name of spike lee new movie with nick cannon

Like the film, he says, his track is about “understanding humanity. It’s so courageous and potent and so timely that I was game.” “Once I saw how he was going to take it on artistically - wow, I was even more excited. “I’ve always aspired to be a character actor - to jump into other characters and disappear is what an actor dreams of. “Luckily, the great Spike Lee - who is, to me, one of our greatest filmmakers of all time - believed in me and knew I could bring it to pass,” says Cannon, 35.

While the segments of larger-than-life parody and bawdy farce in the film also attracted him, its biggest appeal was the opportunity to play a leading role for Lee after years of missed opportunities. “It has such a serious tone with so much weight and substance about what’s actually going on in the South Side of Chicago that I was able to relate and connect.” “They always say that comedians have the most darkness in them, and this is a satire of what’s going on in society right now,” he says. Still, the role was irresistible, Cannon says by phone from New York City. The movie’s title is the nickname for Chicago’s war zone-like South Side. The cheerful actor started his career doing light sketch comedy on Nickelodeon’s “All That” and MTV’s “Wild ‘N Out.” So starring as a rough, gun-waving gangbanger in Spike Lee’s new Chicago-set satire isn’t exactly typecasting for the actor.Īdapted by Lee from the ancient Greek antiwar classic “Lysistrata,” the film is set in a senselessly violent, sexist and corrupt city. The sober real-life concerns at the heart of Nick Cannon’s new film, “Chi-Raq,” aren’t the sort he usually deals with.

Name of spike lee new movie with nick cannon