Contrary to Ice Cube’s image as a gangsta rapper with NWA and serious movie star in 21 Jump Street, Ride Along and Boyz n the Hood, he didn’t go to a high school as tough as the one in Fist Fight, his new film.
“The demographic was pretty much the same, although I don’t think my school was that wild,” Cube says from L.A.
“I went to high school in the San Fernando Valley. There were things that went on behind the scenes, but I don’t even know if the teachers ever got wind of what was going on around that school.”
There was a teacher named Mr. Toussaint, however, who served as the inspiration for Cube’s brutal Mr. Strickland in Fist Fight, who challenges a fellow teacher played by Charlie Day to a schoolyard brawl.
“He was a teacher not to be messed with, you know? He was one of those say-what-you-mean teachers . . . It was back when teachers could really put their hands on you. You’ve got some teachers on YouTube that’ll fight you, but I don’t think it’s the norm like it used to be.”
Cube, 47, has other thoughts on Fist FightFist Fight, as well as the future of NWA, #OscarsSoWhite and President Donald Trump:
You’re an executive producer of Fist Fight, as well as one of the stars. Why did you choose to call it Fist Fight instead of Teacher Fight?
(laughs) I actually got on the movie a little later, after it was already named. I just think the movie company didn’t really want to highlight or promote the fact of teachers fighting, to that extent. This is a bad thing to say, but if you don’t go to see this movie, you don’t know it’s a teacher fight, pretty much. I just don’t think they wanted billboards on the street saying Teacher Fight.
Shortly before filming this movie about division, your musical career was all about uniting. You reteamed at Coachella with fellow surviving NWA members Dr. Dre, MC Ren and DJ Yella. Were you happy with the reunion and would you want to do it again?
I think it was a nice memory from the past. It’s something that I would be down to do (again), but I’m not sure about the other members, especially Dre. I’m not really sure where his head is at. It’s something you’d need all four of us to be down to do. I just think that Dre looks at NWA as kind of a rear-view mirror thing. But you never know.
The NWA biopic that you produced, Straight Outta Compton, was central to last year’s #OscarsSoWhite debate when it came up short in Academy nominations. Where do you stand on the issue?
I don’t put a lot of weight into these kind of things, awards. I believe art is art and you just do your best and do what inspires you, for the world to see, love, like or hate. But I know how invested people in the movie industry are in the Oscars and the Golden Globes, so I felt badly for our crew and our cast and our director and our movie studio.
But me personally, I never did that movie for nominations. To me, I won the Oscar when I was able to release that movie at Universal the way I wanted it to go, to shoot the movie the way I wanted it shot and to edit the movie the way I wanted to edit it. To me, that’s the Oscar when you can do your own life story in the way you saw it and the way you feel it. So, I’m never as mad as most people are. But I understand the argument, and I support people who want to be seen and heard and recognized.
Do you feel better about this year’s Oscars, in which seven out of the 20 acting nominees and four out of the nine Best Picture nominees offer serious recognition for people of colour?
Not really. I don’t feel better or worse or anything. I feel like these are great movies, great actors, great crew and technicians and they deserve a nomination. So I’m happy that people are being recognized. This is a good thing.
I’m eager to know what you think of President Donald Trump.
I think he’s a disaster. And I think he’s going to go down as the worst president that I’ve seen in my lifetime. We’ll see, but I think that people who voted him in are going to get exactly what they deserve.
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