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Exclusive Interview With Fast Five Star, Tyrese

Tyrese Gibson, is an actor, singer, and even though his new book, How To Get Out Of Your Own Way, is the number two seller in the country, he does not view himself as an author.

“I didn’t write a book, I wrote life, I go into great detail about my childhood, drugs and alcohol abuse, rapes, attacks and murders, everything that I was exposed to coming up said Tyrese in an exclusive interview.

Gibson is one of the stars of the new film, Fast Five which features Vin Diesel, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Ludacris, Tego Calderon and Paul Walker and hits theaters today, April 29th.

Tyrese makes his appearance in the fifth part to the popular franchise after being cast as a lead in Too Fast And Too Furious. The Baby Boy star also recently finished his new LP, Open Invitation and also recently finished filming  Transformers 3 in the same span of time while finishing his book and Fast Five.

Peep Part 1 Of Our Interview With Mr. Gibson.

Hip-Hop Wired:  Why is this franchise so popular?

Tyrese:  It has all of the elements. It’s multi-ethnic, there’s adrenaline, it’s sex appeal, it’s swag, it’s energy. It’s an adventure. It’s not the kind of movie that you come into and over think and pick it apart. You just know you’re going to come into it ready to have some fun and leave with your girl and go do whatever else you’re doing after that.

Hip-Hop Wired:  What made you do this one?

Tyrese:  Well I got invited back. When your phone rings and they got Fast And Furious on line one, I think anybody would take that call.

 

Hip-Hop Wired:  How do you feel seeing the final cut of Fast Five now?

Tyrese:  There were only so many moments I remember checking back playback. I’m a people reader. While I was on the set, I was more about checking people’s energy while I was doing it. Sometimes when you look at playback too much, you find yourself trying to duplicate some magic that could have just been captured. It kind of stops you from doing new things because you’re trying to duplicate something that just came out.

To be honest, it was also part of my own strategy.  I think I got a deep voice, but Vin Diesel’s voice is just a little deeper. I got muscles but the Rock Johnson’s muscles are a little bigger. So I was like I’m not going to try and compete with that I’m just going to bring whatever energy I can and tap into my own Roman Pierce energy and have it be consistent with who I was in the other movie. I’m just glad I was allowed to still be funny and have fun.

 

Hip-Hop Wired:  What were you doing off the set in Brazil?

 

Tyrese:  We was praying. [Laughs] We were holding hands by the water. We was having fun.  Every man that’s not married or engaged can go out there and have the time of their life. Brazil is man-heaven, that’s where it’s at; it’s a beautiful country. It’s beautiful people, the energy…I’ve never seen one woman that’s out of shape. It’s really crazy.

Hip-Hop Wired:  Did you have to get a pass to film in the slums?

Tyrese:  You know it’s always street politics everywhere you go. You do what you got to do to make sure everybody gets in and out of there safely.

Hip-Hop Wired:  While you were filming did you see any times you had to step up your game?

Tyrese:  I had to step up my game throughout the movie. Imagine doing a scene that includes that many people. All of us with star power. I can’t say that I was challenged like ‘Oh my God, this is like the most challenging.’

I think once you get a sense of people’s personalities you operate within that. Like I can’t crack the same jokes with Vin Diesel that I can with Paul Walker. Can’t do the same with Rock Johnson, can’t do the same with Chris. You have to use your own instincts.

Hip-Hop Wired:  How do you bring that star power to the table?

Tyrese:  Star power doesn’t have to be announced, you just kind of show up. At the end of the day I’m just showing up as a regular guy just trying to get along with everybody and have a good time while we’re working.

If they consider that star power at the end of the day, God bless them.

Hip-Hop Wired:  What was the most fun you had?

Tyrese:  The thing is, we shot for six days in Brazil, the preparation in Brazil was a month. We were there for a total of a month but we mainly shot in Puerto Rico the most. Then we moved over to Atlanta. There was a bunch of material shot inside that big factory. That was all in Atlanta.

It’s the filmmaker’s job to make everyone believe we’re in Brazil. A lot of those interior shots don’t have to be in Brazil because it’s all indoors. The world will believe we did the whole movie in Brazil.

Hip-Hop Wired:  How much of you is the character “Roman Pierce”?

Tyrese:  Anybody that knows me knows that we laugh all day.

Hip-Hop Wired:  Did you get to take the cars out?

Tyrese:  Definitely. I was mashing that police car. Being in the front seat of a police car is exciting.

Hip-Hop Wired:  Who else beside yourself was the jokester on the set?

Tyrese:  It was me. I was on the set wilding out. You’ll see when the DVD comes out and they got the behind the scenes footage, we was on the set wilding. That’s what it’s about.

Hip-Hop Wired:  Who had the better cars, Fast Five or Transformers?

Tyrese:  Transformers. Because the cars transformed.

Hip-Hop Wired:  What was the most challenging stunt and scenes?

Tyrese:  Honestly the scenes that blew me away the most, I wasn’t in them. I was like a little crackhead looking at the movie like,  ‘Ooh where was I at?’

Hip-Hop Wired:  If you could pick any location for the next sequel where would it be?

Tyrese:  Miami is one of my favorite cities other than LA. So I would say take it back to Miami because architecture-wise, the humidity and the temperature, the beauty of multi-ethnic energies that are all in Miami. At least do a few scenes in Miami then we could go to..uhh Rome, for Roman Pierce.

And they also need to let me do some scenes with Halle Berry [laughs].

Make Sure to Check Fast Five this weekend and stay tuned to Hip-Hop Wired for Part 2 of our interview with Tyrese