Exclusive: RZA Talks His Brick Mansions Character In Detail

It’s a mild 70 degree day in Los Angeles and RZA is wearing a wool Burberry blazer and has consumed several cups of herbal tea, doused with honey to boost the flavor. Despite his apparent wintertime survival ritual, not a bead of sweat is visible on his brow and he appears to be extremely comfortable within the confines of the heat he’s generating. The year has brought upon numerous reasons for the public-appointed leader of the Wu-Tang Clan to be excited about the forthcoming days (not to mention antsy).

The incredibly seasoned Wu-Tang leader joined Hip-Hop Wired in an exclusive sit-down to promote his upcoming film Brick Mansions, a project whose interest has been tragically heightened as it also stars the late Paul Walker. The Wu-Tang leader describes his relationship with the fallen actor as “genuine,” seeing that an obvious language barrier while filming on location in Montreal increased their off-screen dialogue.

“To be honest, it broke my heart,” he recalled upon first hearing the news of Walker’s passing in November 2013. “And we’re all men here. But you meet certain people that you genuinely like. And he was one of them. I looked forward to seeing him again. We got along pretty well. I’d say the only thing we didn’t have in common was collecting cars. Even though, I spend millions of dollars on cars but that’s just because of my family (Laughs). I didn’t even think about the movie. I just said, ‘Yo, we lost a good dude.’ And it was just…puzzling like, he wasn’t an a**hole so it just made think if I had the chance to ask God one question, it would just be ‘why?'”

Even in the most casual fan of RZA’s work knows he has always been a deep thinker and he immediately begain to compare the shocking news to his surroundings that had opened up around him. “It made me think of the movie Noah, like after enduring all the floods that were supposed to wash us clean, why are we still living like this?,” he continued. “I was generally pissed off when I wrote “Destiny Bends.” You know how we teach the Black man is God; you must find God within yourself–which is still prominent. Jesus even said, ‘The temple of God is within,’ so not taking away how powerful [we] are, but individually though…man. And when some of the fans were like ‘RZA got soft,’ it kind of twisted my nerve a little bit only because I knew the brother–we hung out. In Montreal, most people speak French. And David [Belle] don’t speak great English so it was us, kid! We were even planning on making a kung fu joint and the one day, it’s done?”

One thing about the cinema world is that characters will go on forever, a sentiment that RZA agrees will make Brick Mansions a winner, critiques on the movie’s plot aside.

RZA stars in the film as Tremaine Alexander, a ruthless overlord who maintains control of Detroit’s forgotten sector, in a dystopian society where the poor are left to fend for themselves. His character is challenged only by Paul Walker and French actor David Belle’s characters which, naturally generates the conflict and the scenes of gratuitous action and explosions.

It was a role RZA admittedly said didn’t come easy, but the acting bug knows how to bite in the right places.

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Photos: Relatively Media

“I come from a world where I already have a fan base so therefore the definition of me is already out there. But then in Hollywood, there are people who don’t know the definition of me, he explains, touching on his intent to prove himself every time out. “When you first get a script, you can mediate on it, look in the mirror–do all types of sh*t to prepare for that character. But I still didn’t find [him] until like 9-10 days into filming. It was the scene when he comforted the Spanish girl I was able to realize who he was. Up until that point, I was acting like him. Maybe I had already been him,” he ponders, almost as if he was asking the steaming tea in front of him.

In regards to diving into another action film as they begin to pile up in his filmography, the 44-year-old living legend says he’s just allowing his career to run a natural course. “I wanted to follow [The Man With] The Iron Fists with something unique. I wanted to stay in the realm of action but not necessarily be an action star. And my peers within in the industry told me this would be good for a Black guy to do.”

“For me, the guy who’s always had to be a leader and worry about all the problems of the situation, as an actor, all that is relinquished. It’s really just a personal mission and it’s pretty relieving. Like take a movie like The Usual Suspects and you’re watching Benecio Del Toro. He decided to [talk] like that. He wanted to stand out. And as a director? I couldn’t even drink this tea without getting 50 questions. I’m talking simple sh*t like, ‘Did you say white or off-white?’ It is the same deal as being a producer.”

Speaking of being behind the boards, following the movie’s press run, RZA has bigger fish to fry–of whalelike proportions in getting a couple of Wu-Tang albums out to the public. The oft-delayed A Better Tomorrow is said to be held up solely by Raekwon, an issue RZA says will get resolved in a matter of time.

And then there’s the curious case of another Wu-Tang album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin that has a mixed reaction with the public. The Abbott and his cohorts are only planning to release one copy of the album, and already begun to auction up big numbers, in the realm of $5 million.

It may feel like a ploy to cash in on a gimmick, but RZA is adamant that this is not the case. “More importantly, the artistic value of what we’re striving to push is that this is a piece of art,” he says, visibly excited when touching on the album’s quality aspects. “I’ve seen the press break out over the money but this is six years in the making. The thing about [producer] Tarik “Cilvaringz” Azzougarh, he’s a student of mine that was a fan. Ask around how he had to win the respect instead of just getting it. A lot of my students don’t get access to my crew. It’s almost like you have to get punched in the face to join us (Laughs). But he went through the furnace. He went to school and became valuable to us. Mentally he’s on the same wavelength of how I think. I have two other parts to this idea that is going to come out over the next four months and I think the industry is going to appreciate it more and more because it’s going to add to our industry.”

As the last gulp of tea was downed and he flagged down his assistant for another, RZA had an extra drop of honey of his own. “Just like Wu-Tang added to our industry,” he concluded.

Well isn’t that profound?

Brick Mansions is in theaters TODAY. Purchase tickets right here as you head out on your weekend journey.