Dr. Dre & Ice Cube on ‘NWA’ Movie: ‘This Movie Will Keep Shining a Light on—All The Situations That Are Happening’

Cube recalls N.W.A.’s early days and how it was always about freedom of expression. However the uncensored expression coming from Ni—az With Attitude wasn’t something the country wasn’t ready for and their words landed them on the FBI’s watch list.

It was always about free speech, being able to express yourself, whether people like it or not. That’s the great thing about being in this country, is to be able to speak your mind and not be censored.

Being able to tell the story about the West Coast group, was a long time in the making. Since 2008, director F. Gary Gray has been trying to bring N.W.A.’s story to the silver screen. And finally six years later, with the help of Universal’s chief Donna Langley, the 29 million dollar budget was approved and the story began being drafted. However the team was faced with a new hurdle, finding the perfect person to draft in the film. Luckily, when it came to playing Ice Cube’s character the search began and ended at home. Cube decided his 24-year-old son was perfect for the part,

I know a lot of people thought I was just throwing him in there ’cause I could. But that wasn’t the case. I knew he was right for this.

And his son, O’Shea Jackson insists his mannerisms are so closely of that of his father’s that he didn’t really need to act like a younger Ice Cube because he is one.

My father would call me before each scene to let me know what he was thinking. A lot of it was getting me to not act. I have so much of his mannerisms and things already in me that I wouldn’t want to be onscreen doing an impersonation. You can do an impersonation or you could become the character. I really was trying to break down those acting walls and just let everything flow.

Once the cast was picked, the only thing left to do was shoot. Dre recalls one crucial scene and also a last-minute shot scene that explains what sparked the historic split of Dr. Dre and Suge Knight.

Gray filmed a scene in which Dre walks into a room and witnesses Knight calmly smoking a cigar as he uses a vicious pit bull to terrorize a cowering man in his underwear.

“I was like, ‘What the f— is going on?’ “ recalls Dre of the actual event that inspired that last-minute scene. “I was ready to leave anyways. This was the extra push. The guy in the underwear — all this shit actually happened.”

Speaking of Suge Knight, the two couldn’t dodge the lingering explanation behind an incident that occurred on their set that left one man dead and put Knight in jail. According to Dre the incident happened while he was headed home and it wasn’t during shooting the film but rather a commercial.

I heard about it over the phone. Everybody was supportive everywhere we went, and we didn’t have one issue throughout the entire filming of the movie. It’s crazy that this happened during the f—ing filming of the commercial. It’s just a really unfortunate incident. Maybe [Knight] was looking for trouble. I don’t know.

As for Cube, who is named on the lawsuit with Dre and Knight, he wasn’t there so his account for the situation came from a more “philosophical view.”

It’s the dangerous part of living in South Central. Some people don’t care if you’re making a movie or not. It’s unfortunate because the movie is so good, so creative, so many talented people involved.

Make sure you head to theaters on August 14th when it opens everywhere. To read the story in full  head over to The Hollywood Reporter.

[Photos: The Hollywood Reporter]