thug throughout his film career.
“I’ve been very careful about being typecast,” RZA said “If you check out my filmography you notice that I very rarely play hip-hop guys. I waited until the right role came for me to actually embody this kind of energy…whether it’s energy that I’ve lived myself or energy that I’ve seen in local drug dealers.”
Last week RZA and the Wu-Tang clan dominated social media after Andre ‘Christ Bearer’ Johnson (a rapper once affiliated with the Wu-Tang Clan), chopped off his penis in a suicide attempt.
RZA says the news of Johnson’s castration and suicide attempt is ‘the craziest thing he’s ever heard.’
“It’s a sad tragic event for him and his family. He’s a man that’s trying to find himself I guess, and made an incredibly bad decision,” RZA said.
In an interview last week with XXL magazine, RZA said the awful reports surrounding Johnson are “dirty press” for the Wu-Tang clan.
“It’s bad for Wu-Tang because the Wu-Tang is for the children. We’re here doing positive things and that just doesn’t match up to what the Wu is about,” RZA tells theGrio. “But we send our blessings out to his family… hope he gets better and hope he survives this thing. I look forward to the day that I can just speak to him and ask him, what’s going through your mind man? It’s crazy. It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.”
Brick Mansions opens in theaters nationwide Friday.
Follow Chris Witherspoon on Twitter for more Entertainment news at @WitherspoonC