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PASADENA – Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson has carved out an incredible lane for himself in Hollywood.
While it wasn’t long ago that the G-Unit Film and Television head honcho was seen strictly as a hip-hop artist -- and one of the best of his generation. Jackson is fresh from cementing his legacy in the entertainment capital of the world with a shiny new star on the iconic Hollywood Walk of Fame, which the “Get Rich or Die Trying” rapper, actor and executive producer was presented with less than two weeks ago.
Now, with a cornucopia of acting, producing and writing credits, his feet are fully planted and his mark made as a player in show business. The “Power” creator, star and EP is back with his foray into network television with “For Life." The show is a brand-new legal drama inspired by the real-life story of Isaac Wright Jr. A victim of a flawed legal system and former prisoner, Wright becomes a lawyer, litigating cases for other inmates while fighting to overturn his own life sentence for a crime he didn’t commit.
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Jackson stars in the series as hardened inmate Cassius Dawkins -- alongside Nicolas Pinnock's fictionalized version of Wright – and spoke with Fox News at the Television Critics Association winter press tour at the Langham Huntington in Pasadena, Calif., and opened up about the roles he commonly plays in any number of the dozens of film projects he has performed in.
Although Jackson said he typically plays guys “that like to do bad things,” the 44-year-old South Jamaica, Queens, native told Fox News that his role in “For Life,” is likely the “last time” we’ll see him portray a hardened criminal or co-conspirator-like character. He's already portrayed similar characters, like Kanan in “Power” or his roles in the Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro film “Righteous Kill” in 2008 and the Bruce Willis action flick “Set Up” in 2011.
“I'm just offering what I know the audience is willing to embrace at the present moment and therefore, now I'm moving to some different things like this,” he said when asked if he selects these roles simply due to some of the similarities drawn from his rough upbringing. “Like, this will probably be the last time you see me play this kind of guy, you know.”
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“There are no similarities between Cassius Dawkins and Kanan [Stark] when you see the characters,” Jackson continued. “You'll understand one is a guy who never made any money. So if you’ve never made any money on the street and he's incarcerated, then comes the altercations inside the jail – and developing reputations from having those altercations and then he finds a bigger home in jail than on the outside because he doesn't mean anything to the free world. You only mean something in jail.”
The business mogul shared a similar perspective as he explained the culmination of the series to the room of journalists earlier during the panel after Pinnock touched on the “really lovely” human elements of the series.
Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson attends the ABC Television's Winter Press Tour 2020 at The Langham Huntington, Pasadena on January 08, 2020 in Pasadena, Calif. (Photo by Rodin Eckenroth/WireImage)
“Yeah and there's some really damaged people in the actual penitentiary,” said Jackson. “I play Cassius Dawkins. He's institutionalized. He's been in for a very long time, since he was, like, 16. He's 30-something-years-old now. He finds more significance in just doing the wrong thing.”
The Grammy winner explained -- as only the charismatic artist could -- how the overall idea for the show developed.
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“The show came to me because of my relationships. I had a mutual friend that – the truth is I was actually promoting at the time,” he explained. “I was a licensed boxing promoter in Nevada, and because me and Floyd [Mayweather] partnered to do TMT Promotions, he then changed his mind and went to go do TMT by himself – so I had SMS Promotions. But a friend of ours, me and Isaac's, brought him to me and introduced me to his actual – well, they wanted me to come to their actual boxing event.”
“It wasn't technically legal,” Jackson quipped, quickly drawing laughs from the room of reporters.
Naturi Naughton, from back row left, Joseph Sikora, Rotimi, Michael Rainey, Jr., Larenz Tate, and from front row left, creator/executive producer Courtney A. Kemp, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, Omari Hardwick and Lela Loren participate in the Starz "Power" panel at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour on Friday, July 26, 2019, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
Jackson maintained: “And I said I wasn't going to go until they figured something out. So they hired Isaac to figure out how to legalize the event. And after they legalized it, they brought him to make me – to assure me that it was actually legal. And then I was, like, ‘Okay. I'll come.’ And then he got into communications and we started talking about a story. And then I was like, ‘Yo, this is a hit.’"
In true fashion, Jackson said he paid to secure the rights to the story on the spot.
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“Right then – I paid them right then. Didn't I pay them?’” Jackson asked the real-life Isaac Wright Jr., whose life story was the premise of the conversation being had at the moment.
“You paid them,” replied Wright.
“I paid the guy. I said, ‘Here,’” recalled Jackson.
Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson participates in the Starz "Power" panel at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour on Friday, July 26, 2019, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
"I paid them right away because I know a hit when I hear one,” Jackson joked, eliciting another round of laughs from the room. “I know what I'm doing. You'll see it when it's No. 1.”
The 14-time Grammy nominee said fellow executive producer Doug Robinson originally planned a feature film to be made into “For Life,” however it appeared early on to Jackson that Wright had more to his story, which allowed it to fit into an adapted series.
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“He had the idea initially to make it a feature film. When he was describing his life story, it was so vivid and the timelines were right and I was like, ‘What the f--- is going on?’” said Jackson. “Because it was so clear that it was like, ‘No, you’re not telling me your life, you’re telling me the story that you made up of your life.’ And then, when we got into it and I got a chance to get him to the writers because I don't know anyone …”
Jackson, who paused to form his thought, then went on to say: “Look, everyone I know would reach a point in their actual legal situations where they are going to take advice from their legal counsel,” he explained. “And their legal counsel will advise you that, ‘You are going to go to jail for a longer period of time than you actually want to. You should maybe take this plea.’”
Still, Jackson couldn’t believe the picture Wright was painting of the life he harrowed through.
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“And when you tell him you didn't take the plea and then you went on – after he was telling me this, I was Googling it at the same time because I wasn't believing everything he was saying,” Jackson recalled. “And I'm looking, and I'm going, ‘Yeah, so you ditched it. It really did happen.’ It's, like, ‘Man, this is going to work. This is going to be really big.’”
Jackson said it didn’t work out with the writers he initially gathered to help write the screenplay, but in meeting Hank Steinberg, he knew this was the guy who could get the show made.
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“That's why I know Hank is the guy, you know, because I had two guys – they were working on it and it was like, "This is not it. I'm sure this is not it,’” said Jackson. “So usually, when I don't have the right chemistry with writers, I like to bring new producers. And then I went to Doug and Alison [Greenspan], and they got me Hank, and now I'm here, baby.”
“For Life” premieres on Tuesday, Feb. 11 on ABC.
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